Tony Wilson's legacy raves on
Updated on 13 August 2007
The man behind Madchester's legacy lives on - as he foretold from the very start.
Tony Wilson, who died of cancer on Friday aged 57, was surprisingly sure of his own legacy. But the founder of Factory Records and the Hacienda nightclub's rare confidence turned out to be right on the mark.
Music legacy
Signing iconic bands like Joy Division - and later New Order - and the Happy Mondays placed Tony Wilson at the heart of the Manchester music scene which exploded in the late eighties.
He was also behind the Sex Pistols' first TV appearance and put the Stone Roses on stage at the Hacienda nightclub.
Wilson famously made little profit out of Factory records, but his belief in what he was producing was for him more important.
Wilson famously made little profit out of Factory Records, but his belief in what he was producing was for him more important. When New Order's Blue Monday, the best selling 12inch in Britain, actually made a loss due to the expensive sleeve, Wilson said: "You either make money or you make history."
Time has proved him right. When Factory finally burnt out in 1992, it had debts of £2m. But the music scene it promoted has secured its place in the rock hall of fame.
Wilson used his savings to finance Joy Divisions debut album Unknown Pleasures. But the band have been since immortalised in many films, most recently in Anton Corbijn's biography of lead singer Ian Curtis, Control.
Rave culture
Wilson also founded the Hacienda in 1982 - the melting pot for Manchester's growing rave culture. Wilson was at the forefront of Madchester - as the city's rave music scene became known - but it was short lived.
In 1991 drug-related shootings led to the club closing its doors for a while. But it wasn't just Greater Manchester Police's watchful eye that led to the downfall of the Hacienda.
Like Wilson's record label, the club was not particularly profitable since most of its clientele were busy taking ecstasy rather than buying drinks at the bar. In 1997 it closed for good, leaving debts of around half a million pounds.
Like the bands, the rave scene lives on - with the indie-dance fusion of songs like the Stone Roses' Fool Gold still influencing the bands of today.
Northern pride
Wilson was a keen advocate of the northwest, and believed the uniqueness of the Manchester music scene would regenerate the industrial city.
Madchester, he believed, was the perfect antidote to the yuppyism which radiated from eighties London.
He became a campaigner for devolution in the northwest, saying: "My enthusiasm is my contribution to this love you see around us. It is almost impossible to remember 1975, how awful music was and how awful our industrial cities were."
The Madchester indie scene meant it was suddenly cool to be northern, with bedrooms across the country sporting the Happy Monday's Madchester poster, and teenagers adopting the baggy look and long bowl-cut hairstyles.
'Nobody likes anyone who's been on the telly as long as I have.'Tony Wilson
Before the release of 24 Hour Party People which made him more of a household name across the UK, Wilson was mostly known in the north west, where he cut his presenting skills as a news reporter for Granada Tonight.
He was for many years a face in living rooms across the country, as well as behind the music on the stereos in every bedroom.
But to be Wilson, the man behind the scene, was not always considered that cool. Wilson was aware of his reputation: "I don't mind the fact that people hate me," he said. "Nobody likes anyone who's been on the telly as long as I have."
When the the film 24 Hour Party People came out in 2002 its promotional posters labelled Wilson a "twat". But he embraced it all with good humour, confessing to "an unbearable, awful arrogance." Perhaps knowing his legacy - for music, raving and northern pride -was already secured.
