From Hot Cross Buns
to Hot House Flowers
By Patrick Duffy
I kissed my girl by
the factory wall,
dreamed a dream by The Grand Canal..
The Factory, like a lot of other buildings, which line the canal basin, is of brick and stone and dates from the 18th and 19th Century. These buildings are amongst the finest examples of industrial architecture in the city, more for their combination of materials and setting than for the merits of the individual buildings. They are part of our heritage and are preserved.
The Factory is in Barrow Street, backing on to the Grand Canal. The Factory was the provender providing animal food extracted from the breakdown of wheat from milling and before that it was S. Bishop and Company, sack manufacturers, where the employees were mostly women.
This area was once alive with industrial activity, employing thousands of people. Bolands (who came from Kildare) employed people in the mill, the bakery and the provender.
There was also the Dock mill, the flour mills, the meat packers and meat company (cattle were seen in this area until recently) as well as the gas company, the bottle company and Reg Armstrong's car manufacturers. Buildings like the Factory, which began as a warehouse, were converted. Bolands was Pimm's.
In 1987/88 Robert Wootton, the manager of The Hot House Flowers, leased the building, which was in disrepair, converted it and put in a number of studios and set it up as band rehearsal rooms and spaces.
Wootton saw the opening and his timing was right, when U2 was starting to make it big in the UK and US charts. Hot House Flowers were also making waves in the UK, so he put in a PA hire company and it became a one-stop shop for bands. They could go in for rehearsals and get all their back line speakers dropped up to them on the spot.
There was an explosion of record companies and bands in Ireland, it was a great time for Irish music. News passed by word of mouth to people in the scene. The Factory, because of the bright spacious rooms and accessibility, was a real hub of the Irish music industry.
The Factory also houses The National Performing Arts School (www.npas.ie), a performance school where young people can experience all types of dance, drama and singing.
Ken Allen of The Factory says that down through the years nearly every big artist has played there.
A band like the Corrs would put together their world tour there after recording a new album. They work out their live set, what songs they're going to play, in what order, the way the stage is going to be set up etc. They rehearse this so that everyone knows exactly what they are doing when they go out to play the big gig. They hire out a studio for four or five weeks and create the live stage set up.
Bands newly-signed to record companies also use the studios. They are be told to go away for three months and work out their new songs, new material and come back with the idea of recording the album.
Young up-and-coming bands are encouraged to come in and use the smaller studios to get a feel for stage performance. Allen says from listening to new bands in the studios, you can get a sense from the songs whether they have a knack for songwriting, you can see the interplay of the different band members and observe the lead singer to see if he or she has that natural energy that will attract you to look at the singer, the star quality which can take years to develop.
Nowadays a lot of bands want it to happen quickly and at times they're just not ready. Allen says that the average life span of bands from the time of their inception to the time they get signed up is around five to seven years with sometimes a different line up.
They need to want it enough or be dedicated or simply know what they want out of it. Some just want to do a certain circuit, maybe Ireland, and are not chasing a big deal.
The Factory's client list from Bob Dylan to the Frames or Christy Moore to The Thrills is long and impressive. But they too were also unknown at one point in time!
From one grain can come thousands, which can make a lot of bread!
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