What is in a name?

Peter Saville, Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, founders of Factory Records.

You might be wondering why we settled on the name ForgeMaster Records for this budding enterprise? Or maybe you’re not. But names are important. They should mean something. Stand for something.

Sheffield Steel

We are based in Sheffield. It’s where we grew up and where we have always lived. The city has its faults that we moan about constantly. But it’s the place we love and where we fall in love. In all it’s grey, northern industrial drabness.

Steel has always been at the centre of Sheffield, from its earliest beginnings to becoming an industrial juggernaut. Unfortunately, much of that industry has been brushed away, but steel still pulses through the veins of every son or daughter of this city.

We wanted to encapsulate that history, and so what better way to do that than to be a master of the forge – the ultimate skilled artisan who crafts the beautiful and the strong from the white-hot forges. And of course, there is a bloody great Forgemasters factory (that still exists) that sits on the north side of the city, right next to the rail lines, greeting visitors from the North with it’s name writ large across its foreboding black walls.

Factory Records

The other key part of the thinking is our love of (maybe obsession with) 80s Manchester label Factory Records, home of New Order (and before them Joy Division.) They reflected and celebrated their home city like no other record label ever had before or have since. By simple logic, ForgeMaster is a Sheffield Factory, so we can cosplay to our hearts content.

And FOR will make for a great prefix for our inevitable catalogue numbering system. Oh yes – that will be a thing.

We’re here at ground level. The factory is opening.

This is a cult. Join us.