Tony Wilson, founder of ‘Madchester’, dies after battle with kidney cancer
By James Macintyre
Published: 11 August 2007
[from http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2853862.ece]
Tony Wilson, the record label supremo, broadcaster and ultimate son of “Madchester”, has died after a battle with kidney cancer.
The pop impresario and nightclub owner, credited with helping put Manchester on the map for its vibrant music culture, died in hospital last night.
The Manchester Evening News quoted his doctor at the Christie Hospital as saying that he finally died of a heart attack.
A spokesman for the hospital said: “Tony was a very great supporter of the Christie and this is extremely sad news. We would like to extend our sympathy to Tony’s family.”
A hugely respected figure in the music and media industries, he managed the Happy Mondays, Joy Division and New Order through Factory Records, which he launched, as he did The Hacienda nightclub, breathing life into the city.
“There will never be anyone quite like Tony. He was a true free spirit and a passionate advocate for Manchester – the city, its people and, of course, its music,” the BBC said in a statement.
Wilson, 57, was diagnosed last year and underwent emergency surgery in January to remove a kidney. Chemotherapy failed and doctors recommended other treatments, but the NHS refused to fund the £3,500-a-month therapy.
Instead, members of the Happy Mondays and other acts he supported over the years set up a fund this year to help pay for it. At the time, Wilson said: “When they said I would have to pay £3,500 for the drugs each month, I thought where am I going to find the money? I’m the one person in this industry who famously has never made any money.
“I used to say some people make money and some make history – which is very funny until you find you can’t afford to keep yourself alive. I’ve never paid for private health care because I’m a socialist. Now I find you can get tummy tucks and cosmetic surgery on the NHS but not the drugs I need to stay alive. It is a scandal.”
Born in Salford in 1950, Wilson returned to his roots after graduating from Cambridge. Back home, he worked as a broadcast journalist for Granada, where he fronted programmes including the music show So It Goes in the late Seventies and the current affairs programme World In Action.
“It is almost impossible to remember 1975 – how awful music was and how awful our industrial cities were,” Wilson said in an interview.
In 1982, he set up The Hacienda, which became an iconic centre of raving throughout the Eighties and Nineties, and hosting bands that captured the era, including Oasis, The Stone Roses and The Smiths. But the club failed to make a profit and closed in 1997.
Dave Haslam, who was hired by Wilson to work as a DJ at The Hacienda, said: “I’m just one of the many, many people – he opened doors for people like me. He gave people like me an opportunity. He was not a rich man”.
Wilson, bespectacled and with a light beard in later life, was also political: a long-time campaigner for devolution to the North-west, he set up an unofficial coalition for the campaign in 1992, The Necessary Group. More recently, he was the main presenter of the BBC’s Politics Show North West.
But it is for music, entertainment and ushering in the partying Nineties that he might be best remembered. Wilson – who once said, of the 2002 film about himself, 24-hour Party People, “I am a minor player in my own life story” – leaves behind many fans.
A Manchester legacy
* THE HACIENDA
The Manchester venue became one of the most famous nightclubs in the world, attracting the best DJs and bands of the era
* FACTORY RECORDS
The Manchester-based independent record label was launched by Wilson in 1978. Under it a number of bands flourished, including the Happy Mondays, Joy Division, New Order, above right, A Certain Ratio and The Durutti Column. The label was set up in the road of Alan Erasmus, with whom Wilson linked up while he was at Granada
* HAPPY MONDAYS
An alternative rock band formed in the middle of the cheesy decade: 1985. The lead singer Shaun Ryder, below left, famously infuriated Wilson and Bez was later to win ‘Celebrity Big Brother’
* 24-HOUR PARTY PEOPLE
The film was about Manchester’s pop music world from 1977 to 1997, and specifically about Factory Records and Tony Wilson. It was based on real-life events and urban myths, and starred the comedian Steve Coogan