PUBLISHED: FEBRUARY 2027

by Ged Duffy

 

"Those Factory Fairy-Tales were just the beginning... Happy Ever After proves that‘real life’ can be just as rock ‘n’ roll”
IAIN KEY, LOUDER THAN WAR

In ‘Factory Fairy-Tales’, Ged Duffy traced his life in Manchester’s music scene of the late 70s and early 80s which earned him the nickname of ‘the unluckiest man in Manchester music’.

In ‘Happy Ever After’ he discusses his struggles to adapt to life as a single parent bringing up his sons Jack and Tom following the untimely death of his first wife Lesley - yet through it all he manages to retain his sense of humour..

The past 25 years has seen Ged’s story turn crazier still: following a date in Paris with a Russian princess he ends up marrying Janine, an American exoctic dancer, and is detained as a suspected IRA terrorist by US Customs on his way to visit her.

Divorced within a few years, he finally writes the first volume of his life story, and reconnects with many of the people mentioned in the book and meets a whole new group of friends who go to gigs across Europe and the US. From encounters with Bigfoot experts in a town called Boring, a shooting in Brooklyn and a dinner with Hooky in Nashville, Ged’s life is never dull!

Ged now lives in Manchester with Liam, the son he had with Janine, and has started taking him to gigs and football, whilst trying to explain the offiside law to him.

PRAISE FOR FACTORY FAIRY-TALES

"My favourite band that, at the time, I had the least understanding of how important they could be, was probably Stockholm Monsters, who I still love to this day, even though they lost my fucking guitar or burned it or something, 10 or 15 years ago. Stockholm Monsters were scallys, they were the scally band three, four years before the Mondays, before the Roses. Maybe if I’d have understood it more, maybe I would have done better by them”
Tony Wilson

“I started to get into music early on because all the older guys that lived round our way were into a band called the Stockholm Monsters. They were the first band ever to come from Burnage and I think they had a top 75 hit with a song called ‘Fairy Tales’. From there you get into Joy Division, New Order and then it was The Smiths and then the Roses and then the Mondays and then you start your band.”
Noel Gallagher

“Another band that’s often overlooked in the telling of the Factory Records story but a real favourite of mine. They always seemed to know how to tug at my teenage heartstrings. I have the 7 inch single with two different sleeves and now, thanks to this album, I have the demo as well. This song doesn’t seem to age.”
Tim Burgess

“When I was 10, I was walking down Burnage Lane with my mum when I saw a guy in front of me with white hair and a big black exclamation mark. He was a punk. I later found out that he was a member of Stockholm Monsters… the first band to come from Burnage… Oasis were the second.”
Noel Gallagher