Tony Wilson’s Manchester: Sunday 10 August 2025.
Anniversary of the day he died in 2007.
Meet: outside HOME, 12 noon.
Booking: Please press here to book with Eventbrite.
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Tony Wilson never wrote a song, sang one or played an instrument. Yet he created the modern Manchester music scene. He made things happen; he cajoled people into doing important things. He harried, encouraged, pushed, promoted. It might be fair to say without him Manchester’s music history might have stopped with Sad Café.
On the day Wilson died, 10 August (2007), we honour one of the most popular figures in recent Manchester history: a vainglorious, proud, arrogant, infuriating but genius impresario.
We will visit the Hacienda, which he swore “must be built”; Rafter’s (now Tesco’s – fab!), where he met Ian Curtis (imagine a universe without Unknown Pleasures and Closer…no!); the Hidden Gem where he made his last confession to an astonished priest; and the site of Granada Television, now revamped into the Factory arts centre, named after his record label, where he preened and pontificated.
The Hacienda went bust. Factory Records went bust. Granada TV has been abolished, but as Wilson was fond of saying “we made history, not money.” Factory Records’ designer Peter Saville explained: “Tony created a new understanding of Manchester; the resonance of Factory goes way beyond the music. Young people often dream of going to another place to achieve their goals. Tony provided the catalyst and context for Mancunians to do that without having to go anywhere.”
