RIP Tony Wilson

Just wanted to take a moment to mark the passing of Tony Wilson earlier today. You may not have heard of him, but theres lots of music you wouldn't have heard without him.

Tony was a small fish in my home town of Manchester, England back in the 70's. He was a local TV news presenter; hosted a local TV music show which famously gave The Sex Pistols their first break on TV; ran Factory Records which gave us Joy Division, New Order and The Happy Mondays amongst countless other bands; and ran the Hacienda night-club, which basically re-invented the night-club scene with industrial design and led to the birth of house music, rave and the Madchester baggy scene.

How great was Tony? Factory Records had some of the biggest bands of the late 70's, 80's and early 90's on it's roster. His first contract with Joy Division was written in blood on a napkin in a pub, and like with every other band he signed, it basically said "Factory Records owns nothing, you (the band) own everything".

There was a great movie made recently about the Manchester music scene called "24 hour party people" with Steve Coogan playing Tony as the main character, guiding the movie through 30 years of great English music. It's very funny and highly recommended...

BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/6941392.stm
Slate - http://www.slate.com/id/2172341/fr/rss/