martin hannett at strawberry studios - video

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I worked there a few times back in the day... and engineered a bunch of stuff with Hannett also.

They had TWO studios close to each other. -"Strawberry 2" had the delicious strawberry-red helios.

richie.des.helios.jpg

Des Tong (L) and Richie Close (R) at the Strawberry 2 Helios

The engineer in that bit is a (very young) Chris Nagle. Notice at just before 1:00 how reluctant he is to move his elbow out of the way! -His (now) wife took the above picture in fact.

Another picture from right about the same time (note the Rev-a remote and phone in similar positions):
redconsole.jpg


Later on, Hannett would have TWO of those Marshall Time Modulators, and insisted on using them in stereo on the snare drum for every mix. =In addition, we had a THIRD Marshall Time Modulator in the rack, but it was a later version, which Martin usually shunned for some reason...

I miss Planet Hannett. -I think it's been 20 years since he died now... or perhaps 19? -I'd have to look it up.

I found this Youtube video a little while ago and have played it for loads of people... Those were the days!!!

Keith

Keith
 
Wow, Keef! You've worked with him, that rules. Nice console pic!
He did get some pretty terrific snare sounds back then.

Have you seen the movie 24-hour party people?
There's a dramatization of him recording stephen morris's drums outdoors - presumably to eliminate all rooom sound. Pretty cool.
 
Hannett, yes, I worked with him  (in his later years though...) and actually came to enjoy it. -He had a wicked sense of humour, and recognised that I too enjoyed mischief.  -I saw 24-hour party people on a transatlantic flight when it first came out, and knew NOTHING about it until that moment, but as soon as I saw Andy Sirkis (spelling?) waltzing drunkenly across the screen in the opening scene (the sex pistols gig), I knew instantly -and without him being 'introduced' or in any way identified- that it was Hannett! -There were a couple of tunes in that movie which I worked on, and I also worked on a couple of New Order projects, so I got to know most of the band. -Barney once announced that he'd "like to have a go of that girl" who had dropped  (unannounced) by the studio one weekend to deliver cakes and custards, make tea and generally hang out... then realised that it was my girlfriend!  ;D

There's a lot about that movie which tells a lot of the relationship between Hannett and Wilson. -Wilson was a bit of a 'prat' almost ALL the time. -The movie beatifies him and makes him out to be sharper than he was... the whole thing about not keeping New Order because he didn't want their contract to be too binding was a revision  of history. -The REAL reason the left was that he didn't have a contract worth the paper it was written on, which was signed without witnesses, and drawn up without legal consultation. There was also no consideration in the contract (a requirement in British law) and thus it was invalid. -When Factory got into financial difficulties London records offered to buy them out, but -upon reviewing the contracts which they were effectively purchasing- they realised that they didn't have to pay a penny to factory. This was NOT due to Tony Wilson's benevolence... it was due to Tony Wilson's incompetence.  (He had in fact intended the contract to be binding.)

I could go on and on... He was a complete tosser on camera (and he day job was as a local TV news field reporter, so that's a bit of a poor trait to have) with an overdeveloped sense of self-importance and a smarmy manner. -Yes he brought us Joy Division, but he also brought us the Happy Mondays, who I can't stand to listen to. (and -just for perversity, I once had to engineer a mix of the Happy Mondays for a passed-out-at-the-back-of-the-control-room Martin Hannett!)

Fond memories...

Keith
 
Keith, did you happen to work on any of the New Order stuff that Stephen Hague did? I worked on a record with him a few years ago...just curious if you'd ever crossed paths.

(sorry for veering off topic btw)

David
 
Stephen Hague; -I never worked with him with New Order, but with OMD. -He was very keen on editing, and methodical approaches to construction... almost the absolute POLAR opposite of Hannett!

In the Youtube clip, Hannett is being interviewed by Wilson almost as a "third party" producer... as if they didn't KNOW one another. -Hannett plainly isn't comfortable with this 'deception' or 'acting' that way, since -as this clip shows- Martin was a partner in the company. -In the 'real' clip at the top of the thread, Hannett says something along the lines of "Is this a television broadcast" with a definite 'so I'm supposed to pretend that I don't really know you?' vibe to it...

Tony Wilson was engaged in what would most definitely be considered a 'conflict of interest'. -Reporting on local music, yet OWNING a record company. When there was little decent, interesting new music being generated in Manchester and the label roster was a little thin, he organised a "battle of the bands", with the first prize being a one-year contract with Factory records. In the movie, they mention that he picked up 'the Happy Mondays' and signed them. -What they DIDN'T make clear was WHY he signed them. -They didn't win; -they came LAST... and they were awful. -Since the first-placed band was pretty dull (it was in fact the usual fairly dull selection of bands which one often encounters at such things, with no "gems" to be discovered) Tony's enormous vanity decided for him that he would take the last-placed band (who were pretty universally agreed to be awful) and MAKE them into stars. -Tony was out to prove to the world that HE was the 'Svengali'. He felt that he was sufficiently powerful to 'create' stars. -For a couple of years, watching arts programs on television in the Northwest of England was a dismally depressing experience. Tony Wilson was promoting 'Happy Mondays' to the exclusion of almost everything else... and they were terrible.  For goodness' sake... one member of the band ("Bez") couldn't play any instrument, nor could he sing... yet he was onstage for every gig with an un-miked set of maracas... because he was able to supply the rest of the band's (increasing) demand for hard drugs.

Perversely, I came to enjoy (Happy Mondays lead singer) Sean Ryder's following project "Black Grape"... but I'm probably better off never having to have dealt with them (after the Happy Mondays, at least) on a personality basis... -To say that he could be "a bit of a handful" would be a considerable understatement.

But I love that clip for what it demonstrates of the Hannett/Wilson dynamic. At the end there, Hannett won't look Wilson in the eye, because he feels so uncomfortable. -Later on, Hannett would pull a gun on Wilson. -So too apparently would Sean Ryder.

One of the most telling Tony Wilson interviews was with British labor politician Tony Benn. Tony Benn had been known as "Sir Anthony Wedgwood Benn" but had -over the course of several years- shortened his name because he felt that it 'alienated' him from the working-class people whom he wished to represent. He was -among a lifetime of considerable historical involvements- a tireless champion of "Concorde", flying on test flights, on its maiden flight, and eventually on its final flight. -Tony Wilson landed the interview.

Tony Wilson at around this time had felt that his name wasn't sufficiently "classy", and so had taken to 'elevating' himself by insisting that he at first be called "Anthony Wilson" and then later on "Anthony H. Wilson".  -It was at this time when he interviewed Tony Benn.  -In the interview, Tony Benn discovered that he had deliberately 'lengthened' his name, and pronounced him (on television) to be an absolute fool. '-You've no idea how much time you waste just signing a thousand things a day!' he joked, but his distaste for someone who claimed to be a 'man of the people', making 'working class' music (during the heavily Conservative, "north-south-divide" years of Thatcher and Reagan) would affect such an air of "superiority" and lengthen his name as an affectation. Wilson later eventually dropped the whole thing.

On the occasion referred to in the 24H.P.P movie when the guns came out at the Haçienda nightclub and things finally came to a head, I was in the studio with Peter Hook's band "revenge" (New Order were on a hiatus, with the band members exploring various solo endeavours) and Peter's missus was inside the Haçienda.  -Taking shelter inside the club, while guns were being waved, the police were outside surrounding the club, with all the doors sealed, and shots being fired inside, she called their home phone to see if he was home yet, and could he do anything to get her the hell OUT of there, kind of thing!

However when Hooky got home (we had worked very late into the night), she was already back home safe and sound, but there was this incredible answering machine message which she had left. -The following morning he brought the tape in, and we transferred it, eventually including it at the end of the EP which we were working on, as a sort of 'hidden bonus track'. We edited out the swearing and a couple of names etc, but it still stands there as a document of history, on the Gun World Porn' EP. (The 'Gun' part of the title now having taken on a particular significance!)

Keith
 

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