“If you spend too much time asking where something is going, you end up not doing it”, Peter Saville opined during the first session of the Tony Wilson Experience (“TWE” onwards).
Keen to impress upon people that this was not a 24-hour seminar or lecture, the theme from everybody involved from the organisers through to the speakers is consistent. Quoting one artist who applied to attend, there was hope that “the event sounds suitably shambolic to be of some use”.
He was sat with Steve Coogan who played Wilson in the film 24 Hour Party People and Alex Poots, discussing creativity, being from Manchester, and Tony’s attitude to life.
Interestingly, the film of the life of Wilson, Factory records and the Hacienda was itself was made in the way that Michael Winterbottom would have thought Factory records and Wilson would have made the film – when Coogan took the part, nobody knew how the film would end, or even what the middle would be.
“Tony was about noble failures”, Coogan suggested.
The next session with Stuart Marconie and Mark Radcliffe continued with the reminiscing and the memory of those mad years when Tony was a rising star and trying to get a handle on why Manchester was special.
“For every person who likes your work, there are ten who are indifferent and ten who think you’re a pillock”, said Radcliffe. Something that Marconie suggested Wilson was an expert at handling with complete indifference. It’s true that whilst there is some minor deification of Wilson going on, during his life he was ridiculed.
This was partly, Coogan had suggested earlier, because Wilson himself was a man of contrast. “There was a plurality in him, a mixture of humour, being pompous and at the same having complete integrity when it came to his beliefs”.
The conversation continues, and if you want a much more detailed minute-by-minute update of the rest of the afternoon, blogger Paul Carruthers is doing an admirable job over at The Institute for Social Media in doing almost constant updates. Here, I hope to give you something a little more abstract and wider on the landscape over the course of the event. Also, don’t forget to join in at the main site with chat forum or mucking in over in Second Life.
Dim Sum Digital 
