R.I.P.s

[Low D]

LEE HAZELWOOD

Stop Walkin'

not to mention "Run Boy", god i love that song. RIP, Lee.

[Heather]

Anthony H Wilson, 57. Record label owner, broadcaster, journalist, pop impresario and nightclub founder

That's really sad news, RIP Tony.

[philipchevron]

Anthony H Wilson, 57. Record label owner, broadcaster, journalist, pop impresario and nightclub founder

....and, in an ironic final role, Drugs Campaigner. I mention this not because it affects me directly, but Anthony Wilson and many like him have died in part because of the absurd "postcode lottery" which is the scourge of our new "choices-led" NHS. Supply people with the drugs they need because they live in BRITAIN, not some otherwise anonymous health district subdivision of Britain.

[KathleenwithaK]

Anthony H Wilson, 57. Record label owner, broadcaster, journalist, pop impresario and nightclub founder

....and, in an ironic final role, Drugs Campaigner. I mention this not because it affects me directly, but Anthony Wilson and many like him have died in part because of the absurd "postcode lottery" which is the scourge of our new "choices-led" NHS. Supply people with the drugs they need because they live in BRITAIN, not some otherwise anonymous health district subdivision of Britain.

hmmm Philip, living on the west coast, usa I don't understand the program you refer to. please explain. thanks

[philipchevron]

Anthony H Wilson, 57. Record label owner, broadcaster, journalist, pop impresario and nightclub founder

....and, in an ironic final role, Drugs Campaigner. I mention this not because it affects me directly, but Anthony Wilson and many like him have died in part because of the absurd "postcode lottery" which is the scourge of our new "choices-led" NHS. Supply people with the drugs they need because they live in BRITAIN, not some otherwise anonymous health district subdivision of Britain.

hmmm Philip, living on the west coast, usa I don't understand the program you refer to. please explain. thanks

There are others on these Fora who can do this with greater clarity than I can bring and I hope they will do so. When in recent yars the British National Health Service [NHS] was split up into its component parts to make it more "competitive" and less "socialist", one of the most bizarre unforeseen consequences was the "postcode [zip code] lottery" which meant that expensive drugs for Alzheimers or Cancers, for example, could be made available to mortally ill patients in some parts of the UK but not others, on a sheer whim of geography. For this reason, Wilson was denied a potentially life-saving or life-preserving anti-Cancer drug when his kidney cancer responded neither to surgery or chemo. Let's leave aside whether millionaire record company men can afford their own expensive drugs - it's not possible to go there without, rightly or wrongly, dismantling the entire case made for the NHS 60 years ago when Britain awarded the system to itself as a post-War dividend. In any event, Anthony H Wilson, a lifelong Socialist, spent his final months battling the Blair system, in the hope that his own case would be high profile enough to draw some high profile attention to the basic iniquity of the system, a wish he now seems almost certain to get. If any of these is factually incorrect or shaky, please do help set the record straight friends.

[firehazard]

If any of these is factually incorrect or shaky, please do help set the record straight friends.

It all sounds correct to me, Mr C. Sadly.
RIP Anthony H Wilson.

[Brian Boru]

I think Philip has summed up the present farce quite adequately, as does Anthony H Wilson himself in the following article in the MEN

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... e_map.html

[Mark_Wafc]

A friend of mine text me last night to say that someone has hung a banner on the railway bridge opposite the site of the Hacidena scribed with the words "Tony Wilson - Manchester Legend - Love will never tear us apart"

nice touch.

[Doktor Avalanche]

This is from Bob Lefsetz. Here's a brief bio on Bob from the Rhino website where his rants are posted (although thay have been lax of late - I subscribe to his email letter):

Bob Lefsetz, Santa Monica-based industry legend, is the author of the e-mail newsletter, "The Lefsetz Letter". Famous for being beholden to no one, and speaking the truth, Lefsetz addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself. His intense brilliance captivates readers from Steven Tyler to Rick Nielsen to Bryan Adams to Quincy Jones to EVERYBODY who's in the music business. Never boring, always entertaining, Mr. Lefsetz's insights are fueled by his stint as an entertainment business attorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music's American division and consultancies to major label.

Here's Bob's post from 8/11. It's a bit long, but what the hell, we lost a great one:

"Only the good die young"

Tony Wilson would have had nothing good to say about Billy Joel. But he would have had an opinion. That was what was great about Tony, in world full of duplicity, Anthony was honest. And vibrant. And alive.

But no more.

I'm in shock.

I guess on one hand I believed him. That the predictions of his demise were exaggerated. But I know how it goes with the Big C. First you're distraught, then you're in denial.

I was not number one in Tony's book. No one was. He was on a relentless personal crusade, for experience, for truth. We were only bystanders, we could only watch.

Tony was not the bumbling idiot in "24 Hour Party People". Tony was the most educated man I knew. And when he'd impart his wisdom I'd be dazzled, and feel inadequate.

In the main hall of the civic building in Manchester, there's a series of murals depicting the region's history. One afternoon, Tony went picture by picture. Teaching me how the industrial revolution started, right there.

As did the computer revolution. Tony showed me "Baby".

Tony took me to Liverpool, informing me that all the inhabitants of the city were "sousers", and inferior to Mancunians. Tony drew lines. He was the number one exponent of critical thinking. But unlike so many overeducated men, Tony liked rock and roll. To the last.

Yes, Tony presented the Sex Pistols. But he also was enthusiastic about Enter Shikari. You see Tony believed in the power of music, in an era when most people just see it as an ingredient in acquiring riches.

I'd recite Tony's wisdom. But my brain is foggy and I'm afraid I won't do it justice.

But what did he say? That any good band wouldn't make it until their third record? That it would take it that long to find its sound, and that long for the public to come to understand it?

And Anthony believed that what was in the grooves was only part of the equation. He went on about the cover he created for Joy Division, or was it New Order, that was so expensive it insured the company would lose money on every copy.

I wish you'd known Tony Wilson. He was a rock star. Of the old kind. Someone no matter how close you got to, was different. But someone whose flame burned so bright, you couldn't resist paying attention.

I will never forget Tony walking along the river by what are now the Hacienda apartments and relating the club's battle with the police.

I won't forget him getting a check for speaking to the housing authority of the next town over.

He wasn't a role model, but he was a model. For the fully realized life.

But now it's over. I'm sitting thousands of miles away, and he's getting ready to go underground. But if he were me, I know he'd laugh it off, and go right on living. Believing we're each on our own separate journey that should not be derailed, that must go forward at all cost.

The world lost an original today. I've never known anybody like Tony Wilson before, and I doubt I'll meet anybody like him in the years to come. But his light will live on. It will instruct me to never take the easy path, to fight for art, to try and truly be great, that mediocrity is not a choice.

[Mark_Wafc]

Wilson on being asked about his fortune earned from Factory Records "I made history, not money"

My fav Wilson story; on being asked what he did for a living in the early 90's by a student at Manchester Uni his reply was simply

"er well, I'm Tony Wilson"

[fluke]

Today Jos Brink died. A long time Dutch tv host and comedian. He was very open about his homosexuality and opened up a lot of doors for others.

[Mick Molloy]

Today Jos Brink died. A long time Dutch tv host and comedian. He was very open about his homosexuality and opened up a lot of doors for others.

And I thought he was extremely annoying but still he did a lot for Dutch tv so RIP Jos

[Seven Towers]

On Monday Wild Bill Hagy died at 68. A cab driver who was a "dazed and confused era" icon. As an Orioles baseball fan, he became the unofficial leader of "the world largest outdoor insane insylum" (known also as Memorial Stadium). Wild Bill represented a time when the majority of baseball fans in Baltimore were woking class. Sadly, the times have a changed, and now Camden Yards is full of yuppie, corporate people. I am proud to say I was one of Wild Bill's disciples back in the late seventies and early eighties. Met him twice. The first time was before game 2 of the 79 ALCS. He was taking a leak right beside me. After we finished pissing I got his autograph on my program. Along with his sig. he wrote "The bird will fly." Met him again 24 years later at The Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown NY. We were there to celebrate Eddie Murray' HOF induction. He was real drunk , and I told him he needed to listen to Shane MacGowan. Don't know if he ever did, but i do know this- Wild Bill Hagy is a Hall Of Famer.

[Mark_Wafc]

Rhys Jones, 11. Schoolboy and football fanatic; murdered on the car park of a Liverpool pub while walking home from football training. RIP

[Eric V]

On Monday Wild Bill Hagy died at 68. A cab driver who was a "dazed and confused era" icon. As an Orioles baseball fan, he became the unofficial leader of "the world largest outdoor insane insylum" (known also as Memorial Stadium). Wild Bill represented a time when the majority of baseball fans in Baltimore were woking class. Sadly, the times have a changed, and now Camden Yards is full of yuppie, corporate people. I am proud to say I was one of Wild Bill's disciples back in the late seventies and early eighties. Met him twice. The first time was before game 2 of the 79 ALCS. He was taking a leak right beside me. After we finished pissing I got his autograph on my program. Along with his sig. he wrote "The bird will fly." Met him again 24 years later at The Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown NY. We were there to celebrate Eddie Murray' HOF induction. He was real drunk , and I told him he needed to listen to Shane MacGowan. Don't know if he ever did, but i do know this- Wild Bill Hagy is a Hall Of Famer.

I think his section in the stadium put the controversial "O" in "Oh say do you see...". He will be missed.