The sad news of the death of Tony Wilson reaches me in my hammock in Brittany. Only about 18 months ago he and I spent the day driving around Manchester in a very expensive car filming an interview for the Audi Channel. I first met him in 1976 and he was never less than hugely entertaining company. On that day in Manchester we got a lot of mileage out of the fact that we were both born in the same year and as such we had, in pop music terms, the winning ticket in the lottery of life. And now he's gone. If the sun doesn't shine today I shall not be complaining.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
An Englishman abroad
The sad news of the death of Tony Wilson reaches me in my hammock in Brittany. Only about 18 months ago he and I spent the day driving around Manchester in a very expensive car filming an interview for the Audi Channel. I first met him in 1976 and he was never less than hugely entertaining company. On that day in Manchester we got a lot of mileage out of the fact that we were both born in the same year and as such we had, in pop music terms, the winning ticket in the lottery of life. And now he's gone. If the sun doesn't shine today I shall not be complaining.
Yes, old Anthony H could come across as a bit of a prick at times, but he was definitely one of the principled few in the music business, and he made a difference to my and many other lives. A maverick, gone too early, very sadly missed.
ReplyDeleteIn a horribly prescient coincidence, that Clive James picture a couple of posts ago appears to be a screencap from an episode of So It Goes on which James appeared, slagging off Charles Shaar Murray slagging off So It Goes. (That particular show also featured Peter Cook, and the first television appearance of the then-unsigned Sex Pistols. What other show on the box at the time would have put together a line-up anything like that?)
The Audi Channel? Well, I suppose it pays for the holiday cottage, right?
ReplyDeleteHe'll be missed. In a world of Simon Cowell's, they don't make them like Tony Wilson any more, that's for damn sure.
ST
arg. Apologies for the terribly misplace apostrophe in the above comment.
ReplyDeletemisplaced.
ReplyDeleteCurse my wooden typing fingers tonight. I blame the Adnams Broadside.
Don't have a holiday cottage. Will work for food however.
ReplyDeleteand who can say fairer than that? I'm only teasing....
ReplyDeleteST