Kevin Hewick - "The Early Factory and Cherry Red Recordings" (1980 - 1983)

Kevin Hewick and the Sound - "This Cover Keeps reality Unreal" (Cherry Red 12CHERRY 76) 1983

Kevin Hewick, Side 2 of "A Factory Quartet" 1980

"Kevin On Stage" from "A Factory Quartet" insert

"A Factory Quartet" (Factory Records FACT24) 1980

"Ophelia's Drinking Song" (7" Factory Records FAC48) 1982

 I really admire anyone who carry's on regardless of a disinterested public, ploughing on through waves of  indifference for decades,yet still there. In Kevin's case, still very much there, as an integral part of Leicester's music scene.Probably more active today than he ever was.
It didn't surprise me to learn of his contribution to the recent Patrik Fitzgerald tribute album; an artist very similar to our Kevin, in refusing to go away.
His sound is sort of a doomy outsider-ish folky post punk, which sounds quite an attractive genre to me.
This explains why he fell in with Post-punk misery merchants The Sound for one 12" ep on Cherry Red; and perhaps his most accessible work.
Collected here,for the uninitiated, is a compilation of his early singles and ep's, along with his contribution to the "A Factory Quartet" album, which showcases Hewick's early live performance,and some of the negativity any performer like him got when the audience realised that he had no amp's or drums.
Also, we have his first recordings for Factory, with the as yet un-named New Order, singing in place of the recently departed Ian Curtis.

Some unimaginative splurge about Kevin's loooooong career, lifted from Wikipedia:
 
In the early 80's his work was released by Factory Records. In 1982 he left Factory for a period on Cherry Red Records. Amongst others he recorded a collaboration with The Sound. After 1984 things got quiet around Hewick, which he calls his "black hole period". In the late 90's he emerged again on the music scene.On February 14, 2009 www.kevinhewick.co.uk released a free download album Doomcloud the until-then lost follow up to Helpline, 12 songs recorded in 2000, 2001 and 2003.

The Factory years

Newly added to the Factory roster Hewick had a recording session in June 1980 with producer Martin Hannett in Graveyard Studios where he recorded two tracks "Haystack" (released on From Brussels with Love compilation in 1981) and "A Piece of Fate" with the three surviving members of Joy Division, a month after the death of Ian Curtis and just prior to their adopting the name New Order.[1]

Other Factory releases included the controversial live side of the A Factory Quartet double album (FACT 24) in 1981 - live tracks picked against Hewick's wishes by Tony Wilson of a confrontation between him and a very aggressive audience - and the single "Ophelia's Drinking Song" (FAC 48) which featured producer Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio on percussion and was mixed by Peter Hook of New Order.[citation needed]

For a time Hewick was privy to many pivotal moments in Factory's early history, describing himself as a "gormless bystander" to those events.[citation needed] He often stayed at the Palatine Road flat of Alan Erasmus but as Erasmus became less involved with the label and Hewick's fraught working relationship with Tony Wilson rapidly worsened throughout 1982 (with Hewick even telling Wilson that The Haçienda was a bad idea as he "couldn't even run a record company properly never mind a club as well") an offer to "jump ship" to Cherry Red Records in London proved too tempting to resist.

Tracklisting:

 Factory single 1982:
Ophelia's drinking song-Katy clown
He holds you tighter

Single 1983 (Cherry Red CHERRY64):
Feathering the nest

Kevin Hewick and New Order, 1980:
Haystack (with New Order)

Kevin Hewick and the Sound - "This Cover Keeps reality Unreal" 1983:
Plenty
Neath Dancing Waves
Amber
Scapegoat In A Country Churchyard

"A Factory Quartet" (Factory Records FACT24) 1980:
Rubble/1940/A Little Feeling/Forget/Morphia/The Enchanted Kiss/Haystack

DOWNLOAD some early kevin hewick HERE!