Episode 38: Paul Morley on Tony Wilson

To write about Tony Wilson, aka Anthony H. Wilson, is to write about a number of public and private characters and personalities, a clique of unreliable narrators, constantly changing shape and form. At the helm of Factory Records and the Haçienda, Wilson unleashed landmark acts such as Joy Division and New Order into the world as he pursued myriad other creative endeavors, appointing himself a custodian of Manchester’s legacy of innovation and change. To writer, broadcaster and cultural critic Paul Morley he was this and much more: bullshitting hustler, flashy showman, aesthetic adventurer, mean factory boss, self-deprecating chancer, intellectual celebrity, loyal friend, shrewd mentor, insatiable publicity seeker. It was Morley to whom Wilson left a daunting final request: to write this book. From Manchester with Love, then, is the biography of a man who became one with his hometown of Manchester, England—the music he championed and the myths he made, of love and hate, of life and death. In the cultural theatre of Manchester, Tony Wilson broke in and took center-stage. Morley has written about music, art and entertainment since the 1970s. He wrote for the New Musical Express from 1976 to 1983. A founding member of the Art of Noise and a member of staff at the Royal Academy of Music, he collaborated with Grace Jones on her memoirs and is the author of a number of books about music, including The Age of Bowie, his history of classical music A Sound Mind, and a biography of Bob Dylan, You Lose Yourself, You Reappear. Our man in London, Dermot McPartland, fills in for interviewing duties and helps Morley unpack the many minds and lives of Tony Wilson. Here’s Dermot’s conversation with Paul Morley.