Remembering Tony Wilson

You may or may not have ever heard of Tony Wilson, who died a few days ago at age 57 of kidney cancer, but he played a major role in pop music during the last two decades of the 20th century. A TV presenter in the UK, when punk was overwhelming the British Isles, he jumped in and set up his own record company, Factory Records, which put Manchester on the map as a musical mecca and became home to Joy Division and New Order, Happy Mondays, the Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, and various other bands. He had a knack for self-promotion and somehow placed himself atop the whole Manchester scene from the late '70s on, which, of course, included such luminaries as Buzzcocks, the Smiths, Oasis, the Stone Roses, Magazine, the Fall, James, Inspiral Carpets, and many others. Wilson was one of the owners and the impresario of the Hacienda, a Manchester disco that factored into various musical movements and was, in its day, possibly the highest-profile club in the UK.

A vaguely accurate biopic, 24 Hour Party People, was made a few years ago with Steve Coogan as Wilson. It captures the spirit of the era pretty well, if not exactly the facts, and is probably as good a place to start as any in finding out about Wilson's influence. Pitchfork has also collected a few videos of Wilson, including a clip of him introducing the Mondays at Coachella earlier this year. And NME has a number of tributes from various artists who were associated with him over the years. Of course, you could always go back and listen to some of the albums, too.