Adumbration

[A mostly the same version of this review was distributed separately 8/25/2002]

For members and fans of Set It Quiet, the film "24 Hour Party People" could be considered something of a history lesson concerning the creators of some of the music performed by that short-lived band.  Historical fiction, anyway.

Tony Wilson was a TV personality out of Manchester, UK, at the start of the 80's, promoting some of the british punk bands that were largely ignored by the mainstream BBC out of London.  In an early scene we witness him as part of the 42 people in audience of the first Sex Pistols performance;  others in attendance would go on to form Joy Division (then New Order), the Happy Mondays, and other bands more or less famous.  But the movie is really about Wilson:  his protestations of being a serious journalist while hang gliding, or interviewing the dwarf that washes elephants; his presenting _Anarchy in the UK_ to viewers of his television program; his creating Factory night at a local club; his meeting Joy Division and creating Factory Records to record their music; his involvement in the growth of the "Madchester" music scene; his starting one of the first rave clubs (The Hacienda); his accounting of the money earned by New Order going to pay the debts of the club (where patrons spent their money not on alcohol but on ecstasy, and the drug dealers for some reason did not feel inclined to provide a cut to the house); his presiding over the financial collapse of Factory.

The film is presented much in narrative, with Wilson (played in dead pan by comedian Steve Coogan) offering asides to the camera to presage the future or to explain prior events.  The agreement they reach with Joy Division is written (literally) in blood, promising no obligations on either side other than to split the proceeds of any sales.  When the company is about to collapse, Wilson explains he set it up this way so he could never sell out, since he had nothing to sell.

The character of Ian Curtis, fronting Joy Division in concert scenes, struck me as terrified, with his band mates wondering with glances whether he would hang on through the performances;  perhaps this explains his suicide on the eve of their first tour of the USA (then again, there was also the scene with him identifying a few famous dead young people, and separately I read that he had been recently diagnosed epileptic).  That the band was able to re-form (as New Order) and meet great commercial success is perhaps the only reason Factory Records lasted as long as it did, since their earnings and those of Happy Mondays apparently paid for operations.  Also implied was the major influence of strong production by Martin Hannet in getting the music to sound as good as it does on record.

So while the film is about the music surrounding Factory, it is more about how Wilson was involved with it.  One comment is something to the effect of if given the choice between portraying the real events or the legend of those events, pick the legend.  So no doubt much of this tale is legend, but an interesting view of it for ones who were fans.