The Science and Industry Museum, Manchester: 19th June – 3rd Jan 2022
Use Hearing Protection: The Early Years of Factory Records is a new exhibition that shines a light on the little-revealed early period of the label and discloses lesser-told stories from family members, alternative voices and international collaborators to trace new outlines of its famous history.
The exhibition focuses on Factory’s formative years from 1978 to 1982 and what it was about Manchester at that time that allowed the label to spearhead innovation in the fields of music, technology and design, giving the city an authentic voice and distinctive identity and helping to transform it from a post-industrial powerhouse to a beacon of art and culture.
Photo © The Museum of Science and Industry
As part of the exhibition, the British Culture Archive presents a selection of works by BCA photographers that capture everyday life in the city during the label’s formative years. Central to the display are previously unseen photographs by Thomas Blower, documenting the Rock Against Racism Northern Carnival at Alexandra Park in 1978.
Photo © Thomas Blower / British Culture Archive
The exhibition also includes work by Rock Against Racism founder Red Saunders, whose photographs of Moss Side record shops capture the vibrancy of local youth culture at the time of the Northern Carnival. These sit alongside Luis Bustamante’s images of Manchester’s city centre in the late 1970s, reflecting a city in the midst of social and cultural change.
 Photo © Manchester Museum of Science and Industry
Visitors are guided through the lesser-known story of the pre-Haçienda years, uncovering the label’s history and how it earned its status as a catalyst for innovation through rarely or never-before-seen objects. The first 50 numbered Factory artefacts are on display, as well as a series of amplified stories that shed light on the individuals who played a fundamental but lesser-acknowledged role in Factory’s early years.
Photo © Paul Wright / British Culture Archive
Audiences are immersed in its music through interactive experiences that offer the opportunity to get hands-on with technologies of the time that have gone on to change the face of music, including a mixing desk and synthesiser. The ‘Gig Room’ also transports visitors back in time by playing out the sounds of Factory Records through large-scale projections of the early bands it signed.
