Events > FAC 511: And You Forgotten - A Memorial Event For Rob Gretton > Observer Music Monthly free booklet < New Order

And You Forgotten
A Memorial Event for Rob Gretton

23 05 04

A Certain Ratio
Anthony Wilson
Dave Rofe
Doves (acoustic set)

Graeme Park
Jon Dasilva
Mike Pickering
Mr. Scruff

The Ritz, Whitworth Street West, Manchester
Seven Thirty till One am
Tickets £12.50 Plus Booking Fee
Available from Piccadilly Box Office 0161 832 1111
www.ticketline.co.uk
easyInternetcafé, St Ann's Square, Manchester

All proceeds from this event will go to Manchester Kids for distribution to local charities

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This event was given the Factory catalogue number FAC 511 by Tony Wilson because Rob would have been 51 this year.

Posters and flyers

Large format (60" x 40") posters, A3 posters and flyers for the event, all bearing the Factory catalogue number FAC 511, were produced for the event. Flyers were freely distributed to promote the event and is reproduced here. About 100 of the large posters were fly-posted around Manchester with the remainder sold through Colin White at Vinyl Revival and at the gig itself.

Running order

7.30pm Doors open / Jon Dasilva
8.40pm Dave Rofe
9.00pm Tony Wilson
9.05pm Doves (acoustic set)
9.35pm Mr Scruff
10.50pm ACR
11.30pm Pickering and Park
1.00am Finish

Review

The memorial gig for Rob Gretton at The Ritz, FAC 511 And You Forgotten, was a fitting tribute to a great man. Once past The Ritz's rigourous security checks the 'glamourous' interior of the dancehall/club/live music venue was there for all to see. The famous sprung dancefloor was conspicuously empty during Jon Dasilva and Dave Rofe but with the venue approaching capacity and Tony Wilson about to come on stage everyone made a discreet move to the middle.

By way of tribute to Rob Gretton and to introduce the evening's proceedings Anthony Wilson read an extract from Christopher Gray's Leaving The 20th Century (with text appropriated from the Formulary for a New Urbanism by Ivan Chtcheglov): "And you, forgotten, your memories ravaged by all the consternations of two hemispheres, stranded in the Red Cellars of Pali-Kao, without music and without geography, no longer setting out for the hacienda where the roots think of the child and where the wine is finished off with fables from an old almanac. Now that's finished. You'll never see the hacienda. It doesn't exist. The hacienda must be built."

Doves acoustic set was highly emotionally charged because Jimi Goodwin's mother had tragically died earlier in the day. Bravely he had decided to continue with the gig. Bernard Sumner appeared towards the end to sing the New Order song 'Bizarre Love Triangle' which had first been aired on Marc Riley's Rocket Science show on BBC 6 Music the day before.

Between Doves and ACR, Mr Scruff played an eclectic set including some Northern Soul classics.

A Certain Ratio came on stage at 10.50pm to a rapturous reception. They played a 40 min, kinda 'Greatest hits' set: Do The Du, Shack Up, Won't Stop Loving You, Wonder Y (or Loosen Up Your Mind if you prefer), Turn Me On and closed with Heart and Soul, for which they were joined on stage by New Order's Hooky on bass and the audience erupted. Hooky said a few words about Rob and also Martin Hannett and Ian Curtis. He also speculated as to who might be 'next' and mockingly suggested it might be Tony Wilson!

To close the evening Mike Pickering and Graeme Park whipped up a storm of Hacienda classics old and new. And "everyone went home happy".

Links

BBC Manchester
Mick Middles (ThisIsCheshire.co.uk)
The Guardian review
Manchester Online

The Observer Music Monthly FAC 511

This was a free booklet distributed at FAC 511: And You Forgotten - A Memorial Event for Rob Gretton. Edited by Luke Bainbridge who, in an item called True Faith, interviews the artists involved in the gig and other Manchester music people to find out what Rob Gretton meant to them. Miranda Sawyer also writes about Rob. Paddy Considine explains how he approached playing Rob in 24 Hour Party People. Tony Wilson and Peter Saville recall a lifetime of working with Rob. The inside cover features an advertisement for The Observer Music Monthly itself using a 'mini pops' cartoon of New Order.

True Faith: Rob's artists and colleagues

Bruce Mitchell: "The Durutti Column were recording 'Another Setting' in Strawberry Studios. Rob quietly entered, sat behind the desk, and settled into a smoking reverie. Thirty minutes passed before 'Are you still being managed by Wilson and Erasmus?' he asked. 'You need to get yourself better than that pair of monkeys.' He smiled, beaming around the room waiting for a reaction. But before we could offer him the job, he took a Jimmy Page drag on his cigarette, shouted 'Sorry, I'm busy', pushed his glasses up his nose and walked out gurgling happily."

Vini Reilly: "Two things stick in my mind about Rob. The first was an occasion when a dodgy friend of mine needed bail money to get out of Strangeways. The money couldn't appear to come from me. Rob passed no judgmental advice - he simply raised what was a large cash deposit, in about 20 minutes. I think his Catholic upbringing and his awareness of Manchester's underworld were somehow not at odds. The second thing I remember is his genuine concern for anyone slightly lost. If he spotted anyone not joining in - through shyness or whatever - Rob would gently but firmly ensure they became included. His care and almost parental affection for Nat Curtis after her father, Ian, had gone, is something Nat still remembers to this day. It's very telling that when Nat visited the set of 24 Hour Party People her favourite character was the actor playing Rob. Rob Gretton was a good and true man, a paradox - tough guy, sensitive and caring gentleman. A visionary who is very much missed."

New Order: "He was a part of us, without him we would be like a piece of banoffee pie with a slice missing."

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Part of the advertising campaign for the Observer Music Monthly supplement with the Observer Sunday newspaper.

New Order - 'FAC 511' Observer Music Monthly 'Mini Pops'