27 May 2013

Southern Cemetery #1: The Manchester Sound

Tony Wilson was the co-owner and manager of Factory Records (notably of Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays fame), and also founder of The Haçienda in Whitworth Street West, Manchester (or Madchester as it was dubbed in the 'Second Summer of Love' at the end of the eighties).

This understated gravestone in black granite was unveiled three years after Wilson's death. Factory products were given a catalogue number and Wilson's coffin was FAC 501.

'Anthony H Wilson
 
Broadcaster
Cultural Catalyst
 
1950–2007'
 
'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
 
The Manchester Man
G Linnaeus Banks 1876'
 
The quotation is from Isabella Banks's The Manchester Man – Wilson of course being known as 'Mr Manchester' – and reads as if from a poem, although these are the first three (prose) sentences of Chapter XVIII of the novel.
 
(Wilson's grave is in Plot B, only a few yards from the grave in Plot A of ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, who was murdered in 1964 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and who is mentioned in The Smiths's song 'Suffer Little Children'.)

'MARTIN
HANNETT
1948–1991
Husband Of
Wendy
Father Of
James and Tania
Record Producer
And Creator Of The
Manchester Sound'
 
Martin Hannett was also a partner and director of Factory Records whose name is closely linked with Joy Division. His grave is in the New Cemetery in plot FF.
Rob Gretton (1953–1999) – full name Robert Leo Gretton – was the manager of Joy Division and also partner and director of Factory Records. His grave is in Plot G.

My other posts on Southern Cemetery graves:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
L. S. Lowry
Maria Pawlikowska–Jasnorzewska
David Martin
George Ghita Ionescu
John and Enriqueta Rylands
John Cassidy
Jerome Caminada
George Freemantle
Leo Grindon and Rosa Grindon
Eric Thompson

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