Tony Wilson

Tony Wilson (born Feb. 20, 1950, Salford, Lancashire, Eng.—died Aug. 10, 2007, Manchester) was a British music industry entrepreneur who, as cofounder of Factory Records and founder of the Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, was the ringleader of the so-called “Madchester” postpunk music and club scene of the 1980s and early ’90s.

Wilson was a cultural reporter for Manchester’s Granada Television when in the mid-1970s he was given his own pop music show, So It Goes. He was galvanized by a 1976 Sex Pistols concert and booked the band on his show. In 1978 he cofounded the record label Factory Records, signing Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and Joy Division (later New Order), which released its first album with the company. In 1983 New Order released on the Factory label “Blue Monday,” which became the best-selling 12-inch single ever released in the United Kingdom. Wilson opened the Hacienda in 1982 to showcase local music as well as dance music; it was the first British venue to play American house music. Wilson’s lack of interest in profits was among the factors that led to Factory Records’ bankruptcy in 1992; the Hacienda closed in 1997. Wilson’s life and the rise and fall of Factory Records were the subjects of the fictionalized biography 24 Hour Party People (2002).