In 1976 & 77, TV-presenter Tony Wilson (aka Anthony H. Wilson) had been hosting So It Goes, an alternative music show on Manchester's Granada Television. By bringing bands like Sex Pistols, Magazine and Buzzcocks on TV, Wilson had become a local personality. On January 24th 1978 he decided to diversify his interests, and teamed up with his friend Alan Erasmus, an unemployed actor, to form The Movement of the 24th January (a name taken from the Situationist International Movement Of March 22nd).

A couple of months later, on May 19th, Wilson started The Factory, a series of club nights at the PSV/Russel Club in Hulme. Among the bands billed for the 4 opening nights were The Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire and Joy Division. The poster for the evenings was designed by Peter Saville, who soon became a partner of Wilson and Erasmus.

In September the partnership decided to release a double 7" EP, A Factory Sample, featuring bands who had played at The Factory. It was then, during a discussion between Wilson and Saville, that the strangest catalogue in the music industry was born. When Wilson told Saville that their EP would be FAC 1, Saville replied that his first poster for the club was FAC 1 and the EP would be FAC 2. In October, producer Martin Hannett joined as a director too, after producing most of the tracks for FAC 2. With that the key men were nearly all in place and Factory Records was created. With the latter addition of Rob Gretton (manager of Joy Division & New Order), Factory Records would blossom and become one of the most influential labels that the UK has ever seen.

Factory constructed its own, entirely self-referring history by cataloguing not only records, cassettes and videos, but also important events, posters, badges, TV programmes, concerts, T-shirts, buildings, stationery, advertising campaigns, Xmas cards, etc. For example, in 1982, when Hannett left Factory and sued the label over disputed royalties, the lawsuit was duly catalogued as FAC 61.

The label often followed Wilson's beloved philosophy of Praxis, a Marxist theory once described by Wilson as; "You learn why you do something by actually doing it." Factory pioneered indie label principles such as the 50/50 profit share. Most of their record deals (until the later years of the label) were done with a handshake and not a contract. Factory elected to pay "royalties" to Manchester, investing in its cultural scene by building the Haçienda (FAC 51) and Dry Bar (FAC 201).

Sadly, financial troubles often hounded the label. In September 1991, news leaked out that Factory was near to bankruptcy and some record companies, including Mute, London and Warner Bros., made bids on the label. The label was not sold though, and claimed it had sorted out its finances. This proved not to be the case, and on "Black Monday", November 23rd. 1992, Factory Records went into receivership with a GBP 2,500,000 debt. A last minute saving arrangement with London Records collapsed when it became clear that, thanks to their no-contract deal, New Order - and not Factory - owned the rights to their material.

After the bankruptcy, Wilson would occasionally allocate FAC numbers for special Factory-related projects and events.

In 1994, Wilson launched a new label, Factory Too, with some releases coming out in conjunction with London Records. He also released a series of anthologies and re-releases from the Factory back-catalogue via London under the name Factory Once. Both imprints quietly disappeared around 1998. This was followed by a short-lived digital download project, music33.com. In December, 2004, Wilson announced that he was launching the "fourth iteration of the Factory imprint", F4 Records.

A dramatised history of Factory Records is portrayed in the movie 24 Hour Party People (2002, FAC 451).

Tony Wilsons life ended on August 10th, 2007 (heart attack). He was buried in Southern Cemetery. His coffin was apparently numbered FAC 501.

Nb: Many titles from the original Factory catalogue have been reissued by the LTM Publishing (Les Temps Modernes) label.

(some information above edited from "Factory Communications Ltd. - A Chronology" by Frank Brinkhuis)