20/02/2026
Happy heavenly 76th birthday to the late great Tony Wilson ( Anthony H as he rebranded himself for the Guardianistas). Catalyst of Manchester's music scene, the sheers belief in Manchester as a capital of cool in an era when we were far from it. Almost as if by the fact he kept saying it he manifested it beyond even his imagination. In many ways , like anything else much of what he helped create has been sequestered and occupied by the usual folk , but Manchester is now clearly on the world stage as a great global City , with no thanks to anybody else other than Tony and the great Mancunians who have joined him this year Tosh Ryan and Lawrence Beedle as major influencers and via Rabid Records and the sheer Chutzpah required , CP Lee too and joined in this past year by yet more of their disciples like Mani. Here's an unapologetically unedited recording of a discussion about Tony from November 2007 with his first wife Lindsay Reade, the late Tosh Ryan and the late Alan Wise and ACR's Martin Moscrop . I felt it was important to have this as an unedited discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IruGQzzZWcg&t=6s
