Factory

Last night was pretty quiet. I watched a documentary on television called Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays. It told the story of Factory Records, an independent record label that started in the late seventies, and had their first real success with the band Joy Division (who reinvented themselves as New Order after the suicide of songwriter and lead singer Ian Curtis). They later had success with the band Happy Mondays, and opened a huge nightclub. Apparently New Order's single 'Blue Monday' was the biggest selling 12-inch single of all time but, because the elaborate sleeve was so expensive to produce, the company actually lost money on every copy sold. New Order went on the popular music TV show Top of the Pops and, unusually for the show, they performed 'Blue Monday' live and their perfomance was so bad, sales of the single actually dropped. The record company sent them a thank you note.

I also watched the third and final part of Comics Britannia, which dealt with the popularity of adult-oriented comics from the late 1970s onwards, such as the comedy comic Viz and science-fiction comic 2000 AD (which introduced the hugely successful character Judge Dredd), as well as graphic novels such as Alan Moore's V for Vendetta and Watchmen. It was a very interesting show, and it was interesting watching the two shows together, because they are both kind of linked, with the growth in more adult-oriented comics as well as the founding of Factory linked in the kind of do-it-yourself ethos of punk music. That, and they both featured Joy Division on the soundtrack.

A friend of mine produces very underground, experimental comics and recently set up his own publishing company to produce them. His day job is a cinema projectionist.

I also spoke to Emily on the phone for quarter of an hour or so, and read another story on the Bloody Chamber collection.

Today was another really slow and really dull day at work. There was nothing in again.

After work I went and had a pint of beer at the New Yorker and read the book that I had with me (a biography of Stanley Kubrick). It's a very interesting book, and quite inspirational in many ways. On my way home I bought a fish supper for my dinner.