Peter Saville, Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus outside The Factory 1978
Anthony Howard Wilson, best known as Tony Wilson, was born in Salford, Lancashire in 1950. He was a record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC. Wilson was the founder and manager of The Haçienda nightclub, and was one of the five co-founders of Factory Records. Wilson was sometimes called ‘Mr. Manchester’ because of his work in promoting the greater cultural status of Manchester throughout his career. He was also known as ‘Wilson ya wanker!’ – a statement that was bandied around Manchester for almost thirty years and one that he seemed to relish – but a mixture of self-deprecation and super-confidence was always a major part of the Wilson brand.
Wilson’s involvement in popular music stemmed from hosting Granada’s culture and music programme So It Goes. Wilson saw the Sex Pistols at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall, in June 1976, an experience which he described as “nothing short of an epiphany.” He booked them for the last episode of the first series, probably the first television showing of the then-revolutionary British strand of punk rock.
Wilson had an interest in Situationism, the ideas of The Situationist International, a small group of international political and artistic agitators with roots in Marxism, Lettrism and the early twentieth century European artistic and political avant-gardes. Situationist references around Factory Records range from the obvious (The Haçienda) to the tenuous (The Stockholm Monsters, named after Swedish youth riots of 1956). Wilson recalled in 2001 “We all wanted to to destroy the system but didn’t know how. We knew about Strasbourg and the Situationist tactics of creative plagiarism and basing change on desire. The Situationists offered, I thought then and I still think now, the only future revolution I could imagine or want.” Factory sponsored the ICA’s Situationist International exhibition catalogue in 1989 and in 1996 hosted the Situationist International conference, at The Haçienda.
Tony Wilson at The Haçienda 1985
He never made a fortune from Factory Records or The Haçienda, despite the enormous popularity and cultural significance of both endeavours. Both Factory Records and The Haçienda came to an abrupt end in the late 1990s. Wilson made several attempts to start new versions of Factory – none were as successful as the original.
Tony Wilson with beard 2007
In 2007, Wilson developed renal cancer and had one kidney removed. Despite the surgery, the cancer progressed, and a course of chemotherapy was not effective. Wilson died of a heart attack, a consequence of his condition, in Manchester’s Christie Hospital on Friday, 10 August 2007 aged 57. Following the news of his death, the Union Jack on Manchester Town Hall was lowered to half mast as a mark of respect. As with everything else in the Factory empire, Tony Wilson’s coffin was given a Factory catalogue number – Fac 501.
