Tony Wilson

Manchester Unspun: How a City Got High on Music by Andy Spinoza – from Cottonopolis to Manc-hattan

A hugely entertaining account of the city’s resurrection over four decades, relayed by a well-connected former journalist, focuses on the catalytic role of Factory Records and the Haçienda

Julian Coman

07, Nov, 2023 @7:00 AM

‘I’ve played for 60 years. That’s long enough’: guitar hero Vini Reilly on PTSD, life on the streets and the little girl who saved him

In his first interview in a decade, the Durutti Column’s hermit-like leader, once described as ‘the best guitarist in the world’, relives his extraordinary life from Manchester gangs to Factory Records

Daniel Dylan Wray

21, Jul, 2023 @7:00 AM

Steve Coogan on making 24 Hour Party People: ‘I did my climactic speech – then took half an E’

‘We re-created the Haçienda nightclub in a Manchester warehouse,’ says the film’s director, Michael Winterbottom. ‘It was chaos – people were crying because they were so nostalgic’

Interviews by Phil Hoad

06, Feb, 2023 @2:26 PM

Factory flaw: hunt for stolen 1977 sign that put Manchester on pop music map

The very first Factory club night was advertised with this poster. Now its designer wants it back to complete a major archive

Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent

22, Jan, 2023 @9:00 AM

From Manchester With Love by Paul Morley review – an epic life of Tony Wilson

The music journalist’s celebration of the TV presenter turned Factory Records kingpin captures the energy and intelligence of a complex but inspiring man

Miranda Sawyer

25, Oct, 2021 @8:00 AM

Unknown treasures: the forgotten women of Manchester’s Factory Records

A new exhibition shines a light on the female creatives and managers who helped turn the home of Joy Division and New Order into a three decade-long powerhouse

Leonie Cooper

22, Jun, 2021 @8:00 AM

Engels comes of age: the socialist who wanted a joyous life for everyone

Two centuries after his birth, Karl Marx’s ‘second fiddle’ is at last being recognised as the visionary he was, writes his biographer

Tristram Hunt

08, Nov, 2020 @6:30 AM

'You've been smoking too much!': the chaos of Tony Wilson's digital music revolution

The Factory impresario’s company Music33 sold individual songs as MP3s three years before Apple. But with a baffling interface and dial-up connections he was doomed

Dave Simpson

10, Aug, 2020 @9:45 AM

Pop quiz: from funeral songs to Fleetwood Mac – do you know this week in music history?

We’re talking loved ones, Led pollution and new livers – test your knowledge

Michael Hann

12, Aug, 2016 @12:19 PM

New Order: ‘There’s no point in just staying together for the kids’

Manchester’s synth-pop veterans are back with a new album, a new lineup and a newfound joy in the electronic sound they made their own with 1989’s era-defining Technique

Miranda Sawyer

27, Sep, 2015 @8:30 AM

Happy Mondays' Rowetta on Tony Wilson: 'He made you love Manchester'

As the single St Anthony: An ode to Anthony H Wilson, a celebration of the late legend debuts, the Happy Mondays’ Rowetta Idah, New Order’s Bernard Sumner and more remember the Factory Records pioneer

Guardian music

10, Aug, 2015 @2:07 PM

A Factory Night review – 'Section 25: the best new/old band in Britain?'

Former Factory acts Crispy Ambulance and Minny Pops are reformed and re-energised, while Bethany Cassidy gives the family group a brilliant makeover, writes Dave Simpson