Factory Club Poster (Signed by Jon Savage, Rob Gretton Archive)

An original poster for one of the defining Joy Division club shows, on the night the band played The Factory at the Russell Club in Hulme — Tony Wilson's club night that would lend its name to Factory Records. Around 450 people were in the room as the band ran through Dead Souls, Insight, Shadowplay, Disorder and Transmission, just weeks after Unknown Pleasures landed in the wider world (see previous lot). The poster's artwork is by the cultural critic Jon Savage — author of England's Dreaming, the canonical account of British punk — who has signed the lower right corner. It comes from one of the most important archives of the Manchester post-punk era: that of Joy Division's manager, Factory co-director and Haçienda founding partner Rob Gretton, with a letter from his partner Lesley Gilbert confirming its provenance.

PROVENANCE:

From the archive of Rob Gretton, manager of Joy Division, co-director of Factory Records and founding partner of the Haçienda. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Lesley Gilbert, partner of Rob Gretton