Anthony H Wilson (as he was known in his late night Granada talk show days) is setting up another record label. Yep, the man behind the legendary Factory Records, which launched the careers of Joy Division, New Order and The Happy Mondays, among others, is launching a new label called F4. The label's first release will be a single from Manchester's Raw-T (they're a
Moss Side based Grime collective, don't you know), while an
F4 download site will also release music from artists Vini Reilly and the Young Offenders Institute.
Once again Wilson's label will have a proudly independent stance
- based, Wilson says, around the ethos of the founder of the legendary Sun Records, Sam Philips, who said in 1954: "'I try to open up the freedom within the artist himself, to help him discover what he believed his message to be ... to bring out that curiosity, to encourage that area of creative difference, to stifle not even the smallest element of exploration."
Of course some would argue Wilson's innovative approach is what put the original Factory Records out of business, so the label's new signings will be hoping F4, with its distribution deal with
Pinnacle, can successfully combine that ethos with a commercially viable business model.
Confirming his latest venture Wilson told reporters yesterday: "This is a confession of utter failure. I have completely failed to either grow up or calm down. I am as excited about Raw-T as
I was about Joy Division or the Mondays. And as excited about technology and what F4 can do for my beloved Vini and the wonderful
Young Offenders as that Tokyo night my mate Takao-san at Nippon
Columbia handed me "Power Corruption and Lies", my first CD. F4 is a thrill and a privilege."