#factory star

11/22/15.

Factory Star is a band headed by Martin Bramah (The Fall).  I can definitely hear some of The Fall, but with more easy-listening-tendencies.  I can actually hear the vocals of Sean McGowan of The Pogues crossed with The Damned, and some of the keyboards of Able Tasmans (actually, you can hear this even more on their first release “Enter Castle Perilous”).  I’ll throw a very obscure comparison - this sounds a bit like The Dark Beaks (if you ask me, this is one of Fishrider’s more under appreciated releases).

Stress Jingle/Station ID #24: Martin Bramah Martin Bramah is a British musician best known as a founder member of The Fall, Blue Orchids and Factory Star. Bramah met Mark E. Smith and original keyboard player Una Baines towards the end of 1975. Originally, he was slated to be the group's vocalist and Smith was going to be the guitarist, but then they swapped roles. Apart from The Fall's early singles, Bramah also plays guitar on the band's debut, Live at the Witch Trials, most of which he co-wrote with Smith. In 1979, he left the band and alongside Una Baines formed Blue Orchids (Mancunian poet and recording artist John Cooper Clarke came up with the group's name). They signed with Rough Trade Records in 1980 and their first singles (produced by Mayo Thompson of The Red Krayola) drew comparisons to the Velvet Underground's sound. Ironically, a year later the Blue Orchids would become the backing band for former Velvets singer Nico during her tour of Europe. The group's debut LP, The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain), was released in 1981 to excellent reviews. The Blue Orchids' uncompromising sound - half-sung or spoken lyrics, drugged-out keyboards, jagged guitars - made them favorites on the UK independent charts. The band split up in 1982, briefly reforming in 1985 for a further single. After this Bramah formed a new group named The Thirst with ex-Fall drummer Karl Burns. In 1989, Bramah unexpectedly returned to The Fall, taking the place of Brix Smith who had recently left, to participate in the recording of Extricate. Following this he formed a fresh incarnation of Blue Orchids, releasing new albums and EPs, as well as overseeing reissues of the group's earliest material before becoming a solo artist in 2008, releasing the folk-influenced The Battle of Twisted Heel. In early 2009, he formed a new group, Factory Star, featuring fellow ex-Fall members Steve Hanley on bass and Paul Hanley on drums. Bramah reformed Blue Orchids in 2012. A second Factory Star album New Sacral was released in 2012. "Post-punk has been many things, but rarely beautiful. The Blue Orchids, out of Manchester, turned its thrift shop formula of damaged guitars, stuttering rhythms, badly-tuned keyboards and corrosive visions into something as rare and unlikely and delicately gorgeous as the band's name-sake." Jennifer Kelly, DUSTED Magazine

Eternal Christmas Love: Factory Star’s “Lucybel”

An unabashed love song wrapped thematically in warm holiday garb, Factory Star’s new single, “Lucybel” (B-sided by labelmate Granite Shore’s take on ‘When Sleep Won’t Come,” from the FS album Enter Castle Perilous) is a lovely, loping addition to any- and everyone’s Christmas morning playlist, slotted somewhere between, say, “Fairytale of New York” and Bowie and Bing’s “Little Drummer Boy.”

Openi…

Bob Osborne, of Salford City Radio, has just published his end-of-year lists, with more Occultation interest. First Bob's albums of the year:

Kill Pretty – Dark Heart

Easter – Innocence Man

Rapid Pig – Wildlife

Factory Star – New Sacral

As Able As Kane – Totalitarian Tip Toe

Mr Heart – The Unspeakable Mr Heart

West Coast Sick Line – I hope everyone has nightmares except Kirsty

Mummy Short Arms – Old Jacks Windowless Playhouse

Moff Skellington – Thorny Conduits

Kill Pretty – In 80 Days

Monster Island – The Retaining Wall

Dead Sea Apes – Lupus

Salford Media City – @Futureworks

Bacchanal Party – You Can Be As Orange As You Like But There’s Nothing Sweet About You

Danny Short – Sunset Kicks In

Dead Sea Apes/Black Tempest – The Sun Behind The Sun

The Loose Hearts – Here We Are Now

Peter Hammill – Consequences

Dave Graney and the MistLY – You’ve Been In My Mind

Moff Skellington – Pukes of a Hot Cloister

Flies on You – Nothing To Write Home About

John Herring – It Starts Again

So Shush – A Mirror Gaze

Kingdom Lost – Desire Lines

Toska Wilde and Luis Drayton – Glamoflage

Moff Skellington – The Guild Of Distant Relatives

Danny Short – Remnants

Led Er Est – The Diver

Andy T – Life at Tethers End

The Distractions – The End of the Pier

Then his gigs of the year:

The Mob/Kill Pretty/Andy T/The System/The Autonomads/Evil Eye – Hebden Bridge Trades Club

Kill Pretty/Corned Beef/Sanity Clause/Addictive Philosophy – Sir Charles Napier, Blackburn

The Distractions/Factory Star/The June Brides – The Kings Arms, Salford

The Necks – Band on the Wall, Manchester

The Mob/Andy T/Kill Pretty/Nu Pogodi – The Trades Club, Bradford

Kill Pretty/Taser Puppets/Monkeys In Love/The Boom Da Da Booms – The Verge, Hyde

Hamsters/Velocets/Mama Roux – The Verge, Hyde

Mr Heart/Kill for Company – The Castle, Manchester

Vic Godard and the Subway Sect/Kill Pretty – The Oakwood, Glossop

AAAK – Salford Music Festival

Kill Pretty/Taser Puppets/Mark Of A 1000 Evils – Gullivers, Manchester

Positronik/Miss Lucid/Midnight Mafia – Salford Music Festival

Kill Pretty/Cactus Knife/Luis Drayton/Sinister Chuckles/Dusty Moonan – The Railway, Chorley

Kill Pretty/Factory Star/Sandells – Kings Arms, Salford

Factory Acts – Salford Music Festival

The Hamsters – Ape and Apple, Manchester

Rapid Pig – Salford Against the Cuts

Blue Orchids – Night and Day Cafe, Manchester

Kill Pretty/Pico the Puppeteer – Shangri- la at the Carlton Club, Prestwich

The Blimp/Positronik – Blue Cat Cafe

On the "Unpopular" website, Alistair Fitchett writes:

Unpopular Advent 2012 - Day 15: The Distractions, Factory Star & The June Brides

The Distractions - ‘Wise’ from ‘The End Of The Pier’ (Occultation) Factory Star - ‘Olympian’ from ‘New Sacral’ (Occultation) The June Brides- ‘A January Moon’ from ‘Between The Moon And The Clouds’ 7” (Occultation / Slumberland)

If you were to make a list of contemporary record labels that have consistently delivered remarkable quality over the past few years you would be hard pushed to find anyone more worthy of the top slot than Occultation. Their commitment to Wild Swans alone would ensure their place in any right minded heart, but in 2012 they released a trio of discs that demanded attention.

Firstly, former Factory Funsters The Distractions returned with their second album after more than a quarter of a century and it was worth its wait in gold. ‘The End of The Pier’ was filled with suitably rounded and reflective middle-aged melancholia mixed with sharply observed and deftly coloured stabs of passion. Guitarist Steve Perrin laced razor blades through daisy chains whilst Mike Finney cemented his position as a Reggie King for our generation. A bittersweet soul sensation. 

Martin Bramah’s latest set meanwhile resonated with the spirit and sound of the best of his earlier Blue Orchids offering ‘The Greatest Hit’. ‘New Sacral’ offered six sharply refined, avuncular and angular ripostes to the modern world. A glowering triumph of burbling, magical-realist urban psychedelia.