| Martin Hannett | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Zero, Martin "Zero" Hannett |
| Born | 31 May 1948 |
| Origin | Miles Platting, Manchester, England |
| Died | 10 April 1991 (aged 42) |
| Genres | New Wave, Post-punk |
| Occupations | musician, record producer |
| Instruments | Bass guitar, guitar, keyboards |
| Years active | 1976–1991 |
| Labels | Rabid, Factory, Virgin |
| Associated acts | Joy Division, The Durutti Column, Paul Young, John Cooper Clarke, The Invisible Girls, Pauline Murray, Nico |
Martin Hannett (31 May 1948[1][2] – 10 April 1991), sometimes credited as Martin Zero, was a record producer and an original partner in Factory Records with Tony Wilson. Hannett's trademark sound, most apparent on Joy Division's debut album Unknown Pleasures and its follow-up, Closer, is sparse, eerie and spacious.
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Born in Manchester, Lancashire, England,[3] Hannett was raised in a working class, Catholic[4] family in Miles Platting, Manchester,[3] attending Corpus Christi school[5] and Xaverian College in Rusholme. In 1967,[5] he began to attend UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) where he earned a degree in chemistry but chose not to pursue that profession.[4]
Martin's uncle was a bass player and he gave Martin a bass guitar when he was 14. Martin played bass with Spider Mike King[5] and as member in a band called Paradox, in 1973, alongside Paul Young, later of Sad Café and Mike + The Mechanics.[1][6]
His production work began with the cartoon show All Kinds of Heroes soundtrack, which also was produced by Steve Hopkins (with whom later worked again). By this time, he also began to mix at pub gigs. Another early production works included Greasy Bear material, Belt & Braces Road Show Band's eponymous album, in 1975, and five songs from Pete Farrow's repertoire recorded at Pennine Studios ,Oldham, later included on that artist's compilation album Who Says There's No Beach in Stockport. However, he first came to musical attention in 1977, when, as Martin Zero, he produced the first independent punk record, The Buzzcocks' Spiral Scratch EP. Under the same moniker he produced early records by punk poet John Cooper Clarke, whose Salford monotone was complemented by drum machines, simple synthesiser motifs and Hannett's own bass playing. As Martin Zero, Hannett appeared on Top of the Pops playing bass on Jilted John's eponymous single, which he also produced.
Hannett became closely associated with Joy Division. Hannett's production incorporated looping technology to treat musical notes with an array of digital filters and both Melos analogue and digital and AMS digital delay units of which Hannett owned three. The Melos tape and bbd echo units were at the opposite end of the price spectrum to the AMS delays but Hannett still loved using their crude echo effects. The first synthesizers Hannett and Joy Division guitarist Bernard Sumner both used were Transcendent 2000s and then ARP Omnis. Hannett also liked to feed sounds through his Marshall Time Modulators and the three AMS delays he had, along with a fourth owned by Strawberry Studios.
As a producer, Hannett obsessed over drum sounds, never being content until they completely coincided with the sounds in his head. Legend has it that he once forced Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris to take apart his drum kit during a recording session and reassemble it to include additional parts from a toilet. He also reputedly had Morris set up his kit on a first floor flat roof outside the fire escape at Cargo Recording Studios, Rochdale. The studio was used for the recording of "Digital", "Glass", "Atmosphere" and "Ice Age". Hannett's unorthodox production methods resulted in drum sounds mixed with synthesisers that were both complex and highly distinctive. According to Hannett: "There was a lot of space in [Joy Division's] sound. They were a gift to a producer, because they didn't have a clue. They didn't argue. A Factory Sample was the first thing I did with them. I think I'd had the new AMS delay line for about two weeks. It was called 'Digital'. It was heaven sent."[7] Hannett was instrumental in the early development of these particular AMS delays asking the engineers in the company to try to recreate within the electronics the sounds he was hearing in his head. Hannett had a fascination for working in three particulars studios, Pennine Studios in Oldham , Cargo Studios in Rochdale and Stockport's Strawberry Studios. Hannett and Chris Hewitt designed Peter Hook's Joy Division/New Order bass equipment set up, the Alembic, Amcron, and Gauss system which Hook used for around twenty years.
Hannett's production can also be heard on Basement 5's album 1965 - 1980. Hannett remixed some of the tracks from 1965-1980 for In Dub, which features dub versions of Basement 5's material.
In 1981, Hannett was name checked by the Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra on their track "Nazi Punks Fuck Off!", which appears on the In God We Trust, Inc. EP. Biafra introduces the track by saying, "This is 'Fuck Off', overproduced by Martin Hannett, take four." The comment was tongue-in-cheek; Hannett never produced for the Dead Kennedys. A similar quote precedes the song "Fuck Me" by "Mihi" as appears on Regret, the first volume of the I've Girls Compilations.
Hannett worked briefly with U2, New Order, and Factory Records band Stockholm Monsters.
His partner from 1972 until 1984 was Susanne O'Hara. They lived together from 1975 in Chorlton and Didsbury in Manchester. Susanne worked with Martin at Music Force, a musicians cooperative in Manchester, until it closed when Hannett's production career began to develop, around 1979. Susanne continued to support his life and work until 1984.
A rift formed with Factory and he sued them in 1982 over a financial dispute; the matter was eventually settled out of court. From this point, Hannett's career spiralled into decline due to his heavy drinking and drug use, especially his use of heroin. His weight eventually doubled (to roughly 26 stone or 165 kilogrammes), and he died of heart failure in 1991, at the age of 42 in Manchester. Hannett is survived by a wife, stepdaughter and a son. His headstone at Southern Cemetery pays him tribute as the creator of The Manchester Sound.
Hannett was portrayed by actor Andy Serkis in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which was based on Tony Wilson's career as the co-founder of Factory Records and The Haçienda nightclub. In the DVD commentary, Wilson notes a review that described Hannett as Serkis' "strangest role," and points out that Serkis is best known for his portrayal of Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Wilson concludes that the reviewer's implication is correct, that indeed, Hannett was far stranger than Gollum.
Hannett was portrayed by Ben Naylor in Anton Corbijn's film Control.
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