Insanely bad vibes. But the vibes keep getting worse and worse until suddenly you’re listening to the Happy Mondays, the worst that vibes can scientifically get. And then you’re free. A million cute little filmmaking tricks (the film stock shifting to suit the era, the gimmicky cameos, the asides, the Happy Mondays eating KFC to imply heroin use, etc.) but they work because this movie couldn’t care less about impressing you. Its only goal seems to be to see how far along it can take you. And it turns out it can take me the whole way. I would call this movie a blast even though huge stretches of it are bleak as hell.Lots of stand out scenes but probably my favorite was Joy Division explaining their name in the car. I love Joy Division but nobody in that car comes off sounding smart. They were all like 21. It’s important to remember that most of the music you like was made by 21 year olds who would absolutely believe in witches if they didn’t already know not to.
Tony Wilson passed away eight years ago today.I watch a lot of films about scenes and occurrences and movements where I feel out of the loop, like I'm missing something by not having been around it myself or in the vicinity, and envying those who write about being there and experiencing it.When 24 Hour Party People was released in 2002, it finally felt like a film where I wouldn't be feeling that envy. To radically paraphrase a chap who Wilson regretted not signing, it was a film that could say something to me about my life. And it did. It was about the music that played throughout my teenage years, the music and cultural scene that was exploding around me, and the people I lived with.Make no bones about it, 24 Hour Party People is the PERFECT embodiment of that time in Manchester. It's chaotic and nonsensical, at times shambolic and determinedly self-referential, and in some ways completely impenetrable to those who aren't in the middle of it. It's exactly the film that Factory Records and Wilson and The Haçienda and Madchester deserved to have made about it.It doesn't tell you everything and it doesn't give you all the music. It ends up centring more around Happy Mondays than it does any other group after initially revolving around Joy Division. But even there it gets things spot on. Starting off low-key, underground and serious minded, it then becomes drug-fuelled, irresponsible and blackly comic. Just as Factory Records did.It's also a film that saw this poster plastered all over the city in promotion of the film. There was barely a complaint. I'm not sure if there was barely a complaint because nobody cared or there was barely a complaint because, well, it was true. It makes no bones about the fact that Wilson was a twat. He gets called worse than that in the film - a film in which he cameos and was proud of.Wilson was always a slightly comedic figure to me growing up, partially because of the mind-numbing news segments he was asked to present that are highlighted several times in the film. But also because he was exactly that philosophy spouting and pretentious bloke that you see Steve Coogan portraying in the film. It was easy to poke fun at him and he was seen as a bit of figure of fun.Certainly, his business practices, such as they were, and the subsequent failed attempts to relaunch Factory did little to quell that feeling. Yet at the same time, the admirably irresponsible way he helped to bring extraordinary and groundbreaking music to the world while also playing a huge part in reshaping club culture means that his legacy every bit as huge as he almost certainly would have wanted it to be.In some circles he was known as Mr. Manchester but I doubt he would have wanted to be known as that. He would have wanted a far bigger accolade. Nonetheless, his name adorns a major part of Manchester's new medio-cultural centre, a stone's throw away from where The Haçienda, to a certain extent, still stands.On the back of the building, which backs on to a canal-side walk which is mine and my daughters' favourite walking spot in Manchester, a stencilled graffiti picture appeared several years after numerous plaques were placed along the wall of the building remembering landmark events in the history of the club.In true Factory fashion, even his coffin was given a FAC number - FAC 501. His memory and influence is still very fresh in a Manchester that bears very little resemblance to the Manchester that he helped to shape for a period where it really did feel as though the city was the centre of the world, as is stated in the film.It genuinely felt as though the eyes of the world were on us for a few years there, and for a change it wasn't even about football, as for most of the time during that period Manchester United were awful. Even with two of the richest football clubs in the world with us now, the eyes of the world are no longer on Manchester. The music scene is a spluttering mixture of being stuck in the past and trying to relive old glories, and ill-fated experimentalism to try and find the 'new Madchester'.The city itself is a typical Northern city now - neglected for years under parliamentary rule that paid it no attention or care, it's trying to catch up with the times and drag itself into the present day, all the while naturally losing some of its traditional and industrial harshness. I still love the bloody place and I wouldn't ever want to live anywhere else again, but it's not quite the same, and I don't care if that makes me sound like an ageing bastard. I am an ageing bastard.But I love 24 Hour Party People because it reminds me of when Manchester was everything that this film says it was and more. Also because it's a brilliant film. Thank you, Tony. You twat.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Some bits and pieces of interest:-New Order, Iggy Pop and Steve Coogan tribute videoRowetta, Bernard Sumner, Miranda Sawyer and Christopher Eccleston pay their tributes10 artists that owe a debt to Tony WilsonRecommended reading:-From Joy Division To New Order: The True Story of Anthony H. Wilson and Factory RecordsTony Wilson: You're Entitled To An Opinion....The Hacienda: How Not To Run A ClubFactory Records: The Complete Graphic AlbumRecommended listening:-Shadowplayers: The Rise And Fall Of Factory Records (Unofficial soundtrack to the book of the same name - YouTube)Manchester y Factory Records (Spotify)
