H is for Martin Hannett

Martin Hannett was born in North Manchester in 1948. He first came to musical attention when, as Martin Zero, he produced the first independent punk record, the Buzzcocks Spiral Scratch EP. Under the same moniker he produced early records by punk poet John Cooper Clarke, whose Salford monotone was complemented by drum machines, simple synthesiser motifs and Hannett’s own bass playing. As Martin Zero, Hannett appeared on Top of the Pops playing bass on Jilted John’s eponymous single, which he also produced.

Martin Hannett in the studio

Hannett was an original partner in Factory Records with Tony Wilson and is best known as the producer who helped develop Joy Division’s recorded sound. Hannett’s trademark production, which is most apparent on Joy Division’s debut album Unknown Pleasures, Fact 10, and its follow-up, Closer, Fact 25, is sparse and eerie, complementing frontman Ian Curtis’ baritone vocals.

Hannett’s meticulous production, heavily influenced by dub, created a space at the heart of Joy Division’s sound, pitting the band’s spartan, jagged instrumentation against a spacey void, the latter being created by adept studio manipulation. For these purposes, Hannett often utilised looping technology to treat musical notes with an array of digital filters - in particular, delay units. Also evident from his dub influences was the mixing of the bass and drums higher in the mix than usual, and placing the other instruments further back.

As a producer, Hannett obsessed over drum sounds, never being content until they completely coincided with the sounds that he heard in his head. He demanded clean and clear sound separation not only for individual instruments, but even for individual pieces of Joy Division and New Order drummer Stephen Morris’s drumkit. Morris recalls “Typically on tracks he considered to be potential singles, he’d get me to play each drum on its own to avoid any bleed-through of sound.” He also reputedly had Morris set up his kit on a first floor flat roof outside the fire escape at Cargo Recording Studios, Rochdale.


Hannett worked with U2, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Jilted John, World of Twist and others. He worked briefly with New Order, and fellow-Factory Records bands Stockholm Monsters and Happy Mondays. A rift formed with Factory and he sued them in 1982 over a financial dispute; the matter was eventually settled out of court. At this point, Hannett’s career had spiralled into decline due to his heavy drinking and drug use, especially his use of heroin. His weight doubled and he died of heart failure in 1991 at the age of 42. Hannett is survived by a wife, daughter and a son.