A memorial stone to Tony Wilson has been unveiled by Factory Records cohorts Peter Saville and Ben Kelly.
Design was always paramount at Factory Records. The Manchester imprint wrapped some sublime (and not so sublime) music in wonderful packaging, designed by Peter Saville and Ben Kelly.
The pair helped define the Factory aesthetic – clean, sharp and Modernist. The label’s output included the infamous ‘Blue Monday’ floppy disc, as well as the wildly ambitious nightclub The Hacienda.
Sadly, label head Tony Wilson died in 2007. Suffering from cancer, the colourful figure was mourned by thousands of fans with well wishers from across the world flooding to his memorial service.
Buried in the Southern Cemetery in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester a new headstone has now been unveiled. Tony Wilson’s grave has been adorned by a black granite marker, which calls him a “broadcaster and cultural catalyst”.
In addition to this, reports Creative Review, the headstone features an epitaph from Isabella Varley Banks’ 1876 novel ‘The Manchester Man’. Selected by the Wilson family, the epitaph reads:
“Mutability is the epitaph of worlds/Change alone is changeless/People drop out of the history of a life as of a land/Though their work or their influence remains.”
Designed by Peter Saville and Ben Kelly, the two were closely assisted by Paul Barnes and Matt Robertson. Despite the Factory association, the headstone has not been given a Factory catalogue number. The last designated Factory marker was FAC 501 – Tony Wilson’s coffin.
Meanwhile, Tony Wilson’s first wife Lindsay Reade has announced she is to publish her autobiography. ‘Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl’ is the story of how Factory came about, and why it ultimately imploded.
‘Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl’ is due to be released later this year.
