Beyond The Music is carrying the ethos of Factory Records into a bright and fair future

24 years ago, Steve Coogan portrayed Oliver Wilson’s father in a film. 24 Hour Party People tells the fact and fiction of Tony Wilson, aka Mr Manchester, co-founder of Factory Records and manager of the legendary Haçienda venue – HQ of the Madchester movement, and so consequential that when it closed in 1997, Peter Hook had multiple bass guitars made out of its cigarette-scarred dancefloor. Not only was Wilson instrumental in breaking genre-defining acts including Happy Mondays and Hook’s Joy Division, he was quietly on the frontline of the mp3 revolution – his scrappy Music33 platform beat Apple to the punch – as well as hosting several influential music discovery TV programmes and segments. One, Granada Television’s So It Goes, gave Sex Pistols their first ever TV appearance.“It was only when I turned probably 30 years old where I really learned how important the legacy is, how lucky I am to have that access and that platform,” Oli tells me. As a child, he remembers thinking his father was the leader of some secret society; walking down the street together, Wilson Sr was constantly stopped for a chat or an autograph. After the extent of his father’s star dawned on him, the younge...