X-O-Dus > X-O-Dus Discography

On 12 June the group played at the Russell Club (then still known as The Factory), and Joy Division manager Rob Gretton brought X-O-Dus to the attention of the label. Radicals both, Wilson and Erasmus liked the political content of Honey's songs, and it was agreed that Factory would release a 12-inch single. Since reggae was something of an unknown quantity at Factory, Tony and Alan pulled out the stops and engaged Dennis 'Blackbeard' Bovell, then the leading reggae producer in Britain, whose postpunk credits included The Pop Group and The Slits, as well his own band Matumbi, and the soundtrack to excellent 'reggae Quadrophenia' movie Babylon.
The single was recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale in June 1979, though Bovell proved curiously reluctant to travel north for the mix. In the meantime X-O-Dus took part in Fac 15 ('Zoo Meets Factory Halfway') - in reality a poorly attended Zoo/Factory sideshow at Leigh Festival on 27 August, along with Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, The Distractions, Crawling Chaos, Orchestral Manoeuvres, Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen.
- extract from the LTM biography by James Nice