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White Rabbit seizes new history of the women who made Factory Records a success
White Rabbit has signed a new history of Factory Records from the perspective of the women who made it a success, by Audrey Golden.
Lee Brackstone, publisher, acquired world English language rights for I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records directly from the author. Golden is a writer based in New York with a focus on music, culture, cinema and politics.
She has been a regular contributor to Louder Than War since 2019 and manages “Louder Than War Radio” where she is a weekly presenter. She has interviewed a wide variety of musicians and writers, such as Ana da Silva of The Raincoats, Brix Smith, Mark Lanegan, Dee Pop of Bush Tetras, Kathy Valentine and Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go’s, and Graham Massey of 808 State.
I Thought I Heard You Speak will be published by White Rabbit on 4th May 2023 in hardback, e-book and audio with a foreword by DJ Paulette.
The publisher’s synopsis of the book reads: “Factory Records has become the stuff of legend. Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, The Haçienda and the Madchester scene. Rumours of exorbitant costs and contracts written in blood. Yet that’s only part of the story.
“The untold history of Factory Records is one of women’s work at nearly every turn: recording music, playing live gigs, running the label behind the scenes, managing and promoting bands, designing record sleeves, making films and music videos, pioneering sound technology, DJing, and running one of the most chaotic clubs on the planet, The Haçienda.
“No written or visual record of the label has ever centred on the perspectives of the women who were integral to Factory’s success in the UK and abroad. Told entirely in their voices and featuring contributions from Gillian Gilbert, Gina Birch, Cath Carroll, Penny Henry and over 50 more interviewees, I Thought I Heard You Speak is an oral history that reveals the true cultural reach of the label and its staying power in the 21st century.
Golden said: “Women’s voices are routinely excluded from historical records, and they’ve been particularly marginalised in narratives of the music industry. What especially irks me is how that kind of exclusion reinforces the idea that those voices are somehow less important, that they have less to say. Women have been central to some of the greatest stories of punk, post-punk, new wave, and experimental sound and vision. When you look beyond the surface of the ’definitive’ histories that exist, you realise there are many more untold stories just waiting to be excavated and illuminated.
“I Thought I Heard You Speak isn’t a takedown of the label. In fact, it’s the opposite. It’s a new history of Factory Records that enlivens the myth. I’ve been a fan of Factory Records for what feels like my entire life — listening to New Order records, going to gigs, and putting songs by Factory bands on mixtapes. It has been a massive honour to interview every woman I spoke with for the book, and to weave their voices together into this brand new history of the iconic Manchester label.”
Brackstone said: “The story of Factory Records, the music, the mischief, the myth-making, has been a constant in my life since I became seriously interested in pop culture as a teenager. Audrey Golden’s debut celebrates what was often the function behind the dysfunction, the women who (often invisibly at the time) made things happen but have often been overlooked in the story of the label and its wider world. Essential reading for lovers of all things Factory and the arrival of a great new voice in music writing.”
