The new (October) editions of Mojo, Q and Uncut have just been published and all contain obituaries of Tony Wilson. Here are a few extracts:

Steve Lamacq in Mojo

"Everything that Manchester's got today as a top rock 'n' roll metropolis is down to Tony Wilson," says punk poet John Cooper Clarke, who knew Wilson for 30 years. "He was a guy who had a lot of time for everybody. There was a guy who was in it for the music. The guy was a saint. He should have been minted."

Stephen Morris of New Order in Q Magazine

"When the news of his death broke, Manchester Town Hall flew its glag at half-mast. He'd have loved that. There ought to be a monument to him. Perhaps a statue with a Factory FAC catalogue number. Would New Order reform for a memorial tribute gig? That's not for me to say, but Tony's death certainly puts things in perspective. Life is too short."

Stephen Dalton in Uncut

He was a great catalyst, a champion bullshitter and a pretty terrible businessman. He was also a dream interview. "Don't print this," he once told me, "but all musicians are cunts."

"He saw himself as a patron of the arts rather than a record company boss," New Order's Bernard Sumner told me recently.

Tony Wilson was a smart self-publicist, sometimes a bolshie gobshite, often wildly and brilliantly wrong. But ultimately, he spent his career promoting the city of his birth and the talent of its citizens. A noble man and a true original.

Labels: New_Order, Oliver_Wilson, Tony_Wilson

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