Strangely Enough Impact

[Peter Hook, Spoken Word]

The man known as Mr. Manchester was born at the Hope Hospital in Salford on the 20th of February in 1950. Strangely enough, it was the same place that I was born.

It's hard to describe somebody who's had such a huge impact and still has a huge impact on your life, and has been for 30 years. It's very difficult.

I first became aware of the Wilson family in 1959, which seems ridiculous now. By going to his father's [?] on Region Road and not realizing how much impact that man would make on my life.

So he was a strange character. He could be very likable and dis-likable. He could annoy you so much. I used to see Rob Gretton suffer from apoplectic fits after talking to Tony that he really would like chalk and cheese. To my mind, Tony used to always win because he used to always walk off and leave Rob in exasperated mess.

It's quite strange when you realize the impact one man could have on a place like Manchester. It's the same way he incurred that impact on Michael's film.

Tony Wilson and Manchester is still very synonymous. Even the fact that your reopening the factory office this year brings back to the fore really the importance and the legacy and the heritage that we all hold.

And he forewarned. As a person, he was very into the future. He was always looking forward, which is one of the nicest aspects of his character; that he was fearless. He didn't think much but acted really quickly. To a man. We were always much the better after talking to Tony, regardless of how bad things seemed and how bad things were. When you spoke with him, he had this wonderful way of making the future seem very positive.

The impact he had on Joy Division, my god. Not a great impact musically, but again, the way that he treated you and the way that he looked after you. You were certainly very proud to be on Factory and very proud to have him as your mentor.