by Nick Fredman
I for one missed the news of the passing in August of Tony Wilson, the rather brilliant leftist impressario of post-punk English music via Factory Records, until catching a radio tribute by Bea Campbell, available under Wed 5 Sept at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/.
Campbell, I understand formerly a Eurocommunist, points out Manchester was the birthplace of not just Wilson and Factory Records but also of capitalism and modern trade unionism and to a large extent modern communism. Wilson's cultural endeavours had a very political bent, at least in terms of his efforts at making a record company and a night club workers cooperatives rather than enriching himself. The lyrics of Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays et al weren't obviously radical but did reflect the social-political make-up of the times of working class Manchester. There seems to have been a few very interesting cultural products with political tensions lurking in the background lately out of Manchester such as Queer As Folk and Life On Mars on TV.
BTW Wilson used his death from cancer at only 57 to rage against the crumbling British health system.
A fitting tribute would be to suitably enhance one's consciousness, stick on a DVD of the rather brilliant film 24 Hour Party People by the rather brilliant Michael Winterbottom (Road to Guantanamo), crank up the volume and get a taste of the music, as well as see the rather brilliant Steve Coogan portray this quirky and humanistic man.
