24 Hour Party People: What the Sleeve Notes Never Tell You

by Tony Wilson

''The musicians own everything. The company owns nothing. All our bands have the freedom to f**k off''

Written in blood, The Factory non-contract set out the manifesto for one of the most influential and progressive record labels of our time...

Manchester, 1976: Anthony Wilson, Granada TV presenter, is at an early Sex Pistols gig. Inspired by this pivotal moment in music history, he and his friends set up Factory Records. They go on to conquer the world with Joy Division (who become New Order) then again with the Happy Mondays.

Riding high on their success and just about keeping the business afloat, the Factory directors decide to give something back to their city, to open a club - The Hacienda. Packed on opening night but losing money hand over fist for the first five years, The Hacienda and the Happy Mondays take their unique brand of hedonism to breaking point.

From the dawn of punk to the death of acid house, Anthony Wilson was at the centre of it all. Love him or hate him, you can't possibly ignore him.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Punk, History, Memoir, Pop Culture

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2002

Reviews

[Paul Ataua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novelization of the movie is possibly considered to be the lowest form of art, but ‘24-Hour Party People’ still works for me. I will never tire of the story of Tony Wilson, ‘So It Goes’, the bands, factory records with its anarchic no contract policy, the release of an album that lost 5 pence every time someone bought it, the hacienda, and every thing else in the Manchester story. What is so good is that it is well aware that it is creating a coherent mythical story about what were, to some extent, a lot of coincidences. What is better is that it doesn’t care. When legend becomes fact, print the legend, and what a legend it is.

[Thomas Stroemquist]

DNF @ 15 %

Pretty much unreadable. Narrative is like a cross between a ‘through the fourth wall’-narrator and a stream of consciousness from someone on speed with way too many, seemingly random, punctuations and instances of the F-word thrown in.

This one goes back to the charity shop.

[Lazaros Karavasilis · Rating 5 out of 5]

How old are you, are you old enough?
Should you be here, watching that?

Δεν περιμένα μια νουβελοποίηση (novelization) ταινίας να μ'αρέσει τόσο όσο η ίδια ταινία. Θεωρητικά δεν θα έπρεπε να δουλέψει καν, αλλά η ταινία είναι τόσο καλή και το βιβλίο είναι ακόμη καλύτερο.
Το '24-hour party people' αφορά την περίπτωση του Τόνυ Γούίλσον ή αλλιώς τον άνθρωπο πίσω απο την Factory Records, το θρυλικό κλαμπ Hacienda, τους Joy Division, Happy Mondays, New Order και πολλών άλλων. Με δύο λόγια, ο τύπος ήταν θρύλος του Μάνστεστερ και όποιος έχει πάει στη πόλη θα το καταλάβει. Όλα είναι βρίσκονται σε αυτό το βιβλίο, απο ιστορικό-φιλοσοφικές αναφορές, την αρχή της πανκ και της post-punk μέχρι το τέλος του acid house. Είναι ένας ύμνος στο Μάντσεστερ, είναι μια μουσική διαδρομή 25 χρόνων γεμάτη θριάμβους, τραγωδίες, ναρκωτικά, αλκοόλ, πάρτυ και γεμάτη ιστορία μιας πόλης.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cheekily dismissed by its author as merely the novelization of "a fine movie screenplay," 24-Hour Party People is of course much more than that. If the movie of the same name depicts the life of Factory Records impresario Tony Wilson on the big screen, then Wilson's own account of that same time period is even more valuable. It's a funny, vexing, warts-and-all retelling of (roughly) the years 1977-1993, when Wilson brought us a boatload of great music, but most importantly Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays.

Look: I'm predisposed to love this book, so you may have to take my review with a grain of salt. The years 1988-1992 are probably my favorite in the history of popular music, with 1977-1984 coming quickly on their heels. Joy Division was one of those bands that changed my life in a seismic way, and the music industry insider knowledge that Wilson peppers throughout the book gets my nerdy little heart a-thumping. Even a halfway-decent book would get a glowing review.

And I need to say this for the uninitiated, just to make it clear: for a non-musician, Tony Wilson is a pivotal figure in 20th Century popular music. Indie music as we know it owes virtually everything to Factory Records, the label he founded. It goes beyond the bands he shepherded. It was the label's entire ethos that influenced a generation of like-minded individuals. A lot of what passes for independent, forward-thinking 21st Century music doesn't happen without Tony Wilson.

So is 24-Hour Party People a halfway-decent book? Yes, but with this caution: you've got to want to know about the inner workings of the British music scene, and it doesn't hurt to have more than a passing interest in Manchester, England as a whole. The book does trace a similar outline to the movie: from Wilson's stint on Manchester's tiny Granada TV station to the pivotal moment he saw The Sex Pistols play through the founding and demise of Joy Division. The rebirth of that band as New Order. Meeting producer Martin Hannett. The trials and travails of Factory Records. The Hacienda nightclub. The discovery of Happy Mondays, more than one bold claim that their frontman Shaun Ryder is the best poet since W.B. Yeats, and quite a few tales of that band's herculean drug intake.

If that doesn't sound exciting to you, you'd probably best stay away. But if you, like me, are a music fan and especially a fan of British indie music, dive in. Wilson is a sarcastic, subversive narrator, constantly undercutting himself and – to his credit – pointing out all the missteps he made in a decade and a half as England's premier musical tastemaker. But it's not all postmodern irony. Importantly, the suicide of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis is shot through with remorse and regret (how could they not have seen his imminent demise in Curtis' bleak song lyrics? why did they allow the epileptic singer to so work himself into a frenzy that he suffered a seizure at the end of nearly every gig?), and Wilson is clearly still grappling with his own culpability as one of the few who was close to Curtis.

Maybe the most fascinating thing about the book is the way Wilson seems to have viewed the death of Factory Records as a foregone conclusion. The label famously never signed contracts with the bands it released, a fact that Wilson had to know – his apparent altruism toward musicians notwithstanding – would ultimately cause more problems than it solved. There are multiple references to Icarus, and that's how Wilson seems to view himself: a doomed figure who flew too close to the sun. But while he was on the ascent? Few people did more for the music that truly mattered.

[Spiros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, it's official, I'll cop to it. I am one massive dork. I came across this on my vacation, and didn't even blink at the $21.95 pricetag, so much have I bought into 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE. This is the first novelization of a screenplay I have read since the STAR WARS (if you're not familair with the movie, it doesn't matter, but you should probably see more movies) novelization, when I was 12.
It must be said that this is a novelization with a difference; more accurately, this is Tony Wilson's argument with Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay. Of course, the film was an absurdly extended piss-take of Wilson by Boyce, Michael Winterbottom, and Steve Coogan; in this book, Wilson also proves adept at taking the piss out of Tony Wilson. To me, Tony Wilson is the polar opposite of Malcolm McLaren; Wilson always put the musicians first.

Update: somewhere in my moves about town, I discovered that my copy of this book had disappeared (as had my copy of Moby-Dick; who the hell could I have lent that to?), so I have spent years now searching shelves in used bookstores for a replacement. So when at the Strand last week, I inquired whether they might have a copy, and was directed to "Fiction" (OK, if you say so) and there it was, nestled amongst several misalphabetized Williamses and Wilsons and Wilcoxes on the very top shelf. So I wasted no time in rereading, and have to say I enjoyed myself even more this time around. Also, I have seen several reviews on this site complaining that this is just a cheap summary of the movie; if that is your opinion, it doesn't matter, but you should probably read.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Airin · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who have watched 24 Hour Party People, as in the film of the same name, 80% of this book will sound familiar to the point of repetition. In other words, this book is more or less a direct novelization of the based-on-a-true-story film about Factory Records, only written by the man the film was about. Confusing? Sort of, especially if you stop to think about the boundaries between fact and fiction too much. I suppose 24 Hour Party People is one of those books where you're not necessarily expected to.

I have to admit I was mildly disappointed to learn that Wilson's writing deliberately borrows so much from the film; luckily the book is peppered with details that are not outright stated in the film, and expands on a number of things that were more or less glossed over due to restraints of the medium itself. I personally found Wilson's style of writing fun, for its dry wit and use of sarcasm, but a great part of Wilson's public persona was always in the interplay of his educated pompousness and genuine drive, so some readers may find it equally grating.

All in all, the book is a sort of jack-of-all-trades; it dabbles at a number of issues, but does not fully divulge any of them. Therefore it makes for great reading for those casually interested in the subject, but will probably not offer a great deal of new information for seasoned fans. Many of the hilarious anecdotes on the catastrophic managing of The Haçienda may be better detailed in books like Hooky's own, so what I found most fascinating to read about were Wilson's notes on record label management. Again, there are a thousand and one books written about Factory Records, but among one of my favourite quotes is the following:

There's a strange fact of life about good second division bands. They're more arrogant than the first division bands. First division bands know about music. Marketing, accountancy, design? Fuck off, that's what you guys do.

But the second division band, who seduce you with their real abilities to write fine songs, such fine songs, these fuckers know everything about everything. The world economy, distribution incentives, travel arrangements; they're the boys. They know everything. And everybody else knows shit.

And they die. Their careers bleeding die. It's a shame, but I'm not crying anymore.

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tony Wilson's "24 Hour Party People" is probably the greatest novelisation of all time precisely because what could have been nothing more than a half-arsed cash-in on the Tony Wilson biopic cum post-modern comedy/drama film about Factory Records, Joy Division/New Order, the Happy Mondays - is a post-modern novelisation/chatty memoirs/rock history book written by the man in question - full to the brim with wit and just sheer cultural...no, I can't use energy. It wouldn't be proper. Pride, perhaps?

Wilson, who was everything from TV journalist to rock label manager for Factory Records to owner of the famous/infamous Haçienda, takes the comic fictionalisation of the film and runs with it - injecting (probably not the greatest verb to use with the amount of drug use depicted) his acerbic wit and expanded reminiscences to the point where he provides an absolutely brilliant look at his life throughout this era and a tale of rise and fall (that notion of Boethius' wheel will be engrained in you by the last page).

The first half of the book does carry it in my view, with the sections on the rise of punk with a Manchester focus being particularly breath-taking and I felt so much for what that era must have felt like. Honestly, it was just pure musical reading ecstacy (again probably not the greatest choice of verbs given what the second half is about). That being said the real story is in the Joy Division/New Order side of things and to a lesser extent the Happy Mondays and the Hacienda and whilst you do not get a comprehensive history (or even a comprehensive personal history like in Deborah Curtis' "Touching from a Distance" which was used as a basis for Anton Corbijn's "Control" - both of which I highly recommend to Joy Division fans who haven't read/seen either) - you do get a series of sketches that form a great whole.

Wilson may be a minor character in his own story but through tearing the notion of the novelisation to shreds, he gives us a truly amazing little piece on his role in music history and the cultural revival of Manchester that truly had me as enthralled as I was the first time I listened to Unknown Pleasures.

If you haven't heard that album, great, but you should probably listen more.

[And you Goodreads readers will end up adding at least five to six books to your To Read pile - guaranteed.]

[Tami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, so pretentious and poorly written.

[Elliot Chalom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read quite a few books about or around the Madchester scene and none were quite like this one. Tony Wilson writes in a way that I’ve never read before, sort of a mix of first and third person, in the action but also removed, an observer and yet the key participant. I couldn’t always follow where we was going but I definitely enjoyed the ride. Not the book to read if you’re looking for the definitive account of what happened over that decade and a half in Manchester, but not a book to be missed either.

[Zoonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caveates: I worked behind the bar at The Boardwalk from 1990-92, and put on gigs at Manchester Poly, got to know some of the minor characters in this book, partially because to me, Tony Wilson was royalty. I haven't seen the film in a long time, and to describe this as a novelisation of the film is typical Wilson level nonsense. It's basically a memoir of this intensely brilliant, utterly ridiculous time, powered by the egos of these nutters. It breaks my heart that Tony Wilson exited early, and his writing is absolutely his voice. I didn't want to finish it, because the end of his life, from cancer, came so soon afterwards.
Wilson was a flawed man, a terrible businessman, but his core beliefs helped him to be selfless in his desire to drag brilliant people in to the light. That was his superpower, and that was why Factory *had* to burn out. It made no sense for it to become a 'business' in the traditional sense of the word. So many people in Manchester owe Tony Wilson so much. To be fair, he probably owed a few people in Mcr too. And Factory, let us not forget that people died for this art. I mean really died, of their own volition in Ian Curtis's case and just for the drime of trying to have a fun night out in Clare Leighton's case). And he was a berk, and he swanned about in his massive designer coats and stupid hair.
He was for art, he was for music, he was for Manchester. We're the richer for having had him here, and the poorer for him having checked out early. Meanwhile, if you want a deeply personal, often funny and sometimes exasperating reflection on the glorious mess the writer's own passion dragged in to being, this is it.

[Munsi Parker-Munroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know that this is my favourite book about the rise and fall of Factory Records and the Hacienda (that would be Peter Hook's book) or even if you really get much out of this that you wouldn't from watching the movie of the same name, but it's still a fun go-round on an interesting period of music history, and if you want the story told from the POV of the man behind both the label and the club, this makes for a fun read, if a lightweight one.

[Keith Astbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilson was a one-off. No need to go into detail why - you either know or you don't.

This was a fun, frivolous account of his record label years (and how they came about), but I would have loved to have read a proper autobiography of his life rather than a novelisation, fictionalised version or whatever of this period and subject. Sadly he's not round to write it now but there's still enough to enjoy here. It just could have been more.

[Allison Thurman · Rating 5 out of 5]

History, sorta - Tony Wilson famously exaggerated. If you have an interest in late 70s/early 80s post-punk or 1990s Madchester, this is the book to read for it's pseudohistory

[Dandy Laing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this short, sharp and punchy tale of Factory Records, Tony Wilson and co., and the Manchester music scene of the late 20th Century.

[Farlin Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lighthearted and forgiving perspective on the much repeated tale. A sniglet, if you will. I hadn’t watched the screenplay until after reading this book and I was truthfully at times a little deflated with the quick dilution of events, yet at other times I was quite appreciative and even delighted with the tone of the narrative. Now that I’ve finished it and understand that it was not created to stand as an attempt to inform, I can warmly say it was a an enjoyable accompaniment to the several other Factory centered books I’ve read. It was wonderful to read Tony Wilson’s narrative, it’s full of laughs and enthusing sarcasm - I’d say it’d be a challenge to NOT enjoy reading his words. If one were not familiar with the story of Factory and Joy Division/New Order, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book first. It seems to have a lighter, more palatable view of the characters and events that is a great delight after the darker (more realistic?) tones that linger within others’ accounts; but if an introduction to the story or an informative read is what one is after, in you will (and should) have to read more elsewhere.

[Aaron Watling · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started this my heart immediately sank reading that this book was to be a “novelisation” of the film of the same name. I’ve always found novelisations to be a bit naff.

This one’s alright enough though because the writing’s pretty entertaining and offers a bit more colour to the story of Factory Records than the film. At times I did find the writing a bit irritating with some of it’s more coy and Mortimerian tangents and passages - bragging from the ever-so-literate author and mixing just enough fact with the fiction or vice versa to doubt yourself.

It’s fun and easy and tells the often-told story of some of the greatest music to come from this country, but this time from the mouth of the horse who was there start to finish.

[Paul Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really looked forward to this book - on offer at Rough Trade Nottingham so couldn’t refuse. Brought back plenty of memories from when I was at University and the music described was the soundtrack of my late teens / early twenties.
Made me regret never actually getting to the Hacienda, but more than that the book made me realise how mind-numbingly safe and predictable my jobs have been compared to everyone described in this.
Not the easiest style of writing to get used to, but 30 pages in I fell into the rhythm and finished it in a couple of sittings.
Thoroughly recommended memoir of an age that feels like yesterday but was actually decades ago

[Kevin McAllion · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Factory story remains one of the most fascinating in music history, driving by something purer and more ideological than profit margins. Tony Wilson's personality was both the beating heart of the company and its greatest fault but it's hard not to like him as he tells his story.
I read this book years after seeing the film so didn't realise just how similar they were until I rewatched 24 Hour Party people. But Wilson elaborates enough to make this worthwhile reading for even those who know the film well.

[Sean Hackbarth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a breezy, fun look at the U.K. music scene, not in London but in Manchester. It's the stereotypical sex, drugs, and rock and roll story with a healthy dose of local pride and a fearless attitude. Out of this brew music fans got Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, and other path-breaking sounds that much of our pop music is based on today.

[Joe Decie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant story. But I preferred the film and as I'd seen the film first, I couldn't help reading it in Steve Coogan's voice. It was written in the third person, which I found odd.

Still, really good. Manchester's excellent.

[Julia Edgar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s not the greatest prose. But Tony Wilson was responsible for Joy Division, New Order, the Happy Mondays and the Haçienda so I am absolutely willing to say this is one of the greatest stories of all time.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maverick record label boss, brilliantly portrayed by Steve Coogan in biopic, who changed British music and put Manchester back on the musical map. Tales of Happy Mondays (hilarious), Joy Divison/New Order (less hilarious) and the Hacienda (drugs, guns, more drugs) weave in an out of this memoir which is absolutely essential.

[joe watters · Rating 4 out of 5]

good accompaniment to the film (which i already really liked).

lots of quotes and facts are used in the film verbatim so there isn't loads of new information in the book, but there is enough additional stuff to keep it interesting even if you have seen the film recently.

[Hazycloudsong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. Fictionalised fable from a film of a musical legacy from the real world as it may have happened from the hurdle leaping voice of a man in the centre. You might not have read this before, but you should have.

[Elizabeth Judd Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe a 3.5. What I found was that when I was in the right mood I really liked it, but when I wasn't I simply found it a bit annoying and ignored it until the right mood struck. There you go.

[AJ1978 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read and gives a good insight into Madchester but it’s written in a style I struggled with at first before i “got it” towards the end. Some characters in there for sure!

[Pan Ellington · Rating 4 out of 5]

took issue with wilson's citation of new order/depeche mode as the seed of house music*. other than that, a delightful read, a wonderful blending of reality & fiction.




*that was disco.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book of the film. Not only does Tony Wilson break the fourth wall, he leans over your shoulder & sits you at the typewriter.
A classic case of publish the leg and not the truth. Great fun.