Ok, here we go again. I needed a sandwich…and I’ve missed the first 15 minutes. Shoot me, I’m human.

Not much to pick up on here, but Coogan saying that perhaps we shouldn’t forget the roots of Manchester creativity. The grime, the industry and picking itself up by it’s bootstraps has defined how Manchester looks nowadays. But hey that’s progress and to echo his second thought we shouldn’t get too reminiscent about 1970’s Manchester.

Paul Robinson (sat next to me) was just chatting about how Tony Wilson was villified, almost hated around the place for most of his broadcast life. As we mentioned earlier, it was cool to bash Wilson when we were younger. But, I don’t think we really knew much about the guy…after all, I was a kid in Lytham. I never went to the Hacienda, only picked up on New order and Joy Division late in the day and rarely visited Manchester.

I often say that when I did come to this fair city, that I was taken aback that everyone knew my name. “alright pal”, they;d say and I’d mistake it for Paul. Yeah, yeah…small town kid, funny Manc accents and all that.

Yet, I still would say that Tony Wilson was an idiot. A weird fashion, granted, but it was almost fashionable.

14:30 - whoah, we’re 30 minutes in. Maconie prompts “What would Wilson think of this event?” A series of contradictions…anti-establishment…so how do you create something that fits in with that ethos?

And how does Manchester remember him? Statue…

Again, not much to pick up on that hasn’t been said before. So, I’m going to return to the thread above.

After his death, there’s almost a deification of Tony Wilson in the city. Obviously, people couldn’t see the impact he was having, whilst he was doing it, but after the fact it’s been clear to see. I’m not going to go over it again, but I’ll share this photograph with you.

I took this at the exhibition at Urbis last year. It sums up the very real effect that Tony Wilson had on ordinary peoples lives. ‘Nuff said.

14:55 - Amazing interjection from the floor recalling how in the ‘jolson era’ there was a pub on Mill St that use to have Al Jolson competitions. Now, it seems to have little relevance to the proceedings but what a fantastic comment. Did anyone out there catch what that was all about?

I have to take a break now else my head will explode. Will be back at 4pm. Sharp.

-pc.