24 Hour Party: Since 24HPP opens Friday in LA, Boston, Philly and other cities, 'scoottaxi' from the Yahoo group 'faclist' is planning a special show tonight:

"I plan on devoting tonights show to Manchester in honor of 24hr party people. (Since I was outbid on the factory boxset and don't have enough factory material.) You can tune in on the web at www.wsmu.org. Or 91.1 if you are in SE MA. My show airs from 10 PM [Eastern Time --ed.] to Midnight. If I get some calls or requests I may stay on as late as 2am and give DJ AUTOMATION a break."

News 8/12/02

Siskel and Roeper give 24 Hour Party People 2 thumbs up! I don't usually watch a lot of tv on the weekends but caught this cause I knew they were reviewing it. Tres Cool.

Also, CHUD.com is giving a way cool t-shirts, soundtracks and swag! And, if you're in Atlanta, screening tickets!

Reviews 8/12/02

The Onion: "Party People is the first to acknowledge and revel in its own shapelessness. It's too large a story to tell any other way." Thanks to Colony 13 and Drexel Theatres.
Associated Press: "A party you'll want to attend and stay for 24 hours."
Salon.com: "To do something big enough for history, and be big enough to let it all go."
NY Newsday: "...A delirious mix of stock footage, faux documentary, collage cocktails, cameos by surviving punk heroes and a kind of unspooling ribbon of tie-dyed celluloid."
NY Post: "This wonderful party of a movie, as totally original as its hero, stamps on a smiley face that will linger for hours."
NY Times: "This is pop England at its headiest and most volatile period — 1976 through the early 90's — since the Beatles era, seen through the jaundiced, admittedly single-minded point of view of Mr. Wilson, a man both inebriated by his love of the time and determined to plunder it."
Village Voice: "On this brief, indelible joyride, the impossible tension of the music acquires a context, and it's more than postindustrial decay: This is the no-exit sound of claustrophobia colliding with agoraphobia, of breaking point stretched to infinity, of driving in circles in the sallow twilight."

Thanks to Rotten Tomatoes' 24 Hour Party People page. And the awesome Clubplanet.com message boards!

Updated 8/12/02

"This deadly, has-been industrial city" produced the best youth culture in the world" - Tony Wilson speaks with AP about the real story behind the movie. Check that out HERE!

Updated 8/9/02

24 Hour Party People Soundtrack is Out!

Do you have it yet? If not, Oscarwatch.com is giving away a couple. All you have to do is tell her who your favorite Manchester band is and why (easy for me).

Also, "Smilin' Jack Ruby" has written up a San Diego Comic-Con report tied to his experience listening to the 24 Hour Party People soundtrack! Weird, huh? Read that HERE.

Update 8/8/02

24 Hour Party People REVIEWED!

The news and previews website Dark Horizons has posted a review of 24 Hour Party People today, "Another plus is the almost dream-like quality of certain moments of the film, and the camera work that goes with it. This, keeps it from a becoming like a straight docu-biography type of film. It also makes it stand out from other movies like "Almost Famous". Read the whole thing by clicking HERE!

Update 8/7/02

*WOW! Unknown pleasures! Tons of new photos on RollingStone.com.

*"Our Hero ... the Record Label Chief?" MAJOR 24HPP story in the Los Angeles Times' Sunday Calendar.

*24 Hour Party People to be shown at the Montreal World Film Fesival!

New Order Online tells us that the film will be shown at the Montreal World Film Festival, which runs in September in Montreal, Canada.

*24 Hour Party People premieres in New York! I've put all the stories about the party HERE.

Update 7/28/02

The new poster has appeared on the net! You can see it, and read the nifty production notes, by going straight to New Order Online.com. That site also has a cool calendar for when things are going to be released.

"The buzzometer gets a stiffie!"Oscarwatch.com charts 24 Hour Party People's Oscar buzz!

"Here's the real deal in a rock movie." Read Rolling Stones' review of the movie here.

This site is my unofficial site for the movie 24 Hour Party People.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, who has also directed Wonderland and The Claim, 24 Hour Party people looks at the rise of Tony Wilson's Factory Records, which brought bands from the burdgeoning Manchester UK music scene, like Joy Division, New Order and The Happy Mondays, to the world. Punk was becoming something else, britpop/new wave had not yet saturated MTV, and Factory was THE story of this era.

Being a big Manchester scene fan, I'm starting this page to track news and sightings of this new movie, which opens in NY and LA August 9.

This is actor Sean Harris playing Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis.

LINKS

New (US) Site

Old (UK) site

New trailer

Click here for a Cannes Film Festival (where the movie was nominated for the Golden Palm) site with photos and a clip from the movie that shows some of the Factory bands.
Click here for a very cool BBCi article entitled "On the set of '24 Hour Party People'"

Thanks to Colony 13 and Counting Down's 24 Hour Party People page for all these "borrowed" images...