For Record Store Day on Saturday 22 April 2023 Factory Benelux presents a limited edition 180gm vinyl singles collection by Marcel King, best known for his sparkling 1984 dance single Reach For Love on Factory Records, as well as the youthful vocalist on Sad Sweet Dreamer by Sweet Sensation, a UK Number One back in 1974.
Limited to just 1000 copies, Reach For Love: Singles 1983-88 features both sides of the infectious electro single co-produced by Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Donald Johnson (A Certain Ratio) and released as FAC 92 in April 1984, as well as a previously unreleased demo for Love To Shine, the planned follow-up single on Factory produced by Tony Henry of 52nd Street.
The album also features Hollywood Nights, a later single cut by Marcel with Gee Bello of Light Of The World, along with a rare US remix of Reach For Love by noted New York DJ Mark Kamins, and extended dub and instrumental versions.
King was invited to record for Factory in 1983 by Joy Division/New Order manager Rob Gretton, a devotee of soul and black music, and prime mover behind the famous Hacienda nightclub. "Rob was a massive fan of Marcel and thought he was as good a singer as Michael Jackson," explains Tony Henry. Not just a gifted and plaintive soul singer, King also wrote both sides of his Factory single, Reach For Love and Keep On Dancin' both paeans to perseverance and enduring Hacienda classics.
Alas Reach For Love was destined to remain an underground hit rather than a chart topper. Rob Gretton blamed Factory's disdain for conventional promotion. "At Factory we still basically believe that you don't have to hype a group in any way, and that a record should success on its own. But it's getting increasingly difficult. We put a record out by Marcel King and it's hardly sold at all. The charts are wide open to hyping and marketing."
1000 copies only of FBN 47 will be available on Record Store Day on 22 April 2023. The sleeve is based on original artwork for the Factory single and also includes a press interview with Marcel from 1984.
DUE OUT: APRIL 22 2023.