Amongst the glut of rumour and, in some cases, actual movement surrounding Manchester’s many new clubs at the moment, this must surely be one that stands out for the music lovers and those with even a hint of appreciation of this city’s musical heritage. We are, of course, talking about FAC251, The Factory, a project headed by Peter Hook, taking the space that used to be Factory Communications’ head office, interiors designed by Ben Kelly, who originally did The Hacienda, weekly DJ sets from Mani...it’s like the rebirth of a golden age.

If the idea of such a rebirth has you filled with dread, Peter Hook reassures us that it comes also with a look to the future. This isn’t just going to be Joy Division, The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays on repeat. The idea behind the project is to create a space for current and emerging talent, and to attempt to bring back some of the ‘community which surrounded the original Factory project’. Based over three floors, FAC251 uses the basement of the building as the main live room (it’s called ‘The Bassment’, in fact). The other two floors act as separate club rooms, ‘The Loft’ on the first floor being very much a dancing space and ‘The Boardroom’ on the third floor has been kept as unchanged as possible from its days as main business hub for Tony Wilson et al., except now with the addition of a bar and DJ booth.

The club will be launching on the weekend of Friday 5th and Saturday 6th February, with Friday seeing a special one-off performance from ‘The Light’, Peter Hook’s ‘supergroup’ project featuring Peter on bass, naturally, Mani from the Stone Roses/Primal Scream, Rowetta from the Happy Mondays and Howard Marks, Welsh cult favourite and ex-international drug dealer. They will be performing rare Joy Division and New Order tracks, as well as hits from Peter Hook’s other bands including Monaco, Revenge and new material with FREEBASS.



Ben Kelly, Aaron Mellor and Peter Hook outside FAC251. Photograph: Kevin Cummins

Although FAC251 has an obviously indie bent, the weekly line ups are very much from the ‘something for everyone’ school – ‘Student Party Mash Up’ sits next to ‘Cool and Sexy RnB’ and ‘Electro’ on Mondays, while Tuesdays promise ‘Motown Reggae Punk Funk Hip Hop’ and the frankly baffling mixture of ‘Dubstep Electro Fidget MiamiBass’. Wednesday nights see Mani take to the decks on the first floor, while the Fuel Girls entertain in the live room – from what we can gather, they’re a sort of soft porn, rock/fire circus act. Interesting.

Thursday nights have been dubbed ‘dyslexic’ and list the likes of ‘Elektro Indee fidjit bmore’ and Dubstep Drumm n Base’ as the offerings, while Fridays and Saturdays return to more familiar ground, including the weekly ‘Hacienda Presents Hooky and Friends’, the club’s flagship night and an opportunity for Mr Hook to stretch his bass fingers and invite friends along to play.

With Sound Control recently opened just down the road and the likes of The Deaf Institute and, of course, the Northern Quarter’s live music venues all seemingly doing well at the moment, it’ll be interesting to see where FAC251 fits into all this. They certainly have the history, they seem to have the venue, but when it comes to it, it is you, the punters who will be deciding whether you keep going back, week after week, to fill their tills with your hard earned (or student loans, depending).

After a lot of hype, FAC251 has arrived – it’s time to see if it can live up to it.

For full details on weekly line ups see the new Factory website.

Any bands interested in playing at FAC251 can upload their music to FAC251’s Myspace for consideration.