Tony Wilson Experience – The Start

And so the beat goes on.
I’ve just attended the press call for the Tony Wilson Experience over at Hard Rock Cafe and heard the welcoming words from Elliot Rashman (Happy Mondays manager), Richard Leese (leader of the City council), and Peter Saville (ex-Factory creative, now creative director of the council). The tone was “we don’t know what was about to happen” across the board. Quite frankly, sat here in the press room I have no idea what is about to happen either. It’s five minutes to twelve, and the running order tells me I’m about to see Steve Coogan, Peter (“It’s a bit early for me”) Saville and Alex Poots.
The most interesting conversation for me so far was a private one with Richard Leese. I asked him if this was part of a creative strategy, why Manchester should be special and in a World where creatives can work anywhere why they should choose a city with a congestion charge to base themselves in (all the press I saw had a little poke about the congestion charge), and his answer was pretty clear.
“We are a city of creatives, and whilst we’re keen to share – we have people coming over from Liverpool today for this – we want to be leaders not followers.”
I’ll let you know where they lead us for the next 24 hours.