Oh no!
I really admired this guy, who not only had a great love of music but actually got out and did something with it, bringing a legion of fantastic groups to our ears.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 941392.stm
Tony Wilson RIP
Tony Wilson RIP
Anthony Wilson, the music mogul behind some of Manchester's most successful bands, has died of cancer.
Oh no!
I really admired this guy, who not only had a great love of music but actually got out and did something with it, bringing a legion of fantastic groups to our ears.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 941392.stm
Oh no!
I really admired this guy, who not only had a great love of music but actually got out and did something with it, bringing a legion of fantastic groups to our ears.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 941392.stm
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
-
littletriggers
- Posts: 162
- Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 2:44 pm
- Location: U.K.
-
Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
Just got back from a weekend away, and was looking at photographer Kevin Cumming's Observer article about Joy Division, the band he shot more than anyone else, and then saw an insert panel saying 'Tony Wilson 1950-2007'. What, Tony dead? Surely it's impossible, and he'll always appear on random programmes giving his forthright and verbose opinions. When I was a teen and he was the founder of the company of any description that was the coolest in the world, he was a hero. And he never stopped being that. For all his pretension and over-confidence, he was also very humble. My favourite quote of his was that it didn't bother him if people called him a twat and a wanker as he was simply proud to have been the man who wrote the cheque that paid for he labels to be printed and glued onto Unknown Pleasures, etc. And he was a huge Man Utd fan. I'll thank him all my life, and miss his presence in the world.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Trust the Telegraph to put the boot in-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... db1302.xml
(extract)
Nor was Wilson a difficult target for parody: with his extravagant gesticulations, monstrous ego and faintly sinister habit of peering knowingly over his glasses, he guyed himself every time he appeared on television or radio, which, although not often enough for his coterie of dedicated fans, who admired his erratic flashes of wit and wisdom, was rather too often for his detractors, who considered him an arrogant, smug, preening and pretentious loudmouth.
As Manchester's most recognisable local television face as well as its most improbable music mogul, Wilson was happiest holding court with his cronies, receiving tributes to his unbounded enthusiasm, storing them and occasionally bringing them out for others to admire.
Confessing to "an unbearable, awful arrogance", Wilson recalled a friend comparing him to "a rhino coming out of a thicket"; certainly, he wore a permanent air of armour-plated defiance. "I don't mind the fact that people hate me," he mused. "Nobody likes anyone who's been on the telly as long as I have."
Indeed, the more people reviled him, the more he purred with pleasure, never more so than when Michael Winterbottom's semi-fictionalised film, 24 Hour Party People, went on general release in 2002, promoted by posters describing Wilson as a "twat"; with the insouciance of a lifelong attention-seeker, he relished helping to spin his own myth, carefully painting a single fingernail silver and all 10 toenails black while insisting that the playbills should have proclaimed him a "pretentious twat".
Perhaps it was his total self-obsession that set Wilson apart, even in the overheated half-world he inhabited between the music business and the media, where hype is held in high esteem and overweening vanity worn like a badge.
But although he was regarded with a mixture of admiration and exasperation, loathing and love, he was nevertheless reckoned among the most effective drumbeaters for Manchester in its post-Cottonopolis claim on "cool".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... db1302.xml
(extract)
Nor was Wilson a difficult target for parody: with his extravagant gesticulations, monstrous ego and faintly sinister habit of peering knowingly over his glasses, he guyed himself every time he appeared on television or radio, which, although not often enough for his coterie of dedicated fans, who admired his erratic flashes of wit and wisdom, was rather too often for his detractors, who considered him an arrogant, smug, preening and pretentious loudmouth.
As Manchester's most recognisable local television face as well as its most improbable music mogul, Wilson was happiest holding court with his cronies, receiving tributes to his unbounded enthusiasm, storing them and occasionally bringing them out for others to admire.
Confessing to "an unbearable, awful arrogance", Wilson recalled a friend comparing him to "a rhino coming out of a thicket"; certainly, he wore a permanent air of armour-plated defiance. "I don't mind the fact that people hate me," he mused. "Nobody likes anyone who's been on the telly as long as I have."
Indeed, the more people reviled him, the more he purred with pleasure, never more so than when Michael Winterbottom's semi-fictionalised film, 24 Hour Party People, went on general release in 2002, promoted by posters describing Wilson as a "twat"; with the insouciance of a lifelong attention-seeker, he relished helping to spin his own myth, carefully painting a single fingernail silver and all 10 toenails black while insisting that the playbills should have proclaimed him a "pretentious twat".
Perhaps it was his total self-obsession that set Wilson apart, even in the overheated half-world he inhabited between the music business and the media, where hype is held in high esteem and overweening vanity worn like a badge.
But although he was regarded with a mixture of admiration and exasperation, loathing and love, he was nevertheless reckoned among the most effective drumbeaters for Manchester in its post-Cottonopolis claim on "cool".
-
Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
Probably written by a Liverpool fan.
Not only Joy Division and then New Order, but also the immortal Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, James (only for their brilliant first 12" Village Fire)and of course the Happy Mondays all started under his inspired leadership. Legacy enough.
Not only Joy Division and then New Order, but also the immortal Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, James (only for their brilliant first 12" Village Fire)and of course the Happy Mondays all started under his inspired leadership. Legacy enough.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
R.I.P. Tony.
I will remember Tony Wilson mostly as a TV news reporter. He presented our local ITV news (Granada Reperts) for many years.
His music programme "So It Goes" gave EC his first TV appearance. You can also hear Tony calling out "What's It Called?" at the beginning of "Shot With His Own Gun" on The Right Spectacle DVD.
I will remember Tony Wilson mostly as a TV news reporter. He presented our local ITV news (Granada Reperts) for many years.
His music programme "So It Goes" gave EC his first TV appearance. You can also hear Tony calling out "What's It Called?" at the beginning of "Shot With His Own Gun" on The Right Spectacle DVD.
-
Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
-
Otis Westinghouse
- Posts: 8856
- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
- Location: The theatre of dreams
The funeral was Aug 20, though I hadn't checked out details till now. Inevitably, lots of expected names there (but no Barney Sumner, oddly):
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... odbye.html
Lots of photos there, inc. a typically gaunt Vini Reilly.
Tony's death and the forthcoming Control seem to have triggered one of my periodic Joy Division obsessive phases, mixed in with lots of Durutti Column too.
Haven't played it yet, but this download from Dime looks like a fantastic way of commemorating:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... ?id=159484
Some great rarities, and lots of Vini.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... odbye.html
Lots of photos there, inc. a typically gaunt Vini Reilly.
Tony's death and the forthcoming Control seem to have triggered one of my periodic Joy Division obsessive phases, mixed in with lots of Durutti Column too.
Haven't played it yet, but this download from Dime looks like a fantastic way of commemorating:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-deta ... ?id=159484
Some great rarities, and lots of Vini.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more