Mr. North West

Anthony H Wilson was often described as Mr. Manchester and the city will be much poorer after his recent death. Across the M62 in Liverpool, where Manchester’s achievements are usually taken in the worst possible grace, there is an ever strong appreciation society that acknowledges what Wilson did for music in the city. From Derek Hatton to Pete Wylie, the man who wore a Bruges rosette on Granada Reports the day Liverpool were to play them in a European Cup Final has had no shortage of admirers on Merseyside to queue up and pay tribute. Manchester’s regeneration from a grey urban wasteland to a progressive, dynamic European city was the result of several different factors including the IRA bombing of the city centre in 1996 but most significant was Antony H Wilson.

Without the Hacienda, the Factory scene or ‘Madchester’, the city would have died after the bombs. There would have been no Harvey Nics, no city loft apartments, no trams and no Canal Street. The city’s most vocal cheerleader encouraged Mancunians to appreciate what they had and what they were capable of. Manchester, the city of industrialisation and railways, has always been progressive but never more so than when Wilson was at the forefront, albeit unofficially. If the city had to elect a mayor you get the impression that he would have been perfect for it.

Peter Hooton of the Farm perhaps said it best: “If Liverpool had Tony Wilson, the bar wouldn’t be falling off the Capital of Culture like it is at the moment.”Wilson loved Liverpool and saw it as instrinsic to the success of the north west as a region (Wilson was a fervent regionalist and lobbied for a devolved government for the north west). He put forward plans for an ill-fated Museum of Pop on the Waterfront because as he saw it, the city was the birth of pop culture and Manchester just held the torch for the late eighties and early nineties. Liverpool does not have a figure that dares it’s citizens to dream and to put it back on the map. It’s bungling city council and Culture Company lurch from one disaster to the next and there is a genuine feeling of apprehension as the city approaches the landmark 2008 celebrations and the growth of Manchester must be observed as a role model for the city. If only Liverpool had someone like Wilson, the self-appointed ‘biggest twat in Manchester’ to preside over. Liverpool too is poorer off for the death of Antony H Wilson.