Tony Wilson is an unlikely business legend because he never actually made very much money.
His record label was ultimately a failure if you judge things purely on the bottom line. Despite the fact that Factory Records had in its stable some of the biggest selling artists of their time, it eventually went bankrupt due to a failure to control costs - and some of its most wayward artists.
The Hacienda nightclub also went under despite the fact that it went down in clubbing folklore. Immensely popular, it nevertheless struggled to make a profit because the clientele preferred buying ecstasy than beer, and later on because of gang infiltration.
Yet Wilson still makes it into the pantheon of BusinessWings business heroes because of his lasting impact on the cultural landscape of Manchester, his pivotal role in making it a counterpoint to the all-powerful southern capital, so we have no qualms about including him.
Record label owners can often be seen as villains of the music industry: stifling innovation, rewarding banality and choosing good looks over talent.
Impresario Tony Wilson – a Rock n’ Roll executive – was different.
Wilson was a major protagonist in the ‘Madchester’ scene of the late 1980s/early 1990s, often to the detriment of his personal wealth and reputation.
Wilson’s record label – from which he launched the careers of Joy Division (later New Order) – was bankrupted by the voracious drug habits of its number one draw, the Happy Mondays. And it wasn’t just because their productivity suffered.
The band had been sent to the Bahamas to record their third album, Yes Please!, because there was no heroin on the island to distract their heavily addicted front man, Shaun Ryder. What they hadn’t legislated for was the fact that the island was instead awash with crack. Crack-hungry Ryder blackmailed Wilson for £250k for the recordings of their third album, which flopped.
During the 1970s Wilson worked as a journalist, creative consultant and TV presenter for Granada. While presenting rock show So it Goes he gave the Sex Pistols their first airing on UK television and thus found his raison d’etre: unearthing and promoting new talent. Later, in 1985, he signed improbable successes The Happy Mondays to his label – despite witnessing them finishing last in a ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition.
Born in 1950 in Salford, Manchester Wilson lived through seismic changes in music, occurring, he noticed, approximately every 13 years. He recanted his Marxist-like belief in the cyclical nature of musical history, however, when 2002 – the next date in the 13-year cycle – heralded nothing more than reformulations of old themes.
In 2002 Wilson was immortalised by Steve Coogan in the film 24-hour Party People. More recently, having been lauded for his contribution to the regeneration of Manchester, he was recruited to do likewise for Burnley. Given The Happy Mondays’ success, he was well qualified to make a success of the unglamorous.
Sadly, however, Wilson passed away on 10 August 2007, aged 57, after battling with kidney cancer.
The only non-millionaire among our business legends, Wilson raised £3.5k from wealthy friends to fund treatment the NHS refused to pay for. In his last days he campaigned on behalf of the people who couldn't afford to pay.
Shortly before he died the music executive that didn't even get his artists to sign contracts reflected wryly that he "used to say some people make money and some people make history – which is very funny until you can’t afford to keep yourself alive.”
