Sadly, this initial burst of enthusiasm from the fourth estate would prove short-lived. Although Section 25 had yet to release a record on the label, Factory's limitless critical kudos and close relationship with London booking agency Final Solution ensured that the band received a healthy degree of live exposure during late 1979 and early 1980. As well as supporting Joy Division at several of their later British dates, the eager trio also travelled to London to open for acts as diverse as Talking Heads, Toyah, Classix Nouveaux and the Cure, as well as two dates in Scotland with Talking Heads on their Fear of Music tour in November 1979.

Together with Joy Division and a cast of thousands, the group also played with the Stranglers at the Rainbow in November 1979, at the second of two gigs which marked the incarceration of Hugh Cornwall in Pentonville Prison. Other dates with Joy Division included a combined encore jam at Malvern Winter Gardens, and a role in the infamous Bury Derby Hall riot, both in April. A Manchester date with Joy Division and A Certain Ratio at the Factory in February saw 'Section 27' draw qualified praise from Mick Middles in Sounds:

"Section 27 prove to be yet another stab at the new Northern Psychedelic fad, complete with a variation on Floyd's old tried and tested Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'. Although the music is rolling, the vocals are harsh and packed with false anger. The overall effect is unattractive and abrasive, although given time Section 27 should smooth out their rough edges and begin to sound clean and powerful. They do show a considerable strength of character which should be channelled directly into the song themes, and not wasted by their present over-zealous vocal stance."

Section 25 also appeared at the Moonlight Club on the first of three Factory nights in April 1980, which were in effect media showcases for the London-based national music press. Sharing a first-night bill with Crawling Chaos and The Royal Family and the Poor (and following an unannounced appearance by Joy Division), the band stood little chance of winning over their audience. According to NME scribe Adam Sweeting:

"Finally Section 25, a drab three-piece. The small, austere bass player orated doomed and distant vocals over angular riffs and thrashing guitar chords. My ears politely refused to accept any more and I wasn't alone in heading for the tube."

At the end of April Section played their first overseas show, performing at Plan K in Brussels with ACR. Back home, the press were scarcely kinder when the band played at the Scala Cinema later that month, in company with A Certain Ratio, Durutti Column, Blurt and Kevin Hewick. In the opinion of Chris Bohn:

"Section 25 are the sort of band that work well in theory but are less interesting to actually listen to. Their austerely wrought rhythms are minimally embellished by a guitarist more interested in sound than conventional technique, and their bass-playing singer intones monotonous mainly one-line songs with only slight variations. DAF do this sort of thing far more exotically, but given their self-imposed limitations Section 25 can be surprisingly effective, as on one song that works up from a 'I want your body/I want your mind' chant to an awesomely frightening intensity."

The long-delayed three track single produced by Curtis and Gretton (credited on record as A Fractured Production) finally emerged in July on 7" only, with Girls Don't Count as the lead track. The 7" was housed in a novel tracing paper sleeve designed by Peter Saville, and assembled in a workshop for the deaf. Curiously this powerful single was not well received, attracting negative and inaccurate reviews:

"Girls don't count, money doesn't count, Section 25's irony doesn't work. Count me out." (NME)

"The title is more provocative than the music, which ceased its relationship with my deck around the time someone on it shouted/ordered 'It doesn't count'. Quite. Manchester lads, they make that wonderfully old-fashioned sound which relies on synths for synths sake. They probably watched too much Tomorrow's World as kids and sincerely wanted to be Raymond Baxter. Most points for the sleeve - an intriguing concoction of architect's drawing paper and bright coloured ink. Maybe they should sell it without the contents." (Sounds)

"Here come more depressed, depressing men from the industrial wastelands of the north, a-plodding their earnest way into your hearts with relentless, electric noises. Stark reality, and buzzes and blips with Tony Wilson and other things to turn you off." (New Music News)

Despite the fact that comparisons with Public Image Limited had already become commonplace, it was unfortunate that the strongest track (Knew Noise) was not chosen as the a-side. Nevertheless, one can only wonder how different things might have been had Dirty Disco been chosen as the first single, and released with greater speed by Factory, since the group had been playing this driving, even catchy dance track as early as July 1979.

On the vexed PiL question, Factory director Tony Wilson was quick to jump to the defence of Section 25 in March 1980, after the ungrateful editors of City Fun declared that SXXV, ACR and Joy Division all sounded alike:

"Section 25, for starters, are nothing like ACR or the JDs. If they have any similarity problems it is with Public Image and Public Image alone. The b-side of their new single is unfortunately reminiscent of certain aspects of Metal Box; unfortunate for them since it was recorded at Cargo Rochdale in September '79, and Metal Box was [released] in November '79. A more melodic vocal pattern, and a different approach to the guitar drone overdubs between Levine and Section 25 nevertheless allow Section 25 ample creativity space in which to work. They remain more original than 99% of other bands (100% of other London bands), and certainly they don't sound anything like the two to which they are belied by false compare."

Only in December 1980 was FAC 18 sensibly re-pressed in 12" format, thus ensuring superior sound quality. The new edition appeared in a trio of different (and in the opinion of the label 'horrendous') sleeves, each graced with a photograph of three different girls: Angela Cassidy, Jenny Ross and Julie Waddington. Angela (later to join the band herself) was the brothers' sister, while Jenny and Julie were girlfriends to Larry and Paul respectively.

Even with a strong debut single finally available, the London press remained largely hostile to Section 25.The band again shared a London bill with ACR and Blurt in August 1980, this time at the Music Machine. For Sounds, Nick Tester complained:

"Whatever happened to serious fun? The stint of closet austerity was opened by Section 25, whose droning rhythms are obsessively relentless. A bassist faces the drummer while a guitarist, standing sideways, defaces both with occasionally reckless stabs of rusty treble. It's no comforting mixture, but neither is it as confrontational as they think. They suffer from a massive overdose of PiL and are dryly uninspiring. The chances they take are limited."

In truth, early live performances by Section 25 tended to be taciturn and static, and with few records available to counteract a generally negative press, Section 25's relative ubiquity in 1980 was perhaps both a blessing and a curse. Furthermore the late Ian Curtis was no longer around to set about hecklers and critics with his fists, as at the Factory New Year party in 1979. Nevertheless, the turnaround began that summer with two new tracks which marked their first substantial collaboration with producer Martin Hannett.

Again recorded at Cargo, Charnel Ground and Haunted remain two of the finest tracks in the early Section 25 repertoire, and thanks largely to Hannett marked a significant forward progression from FAC 18. Charnel Ground (aka The Field Is Empty) is a supremely eerie, disembodied piece, still capable of raising hairs, while Haunted, a careering, flanged charge written in memory of Ian Curtis, remains genuinely evocative of headlong flight from malign spirits.

Rather than appearing on Factory proper, or holding the tracks back for the first album, the single appeared in October as the third release on the new Factory Benelux label (FACBN 3). Equally fine singles from A Certain Ratio (Shack Up) and Durutti Column (Lips That Would Kiss) shared the same fate, although it was hardly a reflection on the quality of the music on offer, and in 1980 a foreign release on a Brussels label afforded a certain aspirational cachet.

Sharp-eyed observers have noted that the sand dunes on the Benoit Hennebert-designed FACBN 3 sleeve resemble an armpit when viewed upside down. Despite such intrigues, reviews remained largely negative, the NME damning:

"More horror flick soundtracks. Remember those toys with a green luminous skeletal hand reaching from a tin coffin to grab your money? I'm sure Martin Hannett doesn't know what 'holiday' means. There's a good package tour to Transylvania, Martin."

In October and November 1980 a Factory package tour featuring A Certain Ratio and Section 25 traversed mainland Europe. The trip included dates in Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Dan Haag, Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin. ACR and SXXV were joined by Vini Reilly for three of the eight dates, and by The Names in Brussels. An amusing essay by Larry Cassidy written on his return to Blackpool is included in the sleevenotes to the CD release of Always Now.

Following this continental outing Jon Hurst quit as soundman for ACR and took over behind the board for Section 25. Hurst moved his own eight-track recording equipment into the band's Blackpool warehouse facility SSRU (aka Singleton Street Rehearsal Unit), and would play a decisive role in shaping their sound over the next two years. An improvised SSRU track, Red Voice, had already been donated to the Blackpool Rox EP, a local project organised by fellow Blackpool band The Membranes and released in August 1980. Now the band set about rehearsing their first album.

In February 1981 Section 25 recorded their debut album Always Now at Britannia Row Studio in London, with once more Martin Hannett producing. While tracks such as Dirty Disco, Friendly Fires (originally titled Cambodia) and Be Brave continued to mine a driving, rhythmic vein, looser compositions such as Babies In The Bardo and Melt Close offered spacey, acid-psych atmospherics which, although out of step with the prevailing musical climate of 1981, must have seemed perfectly at home in the studio constructed and owned by Pink Floyd. According to a review by Joost Niemoller in Dutch magazine Vinyl:

"I always thought that Always Now was made especially attractive thanks to its producer, Martin Hannett. He managed to drape exactly the right little wrapping of echoes around the few unsteady, doubtful notes which the group produced. Section 25 always had something paper-thin about it - a sound, or rather an absence of sound, giving the impression that the slightest breeze would blow it away."

This may be true of certain slender, improvised tracks (notably c.p.), Always Now was nevertheless a courageous and original album, only the absence of Charnel Ground and Haunted denying it classic status. A clip for the closing track, New Horizon, was later included on the pioneering Factory video compilation, A Factory Video (FACT 56).

The commercial release of FACT 45 was delayed by the lavish Peter Saville packaging. Constructed as waxed card pochette, and with a marbled interior printed under licence from a French supplier in Rouen, FACT 45 boasted one of the finest (and costly) sleeves in industry history. As if such extravagance were not enough, photographic prints were also mooted, and triple-fold poster inserts actually produced, only to be abandoned. The record eventually appeared in August 1981 and quickly sold its initial run of 10,000, despite a complete absence of reviews in the UK. However, the high cost of the packaging meant that what was actually a strong-selling independent album took a long time to recoup its costs. According to Larry and Vin:

Vin: "We were inexperienced about how much covers can actually cost a band, and how much you get cooked down the road. Factory adds it on to the expense of the album, and you don't get any money until you've gone past that mark." (1)
Larry: "At the start every Factory band had to produced by Martin Hannett and have their artwork down by Pete Saville. It was like a package, a system."
Vin: You could tell it was a Factory record just by glancing at it from across a room... Don't get us wrong, we enjoyed working with Martin at the time. It was a great, big studio in London and that. But if the producer is finally not on the same level as yourself, it won't work as it should... For a lot of other groups the Joy Division formula just won't do anything."
Vin: "The last track on the album was called New Horizon and it was, very obviously, about new hope for the future. I don't think the people who reviewed that record could even have noticed that track was there. I think their associations took control of them and they said: 'oh - gloomy, JD-like' etc." (5)

While at Britannia Row, Section 25 took time out to record a John Peel session for the BBC, broadcast in February and featuring versions of Babies In The Bardo, Hit and One True Path. The latter piece, an extended percussive mantra that would remain a staple of their live set until the following year, was also cut at Britannia Row, but left off Always Now. Another album outtake, Human Puppets, remained unissued for two decades.

In July 1981, one month before Always Now finally reached the stores, a Euro-friendly version of Dirty Disco was issued on Factory Benelux (FACBN 5), retitled Je Veux Ton Amour after Larry re-recorded his vocals in French. A 7" only, the curious floral sleeve was lifted direct from a garden seed packet by Larry in best Marcel Duchamp 'readymade' tradition. The Britannia Row recording of One True Path appeared on the flipside, albeit translated into Hawaiian, becoming Oyo Achel Ada.

During the first half of 1981 the group also recorded a large number of semi-improvised tracks at SSRU, which would form the basis of their second album, The Key Of Dreams. Recorded between gigs throughout 1981, these jams reflected the improvised element of their live shows. Indeed guitarist Paul Wiggin had suggested that Section 25 improvise every gig from beginning to end, although sensibly this idea was vetoed.

Wiggin's eventual departure from Section 25 in September 1981 was triggered by an altogether different problem with live performance. With the group booked to open for New Order in Helsinki, Wiggin refused to fly, and instead swallowed up most of their fee by travelling overland. With a North American tour already being planned, this fear of flying made his departure inevitable. Tony Wilson failed to recruit then-unknown guitarist Johnny Marr as a replacement, leaving the Cassidy brothers in musical limbo.

Abandoning much of the existing live set, Vin and Larry prepared for a forthcoming European tour with Crispy Ambulance backed by tapes and an extra percussionist, John Grice. Following a date at the Boulevard Theatre in London on 16 December, the group visited Belgium, Holland and Germany in January 1982, the set typically comprised Inside Out, Babies In The Bardo, One True Path, Trident, Dirty Disco, Consequencer (aka Sakura) and The Beast, together with two unrecorded pieces, God's Playground and You Leave Me No Choice. However the depleted band ran into problems after just two shows when Grice, a newcomer to the rigours of touring, suffered a panic attack and was flown home. Fortunately, Crispy Ambulance drummer Gary Madeley stepped in on drums and keyboards, and the show at Bochum Zeche saw both bands jam together on five numbers, including spirited versions of Girls Don't Count, Haunted, The Beast and God's Playground. Performances by both bands on this tour are documented on the albums Fin (LTMCD 2302) and Live In Europe and America 1982 (LTMCD 2312).

The Key Of Dreams was eventually released by Factory Benelux (FBN 14) in June 1982. Edited down from over five hours of SSRU tapes, the nine slices of narcotic, modern psychedelia were mostly loose and unstructured, with titles such as The Wheel and Sutra hinting at an interest in Buddhism. Sutra provided a clear centrepiece, being a fifteen minute jam that evoked Pink Floyd's expanded live excursions on Ummagumma, or Can at their most hypnotic. As the Cassidy brothers explained to Sounds:

"You can get into problems jamming, it can be a long ramble, but there's a lot to be said for it. It's got a bad name. It's just possible that these songs will give comfort to someone who's having a bad time. Whether or not it's got to do with drugs we don't know. We just see that in them." (5)

The album earned a five-star review in Sounds, and cult Washington DC band Unrest later offered the supreme tribute by covering There Was A Time (as Lost Innocence) on the Teenbeat label in 1989. The album also drew somewhat skewed praise from Dutch magazine Vinyl:

"The strength of these very ordinary gloomy songs lies in their ability to convey subtleties of feeling with as few means as possible... The only apparent structure in the music is effected by frugal but syncopated drumbeats. Bass guitar and guitar provide mainly atmospheric smears of sound around this (the same applies to the isolated appearance of saxophone and piano) and the vocalist mouths his lyrics with every appearance of disgust. Provided that you are absolutely knackered or smashed, this record will make an oppressive but lasting impression on you." (4)

In February 1982 Section 25 undertook a short seven-date tour of the American East Coast, still using backing tapes but now with long-stay percussionist Lee Shallcross. The itinerary comprised shows in New York, Trenton, Washington, Hoboken, Boston and Philadelphia. A review of the Washington DC 9:30 Club date on February 13th by Jerome Wilson, published by The Offense Newsletter, records:

"Section 25 are on Factory, of course, and seeing them made me reconsider what that label has done lately. In the past year or so Factory has gravitated towards bands with a grey, synth-laden sound on records like New Order, Durutti Column and A Certain Ratio, and away from being a label that could accommodate the lighter sounds of The Distractions or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark as well... Judging from Section 25's performance here and ACR's new album, you only hear that when Martin Hannett doesn't get in the way.

"Section 25 is a new kind of power trio: a bassist, two drummers, and pre-recorded tapes which I think carried the guitar parts. The silly 'doom rock' tag they carry is really irrelevant. No, they don't wear zoot suits and grin like idiots, but they are more serious than depressing. Occasionally their music has an epic sweep that is really uplifting, like the punch the best Magazine songs carry. The lyrics may tell a different story. I can't say because I couldn't make out a word the bassist sang - but since when has that mattered, Joe Strummer fans? This radical restructuring of the usual rock riddims was too much for some people, like the bozo who yelled 'Play "Whipping Post"" after their first number, but most of us were won over by the time they finished. And despite what some jerks claim, you can dance to this music."

Plans for a live album culled from the dates for Factory US (FACTUS 9) petered out, although a CD based on this project eventually surfaced in 1997 (LTMCD 2312). Although strong, and imaginatively mixed by Jon Hurst, the new set suffered due to the rigidity imposed by its reliance on backing tapes, and the tour cost the group GBP 800. Interviewed in 1985, again by The Offense Newsletter, they had this to say:

Lee: "After doing the first American tour it felt like we had hammered those numbers. Larry and Vin had been playing them longer than me, and felt like they had had enough of that."

Vin: "When we came back after that tour we did a few gigs in England, but we just were really pissed off at the way things were, and we took a year off to re-think things. Didn't do anything for a year but write songs... The fact that Paul, the old guitarist, was such a big part of the band when he left - well, it seemed a farce to try and continue doing some of those songs." (1)

In fact the band were far from idle. In March 1982, the reflective Hold Me was recorded at SSRU, and donated to a compilation on Dutch label Plurex in May. In April a new EP was recorded for Factory, lead by The Beast, described by Larry as "a song about the part of every human which is very ugly... the ability of people to be thoroughly evil, utterly and mindlessly spiritless." While hardly obvious single material, The Beast was complemented by two impressive mixes of Sakura, together with a tense, bass-lead instrumental, Trident, recorded in New York on the American tour.

Crucially, Hold Me and Sakura marked the groups' first tentative forays into electro territory, the latter's chattering sequencer line having been concocted by Jon Hurst and New Order mainman Bernard Sumner during an all-night brainstorming session at SSRU. Another strong track written during this transitional period later emerged as Warhead.

May 1982 saw Section 25 play a prestige London show at The Venue, while The Beast emerged as a 12" ep (FAC 66) in July. However a degree of disillusion had set in. The restrictions imposed by performing live as a three-piece with backing tapes, coupled with Larry's discomfort with his fragile singing style on the new material, forced the group to re-evaluate their future direction. These several problems were compounded by the departure of Jon Hurst (and his recording equipment) later in the year.

A caustic review of FAC 66 in the NME served as a suitable epitaph for the band's first and second phases: "After Eno and Howard Devoto, Section 25's bassist has the third best skull in pop. Judging by the way they've been banging their heads against the wall without anyone noticing, I should imagine it's all knocked out of shape by now. It's a pity, but then their dogged following in Joy Division's footsteps was hardly likely to guarantee them much recognition. At least they immersed themselves in the darkness as if it were a life and death mission."

Whereas other Factory cold wave bands such as The Names and Crispy Ambulance elected to split towards the end of 1982, Section 25 chose instead to revolt into style. Concluding that they could no longer remain 'punks', but rejecting a change of name, the brothers invested in new technology and recruited Larry's wife Jenny Ross to play keyboards and sing. Taking their lead from Sakura and Hold Me, further synth-based material was composed and aired at several dates in the north-west of England, as well as on a short Italian tour in December 1982.

Vin: "We didn't enjoy playing all that heavy moody stuff any more, and we just got fed up." (6)

Larry: "It got boring after three years with the same guys in raincoats coming to your gigs." (7)

Larry: "We decided to withdraw and concentrate on writing some new stuff which we could be happy with. Jenny has taken over some of the writing, which has helped change things - made them lighter. You're not as likely to feel suicidal when you hear us now." (6)

Larry: "I think we have become more passion-conscious. Largely it's due to an expansion of instruments, and a growing interest in those instruments on our part. We constantly have a go at playing different instruments because it maintains a challenge and keeps us on our toes." (8)

This new, lighter material unveiled a spiked synthetic pop outfit of considerable sophistication. With the group still guessing the way, a number of new tracks (including Days Pass By, Slice and Just To Be With You) were ultimately discarded, although the best, Beating Heart and Back To Wonder, the latter sung by Jenny Ross, were recorded in December at Amazon Studio in Liverpool for single release.

Still a trio onstage, Section 25 premiered an embryonic electro set at The Hacienda in February 1983, performing Beating Heart, Loving No-One, Days Pass By, Warhead, Trident, Firefly and Sakura. Despite the promising new music the date was poorly attended, and although Warhead was deemed fit for inclusion on the Factory Outing video (FACT 71), the group promptly cancelled further live work to concentrate on further refining their new musical direction. Tracks from the gig are included on the archive CD Deus Ex Machina (LTMCD 2316).

Beating Heart and Back To Wonder marked a clear shift toward accessible pop, and to some extent took their cue from New Order, being co-produced by Bernard Sumner (as Be Music), who also added some characteristic guitar. Housed in a stylish sleeve designed by Mark Farrow, the pairing was released as FAC 68 in June on 7" only, a 12" version being cancelled at the request of the group after test pressings (12 FAC 68) were made. On any reckoning this decision was a poor call, since the remix version of Beating Heart made extensive use of a novel 'squiggle' effect produced by Vin Cassidy on a Roland TB303, the significance of which is discussed in more detail below. Certainly the group's belief that the 7" format would secure more radio-play, and a bona fide chart hit, was ill-founded: it didn't, and it wasn't.

Between February and August 1983 the core quartet of Larry, Vin, Lee and Jenny worked up new material for a make-or-break third album. The band then recorded From The Hip in August at Rockfield Studio, a residential facility in Wales. Again produced by Bernard Sumner, the eight-track album was subsequently mixed at Revolution in Manchester in October, and released in March 1984. FACT 90 marked a bold foray into the commercial zone, and, as hard-edged electro cuts like Program For Light, Reflection and Looking From A Hilltop clearly demonstrated, Section 25 were now chasing mainstream success with a vengeance.

Vin Cassidy: "It's contemporary dance music. Soul music. What I mean is that we play it from the soul. The music is more accessible, but that doesn't mean we have gone middle of the road, or sold out. We have always had a small cult following and now we want to break through that and reach more people." (7)

In fact From The Hip offered nothing less than a sophisticated, melodic band producing magic, the fragile vocals of Jenny Ross cast as a gossamer veil across the rhythmic explorations, and complementing perfectly the new age ambience of The Process and Desert. Lighter in sound than previous recordings with Hannett, the new music still retained the trance-like qualities already established as a band trademark, and allowed light as well as shade. Indeed FACT 90 was a concept album, tracing a journey from confusion to enlightenment, although wisely this aspect remained obscure.

So strong was interest in From The Hip that the album was licensed in no less than eight territories worldwide, including Japan, Canada and the United States. A BBC radio session was also recorded for the David Jensen show in June, featuring Warhead, Looking From A Hilltop and Reflection, but in Britain press reviews were few and far between. Only the NME found space to praise the new direction:

"Romancing the drone? Hey, only kidding! Section 25, who could once lay claim to being the dreariest group on the planet, have lifted their noses from the stone long enough to sniff the air and discover a joy in life. They've converted it into a contagious chatterfunk blessed with a forlornly pretty melody - a mark usefully retained from their previous experience - and a new girl vocalist, whose vague dreamy voice seems chosen so as not to detract from the whole." (9)

In updating their sound and image the band had moved mountains, and in some respects raced ahead of their time. Yet where Cabaret Voltaire had been showered with praise for blazing a similar trail the previous year, not all were readily converted. Writing in Sounds, Dave Henderson inaccurately sniped: "From the Hip never remotely hints of pulling itself together. It's tortuously programmed, predictable and pretentious. Some of you out there will love it." (10)

From The Hip was housed in a sublime, colour-coded sleeve designed by Peter Saville sleeve, with typography by Trevor Key. Originally this was to have been rubberised. The genesis of the design was explained to The Offense Newsletter:

Vin: "The album was a lot of acoustic instruments against very hard electronics. The idea that Saville had to reflect that didn't really grab me - to have a lot of high-tech climbing equipment, such as big plastic boots, on a ledge halfway up a mountain. High-tech gear in a low-tech surrounding."

Lee: "But it looked like an advert for climbing equipment."

Vin: "So he took a lot of these surveying poles and laid them out going up the mountain. And he's into this computer coding, so the colours actually spell out 'from the hip'." (1)

From The Hip was performed live as a single piece for the first time in Blackpool and Manchester in December 1983, with Jenny Ross now the focal point of the band onstage. From May 1984 onwards Section 25 performed as a five piece, following the addition of sister Angela Cassidy, who adopted the pseudonym Angela Flowers to avoid Partridge Family-styled jibes.

In August the group played at Riverside Studios in London, as part of a prestigious Factory season which also included dates by Durutti Column, Quando Quango, 52nd Street and Kalima. Section 25 shared a bill with Stockholm Monsters on the 15th, screening Luis Bunuel's surrealist masterpiece Un Chien Andalou as a backdrop, and unveiling a 'boogie beat' electro jam destined later to become Bad News Week. Chris Bohn, who had found the band so vexing at the Scala Cinema four years earlier, now sang their praises in the NME:

"Section 25 have miraculously reversed a long and inexorable slide into oblivion... Once a tight, joyless trio they've since brought in a couple of girls with whom they share five synth consoles, rhythm machines, drums and bass. And since undergoing this drastic overhaul they've learnt how to manhandle machines with a compositional wit and skill hitherto unheard this side of Kraftwerk's Rhineland Klingklang Fabrik. Theirs is a music of remarkable sensual combinations, arrived at through an exploration of the synthesiser's manifold textural possibilities. Whether applying it as sylph-wrap or cutting up rough with bruising electro disco, they will invariably raise a prickle of sweat." (11)

Meanwhile, Bernard Sumner and ACR drummer Donald Johnson (aka DoJo) remodelled Looking From A Hilltop as a techno single, FAC 108. On release in June 1985 these much extended 'Restructure' and 'Megamix' versions met with considerable success, particularly on import in North America, where Hilltop broke as a club hit in New York. The single also received extensive airplay, and succeeded in crossing over to black stations in Chicago. Repeated listening more than a decade later serves only to reinforce the Michigan Daily's impression of 'pure sonic capability', as would later sampling of the track by The Shamen (1992) and Orbital (1993).

The surge of interest triggered by both the single and album enabled the band to undertake another short Italian tour in December 1984. In January and February 1985 a second American tour was completed, comprising sixteen dates including Boston, Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Washington DC and Trenton, before winding up at the Ritz in New York. The superlative set comprised From The Hip in its entirety (less Desert) together with a re-tooled electro version of Dirty Disco and (on occasion) the prototype Bad News Week.

Crucially, the keyboard, sequencer and drum machine parts were extensively reworked in live performance, with the result that Beneath The Blade, Program For Light and (in particular) Looking From A Hilltop now featured hard sequencer patterns and the piercing Roland TB303 sound later typical of acid house. Vin Cassidy had stumbled across the remarkable effect by accident early in 1983, employing it to good effect on the unreleased 12" remix of Beating Heart, and in live performance the following year. While it might seem unlikely that audience members in Chicago or Detroit were inspired by Section 25 to further refine house and techno, the fact remains that a full year before these sounds reached Europe, a band from Blackpool toured it across most of the major cities in the United States. Had Section 25 released the 12" remix of Beating Heart, and applied this revolutionary new sound sparingly to From The Hip and the Hilltop single remixes, history might have been different.

Highlights from sets at Baton Rouge and Los Angeles appear on the archive CD From The Hip-In the Flesh (LTMCD 2325), while the Minneapolis show is preserved on the DVD So Far (LTMDVD 2429). As well as promoting the album and single, the second American tour was also intended to spur interest from major labels:

Vin: "The campaign [in America] for From the Hip wasn't really organised properly, and the 12" should have come out domestically instead of being an import. It had the potential to do a lot better than it did... I've dealt with Factory for the past five years, and it's a case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing now. There's just no communication. It's like any sort of business - you've got to plan things and work together, but there's not much of that going on. The people below Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton, the two bosses, get nothing. They get left to their own devices, and are not checked up on, so things get left undone." (1)

Larry: "We've never had someone directly pushing us and shouting for us like the other big Factory bands have. New Order have got Rob, A Certain Ratio have got Tony, but we're out on a limb." (8)

On their return from the States, the group played a one-off date in Paris in March (their sole French performance), and another at Glasgow Maestros in May. The set had by now expanded to include Crazy Wisdom, a wistful pulse-scape already recorded in April for single release, and again produced by the Be Music/DoJo team. Also cut was a punishing electro remake of Dirty Disco (also a Be Music/DoJo production) and the pastoral Guitar Waltz, courageously described in the press release as 'post holocaust techno folk'.

This slightly over-produced single finally appeared on 12" only through Factory Benelux (FACBN 45) in September 1985, having originally been pencilled as a Factory 12" (FAC 132T) with a 7" version on Benelux. The release was supported by a handful of UK dates, including a troubled support slot with New Order at Preston Guildhall on 22 October, and a headline performance at London Hammersmith Clarendon on 3 November, with new Factory band Happy Mondays. Already the live set was much changed from that toured in North America, and now included an accomplished cover of The Model by Kraftwerk, tight instrumental Slinky and Sweet Forgiveness, the latter reworked for FACT 160.

Had Section 25 recorded a fourth album in late 1985, it might have comprised Slinky, Crazy Wisdom, Guitar Waltz, Bad News Week, Sprinkling Petals Into Hell, Sweet Forgiveness and The Model. Although this hypothetical album might have lacked the killer single punch of Looking From A Hilltop, if produced by Sumner or Martin Rushent, it might well have been the equal of From the Hip. But sadly it was not to be. Although the band had actively pursued a major deal for almost a year, interest from Island, Elektra and Polygram Canada came to nothing. Sadly, in November 1985 Vin Cassidy elected to quit the group, unable to support his family on the scant rewards offered by a full-time career in Section 25. Lee Shallcross also gave notice hours later, followed by Angela Cassidy the following February.

Speaking about the split to Tim Difford for the facfacts booklet in 1986, Larry explained:

"Vin wanted to go into business with his wife, and Lee wanted to get a job. He's gone to America now. He was working in a warehouse in Preston; I don't exactly know what he did there, and then he started selling sheepskin coats all over the place. He wanted to make money - he was fed up of having no money... Section 25 was making a bit, but it wasn't a living wage or anything like that."

That Section 25 failed to land a major deal in 1985, opted not to tour the cutting edge American 'acid' set in Europe, and released no new material for more than a year after hitting their stride was due as much to bad luck than poor judgement. It hardly helped that the band lacked proper management, and had leapt ahead of their time quite by accident. With Looking From A Hilltop Section 25 had reached a pinnacle, but found view the view obscured by clouds. Crazy wisdom indeed.

Although knocked sideways by the fragmentation of the group, Larry and Jenny Cassidy elected to carry on alone, and set about working on several new songs. In the spring of 1986 these were recorded at Park Lane studio, a local sixteen track facility, with Phil Ault engineering and local musicians supplying extra drums and guitar. Larry told facfacts at the time: "Me and the engineer, Phil Ault, are producing. He's been doing it for years... Some of it we recorded in December 1984 - four backing tracks, I think. We're going to record another four tracks. We've got ten numbers together."

The four instrumental tracks previously recorded in demo form by the five-piece line-up became Bad News Week, Car Crash, Last Man In Europe and Sprinkling Petals Into Hell. Only two numbers - Conquer Me, and Shit Creek/No Paddle - on the resulting album were wholly new compositions by Larry and Jenny, the latter succinctly summing up the predicament faced by the pair following the split. Of the others, Sweet Forgiveness was another track composed by the five-piece, and Warhead an even older demo recording. The album was completed by a superfluous reading of Erik Satie's Gymnopedies.

On completion in May 1986, the Park Lane tapes were passed to Factory, and the album mastered at London studio Townhouse. The lacquers appear to have been cut at Townhouse in October or November, but then - nothing. According to Larry, the label claimed that it had mistaken the tracks for demos, although this seems unlikely given that it was promptly dispatched for mastering. In truth, the finished album betrayed its shoestring budget and hurried ten day schedule, and Factory were reluctant to release it. As a result Love & Hate would be delayed for more than a year.

Thankfully, an always obliging Bernard Sumner was on hand to remix Bad News Week as a high BPM single. Just ahead of the appearance of New Order's fourth album Brotherhood, two mixes were completed at Yellow 2 in September, although these stripped away much of the melody and drive of the album original in favour of a harder rhythm track and treated guitar powerchords. In the opinion of this writer, Sumner did the track few favours. September 28 saw Section 25 perform a final, one-off gig with poet John Cooper Clarke at a small Blackpool venue, the Tache. Comprising Dirty Disco, Gymnopedies, Friendly Fires and Sprinkling Petals Into Hell, the live swansong could scarcely have been more obscure.

Bad News Week (FAC 157) did not appear until May 1987, and was marred by another disaster. Priming a joke that misfired badly, Factory's publicists informed trade paper Music Week that the new Section 25 single was a cover of a 1965 hit - Good News Week - by industry pundit Jonathan King. King's publishers Jonjo wasted no time in claiming that the Section 25 composition was an unauthorised pastiche of the earlier song, and that the first five lines of the lyrics infringed their copyright. The dispute was settled by the MCPS, but not before all copies of FAC 157 had been recalled by the distributor, and Section 25 obliged to sign over 100% of the publishing to Jonjo Music and Jonathan King.

As a result, Love & Hate (labels suitably amended) would not be released by Factory until March 1988. Quite apart from appearing two years late, almost in secret, and with an awful sleeve, the long delay meant that the quality of the pressing also suffered. Moreover with little or no promotion, the world had forgotten about Section 25, and publicity for FACT 160 was limited to a single, incomprehensible review in Melody Maker from Jonh Wilde. Yet despite its mongrel pedigree there is much to like about the album, and in Bad News Week, Sweet Forgiveness and Sprinkling Petals Into Hell the record contains three bona fide gems. Had the production been more polished, and superior tracks such as Slinky, Crazy Wisdom and Guitar Waltz included, it might have proved a worthy successor to From The Hip and introduced the band to a mass audience. As it was, Love & Hate provided an obscure and uneven epitaph, full of lumps and holes.

In 1991 LTM Recordings issued the bulk of the Section 25 back catalogue on compact disc, with Always Now, The Key Of Dreams and From The Hip appearing in September of that year. A proposed fourth disc, based loosely on the shelved live project from 1982, was not followed through to completion, eventually appearing in 1997 as Live In America and Europe 1982. Other archive sets including DVD So Far and an improved Love & Hate followed, and in time brought about a long-overdue critical re-assessment of the band's place in post-punk culture.

Spurred by this renewed interest, core members Larry, Vin and Jenny regrouped in 2001, joined by guitarist Ian Butterworth (formerly with Factory band Tunnelvision) and multi-instrumentalist and engineer Roger Wikeley. Although work on the new album was set back by the untimely death of Jenny Cassidy from cancer in November 2004, the group began gigging again in May 2006 and have since visited France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Dublin, London and Poulton-le-Fylde. A new studio album, Part-Primitiv, was released in 2007, together with a live DVD, Communicants.