New Kickstarter launched to make Tony Wilson’s archives public
The archives highlight the wide ranging influence and legacy of Mr Manchester.
A new fundraising campaign has launched to make the archives of Manchester music icon Tony Wilson available to the public.
The new Kickstarter campaign has been spearheaded by the Tony Wilson Archive (TWA) and Manchester design studio DR.ME with the goal of sharing the Factory Records founder’s collection of art, memorabilia and music with the public. It aims to raise £5,000.
Wilson was famously known as Mr Manchester and the TWA campaign says it wants to highlight his earlier work as a journalist and the way he became one of the city’s true musical pioneers through backing groups such as A Certain Ratio, Joy Division and New Order.
The archives have previously been housed at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry and is currently stored in John Rylands Library’s British Pop Archive.
It includes flyers Wilson designed for Factory Records and early key paperwork.
Wilson died in August 2007 from kidney cancer at the age of 57 and was memorably portrayed by Steve Coogan in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which looked back on Manchester’s music scene between the ’70s and ’90s and the rise of Factory Records.
Last week also saw New Order accept the Icon Award at the second Rolling Stone UK Awards.