The hunt is on to locate an object that truly qualifies as “a sign of the times”. In 1977, the first Factory club night in Manchester was advertised with a poster using the now-famous symbol of a health and safety warning, urging workers to protect their ears from loud noise. But the original sign used in the artwork is missing.
The acclaimed designer Peter Saville was a young student at Manchester Polytechnic when Tony Wilson, the TV presenter and promoter behind the city’s burgeoning music scene, asked him to create an advert for the event. Luckily, inspiration was near at hand.
