24 Hour Party People: Gear Factory.

24 Hour Party People opens at the Dendy on Thursday.

Mention music and Manchester in the same sentence, and you’re inevitably drawn to Factory Records and their ill fated club The Hacienda. Names like Joy Division, New Order, or Happy Mondays have rightfully earned their place in the annals of music history, and their story is now being documented in the film 24 Hour Party People. It’s not a documentary; it’s a feature film (although much of the band footage is totally genuine), exposing the club, the drugs and most importantly the music in all its naked glory.

On the line to talk not so much about the film itself, but about the actually goings on of Factory Records and the Hacienda is Cabaret Voltaire bassist and vocalist Stephen Mallinder, who now resides in Perth. Not so much because the film features the band, or because they know people who worked on the production, but because they were there.

Formed back in 1973 in Sheffield, Cabaret Voltaire played the Hacienda on the night of its official public opening. Their first single release was a track on a Factory Records sampler album in 1978. Their history is directly intertwined with the Manchester scene through the late 70s and the 80s.

“I’m living proof of what happened,” he laughs. “I guess it’s more about the people. We were on the first factory release and we played the Hacienda a number of times. Not the first night, that was the private party, but the following night which was the public opening.”

Was it a strange sensation to experience you history being recreated for the cameras?

“Richard, my partner in Cabaret Voltaire is in there somewhere. I was in Australia when they made the film, but here was there on the set and said it was very bizarre, so I can paraphrase him. It was kind of eerie seeing it, because they rebuilt the club, and I could tell from the movie it looked very authentic. He said it was weird to be there in a recreation of a place we’d actually spent a lot of time in anyway.”

“It’s very accurate in terms of a lot of the things that went on, and I think there’s a documentary waiting to be made to get everyone to speak in the own words, but in terms of the situations, everything was really accurate. Some of the actors playing the roles were quite eerie as well. I know everyone in the film, and it was quite odd having other people play them. I think the guy that played Ian Curtis (Sean Harris) really had Ian down pat.”

Is it important to you that these events have been documented, and people can take away some understanding of where the Manchester scene evolved from and place the music in context?

“I think so. I think it satisfies a need on a number of levels. It does place the whole Manchester scene in its place in history and puts it into perspective. So I think it’s significant for that. It documents a period of music, and from Tony’s (Wilson, Factory co founder) point of view it tells his side of the story.”

“It was quite a radical time to be around, I think we subconsciously aware of what was going on, but at the time we just lived through it. I was really quite a grim time in England. It was the middle of the Thatcher years, and it was a reaction to that. There were darker elements in terms of the social, political and economic climate of the time. Tony’s idealism really stood up against that, along with a lot of other people.”

People obviously know the music of the period, but do you think outsiders really understood the relationships and personalities involved?

“I don’t think they did. If you lived in Manchester at the time I think you might, but I don’t think people were that conscious of what was going on. If you take New Order and Joy Division and the Mondays out of it, there wouldn’t really be much to hang it all on. This was music Factory put out that did work and the Hacienda build upon that as a sort of pivot point for the house scene and dance scene in England. Some things were not massively successful for Factory. Bands like Section 25 or 52nd Street probably wont get a mention. It’s a great film, and it’s a recreation, but again I’d love to see a documentary about it, because there is a hell of a lot more there.”