Factory Records' Tony Wilson Dies From Heart Attack
By: Spacelab Research Staff
Tony Wilson died from a heart attack on Friday, August 10th at the age of 57. A well known and loved member of the Manchester and British music community, Wilson had a long and storied past, from the founding of Factory Records to the the starting of the legendary Hacienda nightclub in Manchester.
Wilson had been suffering from kidney cancer, so the news of his heart attack came as sad news, since it seems that it was not related to the cancer.
"It's very sad. He died as a result of something unrelated to his cancer. His cancer was responding well to treatment but obviously did contribute to his poor health," his doctor Robert Hawkins told the Guardian newspaper.
Tony Wilson started the recording label Factory Records with Alan A Ramirez, with the idea of creating a label with great music that shared profits 50/50 with the artists, a revolutionary step at the time. It led to the notion that many independent labels work towards today. Launched Joy Division and Happy Mondays.
"Factory Records was the template for every indie label with its 50-50 deals [between artist and label] and I can honestly say without Factory there would have been no Creation. In fact if it wasn't for his talk to us in 1985 I might have quit music all together," Alan Mcgee told NME when speaking about Wilson's death. Mcgee runs Creation Records.
Tony Wilson co-founded the iconic Hacienda nightclub in 1982 and the Dry Bar in Manchester, helping to foment the Manchester scene into a movement known as 'Madchester.'
Most recently Wilson had a weekly radio show on Xfm Manchester and a show on BBC Radio Manchester.
