* The late Seventies music scene was one of incredible diversity and change. It was a time when punk rock laid bare the foundations, and created a situation where rock and popular music could literally start all over again. A horde of independent labels appeared throughout Britain, eager to propagate the new post-punk minimalist music, and one of these, Manchester's Factory Records, had immediate success with two acts: Joy Division and
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. The former's harsh, grey and industrialised music was in total contrast to the latter's tranquil, almost classical sounds.
* While New Order have crossed over into commercial territory, with records in the pop charts and interviews in the press,
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remain very much a mystery. Moreover,
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has been responsible for an eclectic set of releases guaranteed to frustrate the most ardent collector, since they appear not only on Factory but also on obscure European compilation albums, cassettes and 12" EPs.
*
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has always been dominated by the music of young Manchester-born virtuoso guitarist Vini Reilly.
* It's worth mentioning at this stage the origin of
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name. On one hand, it derives from the struggle of revolutionary anarchist Buenaventura
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to liberate Spain during the bloody civil war of the 1930s. The second source for the title comes from the activities of the Situationists Internationale in Strasbourg in 1966. In a grand gesture of anarchism they papered the walls of the city with a comic strip titled "The Return of
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". (Note the change of spelling of
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's name).