1 Top Class Manager—The Notebooks of Rob Gretton: Q & A With Lesley Gilbert

By Emily Carney

A review of 1 Top Class Manager can be found here.

“[Journalist] Paul Morley’s line of questioning was about a new underground forming outside the system – how do you see the role of the band? . . . Personally I would rather adopt a different role with regards to everything. . . ”
An excerpt from Rob Gretton’s notebooks, circa 1978

Rob Gretton
1953 – 1999

I recently had the opportunity to interview Lesley Gilbert, Rob Gretton’s wife and part of the team which compiled the book 1 Top Class Manager, which consolidates all of Rob’s notebooks during Joy Division’s seminal years from 1978 to 1980.

Here Lesley describes the atmosphere of Manchester, England in the 1970s, how she came to know Rob, and Rob’s contribution to the Manchester musical scene. She also discusses her role in synthesizing the many volumes of Rob’s notebooks which comprise 1 Top Class Manager.

Popshifter: Because I wasn’t there: tell me what Manchester was like in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Lesley Gilbert: Manchester in the early 70s was terrible. The city centre at night was dead. We had a very draconian police chief [James Anderton, who was sarcastically commemorated in the Happy Monday’s song “God’s Cop”—Emily C.] who closed a lot of the clubs down and tried to keep people away from the centre at night. Things started to pick up in the late 70s when the punk thing happened and our lovely police chief retired. New clubs started opening and [so did] venues to see live bands.

Popshifter: Tell me how you met Rob.

Lesley Gilbert: I met Rob in 1972 when we were both 19 and working for the same insurance company.

Popshifter: What were your thoughts when you found out that Rob would be managing Warsaw/Joy Division? Were you familiar with them at the time?

Lesley Gilbert: I thought it was great that JD [Joy Division] wanted Rob to manage them; it was exactly what he wanted to do.

Popshifter: How did your thoughts change when you saw Warsaw/JD play or heard their music? What was your gut instinct when you heard the music?

Lesley Gilbert: We were both familiar with JD and thought they were the best band we had seen for a long time. We both just knew that they were fantastic.

Popshifter: Tell me how Rob changed over the years. I am sure he wasn’t the same person at the end of Factory as he was in the beginning of the label.

Lesley Gilbert: I’m not sure that Rob did change a great deal; his basic personality and fun with life stayed the same. I would say the one thing that was affected was his health. I think the stress of Factory Records and the Hacienda folding [a Manchester club given the Factory Records serial number “FAC 51″—Emily C.] and being away from home for long periods of time had a detrimental affect on his health.

Joy Division

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