IBC	THE FACTORY	FIVE DAY RAIN	ONE WAY TICKET	HOMEGROWN

THE FACTORY

"Why don’t you come and see us play?” said a group of young musicians to BRIAN CARROLL at a summer party back in 1967. The FACTORY were three boys from Surrey in England at the height of Jimi Hendrix and the whole flower power fantasy of the summer of love.  Through the haze of cities covered in smoke from a generation that was expanding their minds came thousands of groups and musicians waiting for the break that would take them from a seedy club to a recording contract.

 The FACTORY were lucky. BRIAN and his friend DAMON LYON SHAW worked for I.B.C, the leading independent recording studios in London and they were looking for a band to record for their newly formed production company, HOMEGROWN MUSIC.

 They were both recording engineers who had worked with such legends as JIMI HENDRIX, THE WHO, THE ROLLING STONES, CREAM, STATUS QUO and many more. Surrounded by all this talent the engineers decided they had to find a raw young group that could use the knowledge they had learnt.

  Brian went to see the band and although only 21 himself, he was impressed by the energy from a trio of 17-year-olds.    Time was spent searching for a debut single and finally they came upon an obscure track called “PATH THROUGH THE FOREST”.  The boys learnt quickly and IAN OATES haunting guitar intro leads us into a nightmare of psychedelia.  Satisfied with the track they completed the B-side, a cover version of PAUL REVERE’S “GONE” and within weeks the record was released by CBS.   Without the backing of a record company behind you it is impossible to reach the ears of the masses and like many good records of this era the single was swallowed up among the hundreds of tracks released every week. 

 But there was still some more music to be made and while looking for a new single they recorded FAIRPORT CONVENTION’S “MR LACEY” and FAMILY'S  “SECOND GENERATION WOMAN”.   The single “TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE” came from a meeting of the band with JOHN PANTRY, a talented writer who was also an engineer at IBC. The words to “TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE” was a peaceful message that worked against the band in an anti drug society.  With “RED CHALK HILL” as the B side and released on MGM records, “TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE” took many years to be appreciated as a statement of the times. Once again IAN OATES guitar took us somewhere else while drummer BILL McCLOUD and bassist JACK BRAND kept a steady rhythm in a song that has also joined “PATH THROUGH THE FOREST” as a classic of Psyche.

Although THE FACTORY played a few gigs around town the lack of enthusiasm from CBS and MGM did them no favours and like thousands of bands from the past they went and got “proper jobs” in which they were all successful.

But that is not the end of THE FACTORY story. A decade after they split up record collectors “rediscovered” the band and a new generation were buying and playing the tracks that came out of the IBC STUDIO.

The original recordings of “PATH THROUGH THE FOREST” and “TRY A LITTLE SUNSHINE” became collectable items (selling for over £200 each) and if you know any of the cretins who are bootlegging these track could you please let me know. If you want to release them legit