The record boss behind bands including New Order and Happy Mondays, died yesterday. Tony Wilson, regarded as the man who put Manchester on the map for its music and vibrant nightlife, died of a heart attack, although he had been suffering from cancer. He was 57.

The music industry last night paid tribute to “Mr Manchester”, known to many fans as Anthony H. Wilson, as a visionary who helped bands who otherwise would not have made it, although he famously did not make any money out of them when they did.

The former broadcaster, record label boss and owner of the Hacienda nightclub had cancer diagnosed last year and had been in hospital receiving treatment. When a kidney operation and chemotherapy did not work members of musical acts who he had helped funded his treatment at a cost of £3,500 a month. Wilson, was not entitled to the life-prolonging new drug Sutent under the NHS because there was not enough “demonstrable evidence” supporting its effectiveness.

The music mogul actively campaigned for the drug to be publicly available to cancer patients less fortunate than him.

His family and friends, including his partner Yvette Livesey and his children, were by his side when he died at Christie Hospital, Manchester. Professor Robert Hawkins, said Wilson’s cancer had been responding well to treatment but the illness had contributed to his poor health. Wilson’s family were too upset to talk but tributes to him flooded the internet.

Phil Saxe, who used to work at Factory Records with Wilson, told the BBC that he was a “genius and visionary”. “Part of me, part of Manchester, part of modern British music has died tonight,” he said.

“He was a visionary in that he helped bands, who otherwise wouldn’t have made it, who were a bit out of the ordinary. He helped them to realise their dreams and through that probably realised himself to be Mr Manchester.”

Wilson was credited with helping to make Manchester a global cultural brand when, as owner of the label Factory Records, he launched the bands Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays.

King of the “Madchester” rave scene, the label had a string of hit records in the late 1980s and early 1990s and Wilson’s Hacienda club, which he founded and managed along with the Dry bar, was the place to be seen. But despite the enormous popularity and cultural impact of his enterprises, they were not big money-makers for those involved.

The Hacienda closed in 1997 because of its Ecstasy problem and gang violence, while Factory Records went bankrupt after albums were finished late and over-budget.

Dave Haslam, a former DJ at the Hacienda, said that he was one of the people whom Wilson opened doors for. “He gave people like me an opportunity. He was not a rich man.

“Towards the end of his life he used to use that quote: ‘Some men make money, some people make history’.”

Wilson’s life was immortalised in the film 24 Hour Party People, released in 2002, which featured Steve Coogan in the central role portraying Wilson. Proud of his northern roots, Wilson, who was born in Salford, refused to take his talents to London.

His name change to Anthony H. Wilson was, he once said, to “wind up all the people in Manchester who think I’m a flash t***”.

24 Hour Party Person

June 1976 Saw the Sex Pistols perform at Manchester Free Trade Hall, an experience he described as “nothing short of an epiphany”

January 1978 Set up Factory records, a label which spawns bands including Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays

May 1982 Sets up The Hacienda nightclub, perhaps the most famous club in the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It became the heart of the “Madchester” scene, playing host to bands such as New Order, The Smiths, The Stone Roses and Oasis

1992 Sets up the annual Manchester music conference, In The City, with partner and former Miss England Yvette Livesey

March 2002 The semi-fictional story of the Hacienda club, the music and Wilson’s life is documented in the film 24 Hour Party People, in which Steve Coogan portrays Wilson

Source: Times database

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