'Track 22' Soundtrack
- full of Factory fodder!
Firstly, a very big thank-you to everybody who has stuck with ‘Challenge 69’ through to (almost) the bitter end, it is very heartening that ‘Track 22’ was once again opened in record numbers.
I hope you enjoyed the dénouement of the story’s core ‘mystery’, although there is one further ‘reveal’ yet to come (regarding the C69 ‘prize’) in the book’s final episode, which will be published over three daily parts, starting from Saturday 5th August.
Of course, what you’re all waiting for is the latest chapter’s soundtrack!!
Even I have to admit (which isn’t a great marketing strapline!) that some of the stuff on this one is fairly dreadful. There are however two reasons why it is important:
Completely coincidentally, I am, like my story’s protagonist, a bit of a completist! To me therefore it is impressive (and worth sharing) that Spotify was able to track down a song from every single Factory Records oddity/rarity that I used to construct the novel’s FAC Number ‘challenges’, even if a fair few of these probably deserve to have disappeared into obscurity, and
Where else will you ever come across a single playlist with entries from ABBA, The Durutti Column, The Wombles, Joy Division, and Cilla all in one place!!
In the extremely unlikely event that any reader does work their way through the entire 108 minutes of this latest ‘soundtrack’, then can they please let me know (below) as it would be great to find out that there is somebody out there even sadder than me!
And before I go, just to reinforce those ‘completist’ credentials, I have also included images for the three FAC Numbers used in the ‘quiz’ that were never record releases.
FAC4 - the Peter Saville designed poster for a series of 1978 Factory Christmas concerts at the (misspelled) Russell Club.
FAC7 - The Factory Records stationery, featuring their Palatine Road office address, which I’m reliably informed by one C69 reader was just up the road from her school!
And finally, FAC15, the poster for the ‘Zoo Meets Factory Half-Way’ festival, staged over 1979’s August Bank Holiday, which is the only place, anywhere on the internet, you will find any reference to Alpha Omega. Not a bad line-up for two quid though.
Plus, for anybody still reading by this point, I have also now completed my ‘guest post’ retrospectives on all of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds eighteen studio albums, with the last two parts having been sent out on
in the last few days.Not wanting to distract from all the quality Factory output on display here however, I will send a further post tomorrow with links to these final Bad Seed pieces.
Bye for now, and thanks again for reading ‘C69’.