The _Shadowplayers_ documentary -- attention Factory/Joy Division/New Order/Manchester fiends!

my inner 16-year-old has just died with excitement.

bloody HELL. this looks awesome. i mean, really. christ on a BIKE.

[continues in similar vain for several days]

Very.

I can't tell you how satisfying it is to hear Wilson express regrets about Hannett and to know he is fully aware of the depth of his genius. He said (paraphrasing) that if only so much money hadn't been wasted on the Hacienda maybe they could have just gone ahead and bought Hannett the Fairlight he wanted and then he would have had his proper credit instead of Trevor Horn getting it all.

I also found it satisfying that Wilson had said Blue Monday was supposedly such a big deal but that really the most important record in the history of techno was Everything's Gone Green and that was Hannett, he said. I couldn't agree more, though again I'm paraphrasing.

What else? Oh yes, the bit when Buzzcocks' manager said he played ABC's Lexicon of Love to Hannett and Hannett said "CR...!" (and you knew he said it was CRAP) Hahaha.

Sorry I'm a total Hannett freak. If you get on slsk I can hook you up with some mighty rare Hannett stuff...

Jim extremely OTM about how Vin and Larry Cassidy steal the show, Larry especially, who could probably take down Mark E. Smith in a 'Mancunian sarcastic git' fight. All the interviews were pretty good but other standouts would have to be Wilson, Saville, Reilly, Lindsey Reade and Hook -- pretty obvious choices perhaps but hey, they had a lot to say! Alan Hempsall too, now that I think of it.

Good editing at many points too, to punch up a situation or make it clearer. Great job James Nice did too -- if anything he's demonstrated just how *easy* it is to film a documentary and make it work these days, because all you need is a good digital video camera, a microphone and reasonable lighting. Some bits were a bit murkier than others and there were segments where you could tell the microphone was further from the speaker but nothing really distracting. Even ten years ago it wouldn't have been so straightforward but he filmed it, another guy edited it and created the DVD master -- that's it.

Meantime, after having heard about Annik Honore all these years it was nice to actually see and hear her -- and at the risk of sounding cheesy, she's extremely elegant and eye-catching. I hadn't fully appreciated her role in getting bands over to Belgium and setting up Factory Benelux, so that was nice to learn about.

If anything the impact of the film is clear enough in that it's referenced at various points throughout, either to confirm a point (like the origin of the name 'Factory' courtesy of Erasmus) or to contest it. Peter Saville getting peeved over accusations of lateness is very amusing!

Which prompts me to think that another thing I liked about the documentary is that Nice doesn't narrate it -- not that he couldn't have done a fine job, I'm sure, but all the talking, aside from one or two brief behind-the-camera comments, comes from the interviewees. I always prefer this general approach so it's nice to see it used here.

I'm putting this, as well as the Umbrellas in the Sun video, on my want lists.

I can't say any of Wilson's comments in the film made me think "oh he's probably making that up", although Martin Moscrop's assertion that there was to be an ACR album with Grace Jones (and Hannett producing) made me wonder...in any case I certainly wish that had happened.

Is Alan Erasmus no longer with us? I find it strange that until this documentary I hadn't read or heard much about him at all.

Please to use the link in my post starting the thread.

ahem. larry is a blackpudlian. (not that that's anything to be proud of ...)

i saw this last night at the silent movie theater in l.a. production values are kinda wack and tony wilson was chewing gum throughout his entire interview but this on a whole was very interesting and at times really hilarious. yeah the section 25 dudes were awesome, i kept thinking some sharp director ought to hire larry cassidy for a role in some british crime thriller.

the Anthony Wilson tribute on the new Durutti Column album is touching.

a book by mr nice with the same title is out next year..

^^finally got this book. yes, this will provide adequate mental sustenance for the lulls in my road trip next week

loving the hell out of this book, though james nice's dismissal of 'dazzle ships' is nagl

Still need to get that.

The book not DS, obv.

it unsurprisingly quotes heavily from the dvd, but makes more sense as a story than the doco

Oh, the book is fine. Did wait until I really wanted it before getting it.

Also, people, check out Lindsay Reade's book, it puts you right there.