Hannett, Martin 1948 - 1991

Martin Hannett was born in Manchester in 1948. He attended Roman Catholic primary and secondary schools in Manchester before studying chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He graduated in 1970 and took a job in a science laboratory.

He left his job in the early 1970s to set up the musicians’ collective Music Force in Manchester with Tosh Ryan, Bruce Mitchell and others on the Manchester music scene. At Music Force, Hannett booked venues, arranged equipment hire and organised fly posting of gig promotion posters.

Hannett became a musician, playing bass guitar and joining the band Paradox in 1973. He also began working as a sound mixer at gigs around Manchester. Hannett moved into record production in the early 1970s. His first jobs as a producer included the soundtrack to the animation film “All Kinds of Heroes” and the 1975 self-titled album by the Belt and Braces Roadshow Band.

Hannett made a name for himself as Martin Zero when he produced the Buzzcocks’ “Spiral Scratch” EP in 1977. As Martin Zero, Hannett also produced recordings by the poet John Cooper Clarke and by the comedy artist Jilted John.

With money made running Music Force, Hannett and Ryan set up the independent record label Rabid Records. The label released the debut single by Slaughter and the Dogs, which Hannett also produced.

Between 1978 and 1980, Hannett was most associated as a producer with the recordings of the band Joy Division. Hannett produced Joy Division’s first recordings for Factory Records, the tracks “Digital” and “Glass” which appeared on FAC 2 A Factory Sample. His involvement with Joy Division led to him becoming a partner in Factory Records. He produced the majority of the releases on Factory, but left the company in 1982, following a legal case brought by Hannett against Factory Records. He returned on a freelance basis in 1988 to produce the debut album by the band Happy Mondays.

Hannett was known for his use of pioneering digital sound recording equipment, including the AMS 15-80 digital delay, the Marshall time modulator, and early synthesisers such as the Powertran Transcendent 2000 and the ARP Omni. He is associated with the 24 track recording facility at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, which included state of the art Westlake studio equipment, and also with the 16 track Cargo Studios in Rochdale.

Hannett was a habitual drug user throughout his life. His drug and alcohol consumption is believed to have contributed to his death from heart failure in 1991.