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:

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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