Blue Saturday

I do not know whether, as was so often claimed, Tony Wilson, who has died aged 57, was a genius. But, as music mogul, club entrepreneur, loudmouth and zealous Mancunian, he was certainly one of the most important and remorseless figures in British popular culture of the past 30 years. Immortalised by Steve Coogan's performance in the film 24 Hour Party People, Wilson was a jobbing Granada TV presenter who also had a passion for pop. As a musical Svengali, he is rivalled only by Epstein and McLaren, and he was more prolific than both. The influence of the bands he launched on Factory Records - Joy Division, New Order, the Happy Mondays - is incalculable, and, as the owner of the Hacienda night club he saw that DJs would become as popular as pop groups and that clubs would become as important as gigs. Above all, he stayed in Manchester, resisting the allure of London, and thus personified and gave credibility to the claim that the North really was a cultural greenhouse and that Britain was more than its capital city. He will surely be remembered for the stunning music he helped to make happen, but the renaissance of Manchester in which he played such a prominent part is no less fitting a memorial.