The alarmingly early death of genuine all-rounder Anthony H. Wilson is a blow to anyone who ever owned a Walkman.  His vision, energy and single-minded belief in everything he did are a lesson to us all.  As a business man, he falls somewhere between Machiavelli and Romeo Montague - a hyper-intelligent manipulator and hopeless romantic whose dreams were thwarted by ultimately greater powers.  Having established his rightly beloved city of Manchester as the global epicentre of popular music, his world came crashing down as a result of the explosion of drug use (gang warfare to control distribution in the Hacienda ultimately forced its closure, and the excesses of the Happy Monday's trip to Bermuda in the end put paid to Factory Records) and his other-worldly belief that there should be no contracts between recording artist and record label.  Now, in the age of music distributed over the internet, this left-field view of the music industry is again made to look visionary.

Those looking for a summary of Tony's life should look no further than the logo of a man with his fingers in his ears that appeared on Factory's second release (Fac2 - a sampler including tracks by Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire and Durutti Column) and again on the sleeve of the book, 24 Hour Party People. 



It says many things in a very simple way.  "You don't understand this and you're going to hate it", "Don't tell me how to do this, I'm not listening", or conversely "open your mind to what you're hearing.  I dare you!".  I have just posted this on to the homepage of our website as a constant reminder.

Update your discographies.  Fac00 - Deleted.

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