Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay Wilson

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This became a film under the same title, scripted by Liz and directed by Charles Salem, and shown at FAC 9 The Factory Flick event. Wilson remarried and had children with his second wife Hilary, something which was denied to Lindsay, before he left the second Mrs W to move in with Yvette, a former beauty queen. In 1990 he started a relationship with Yvette Livesey, a former Miss England and Miss UK, who was his wife until his death in 2007.

It sounds like a record that’s been made in difficult circumstances and with different processes involved in making those songs. Normally in the music business you issue a contract and the lawyers blue line it, because you purposefully put in a load of things you know are going to be taken out – it’s a standard negotiating position. The fact that this band had a woman in it who was a core musician and not just a singer was really important. It was a tempestuous affair, but while Lindsay Reade chronicles their bittersweet ups and downs with moving hindsight, throughout these pages the picture comes across of a couple who fought and fell out yet never really stopped loving each other in spite of everything. It was Reade, too, who stumbled upon a demo by the unknown band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark while going through the stacks of cassettes sent to Wilson.

Now I find you can get tummy tucks and cosmetic surgery on the NHS but not the drugs I need to stay alive.

I think most people in Manchester’s initial introduction to the Roses was when we saw their name graffitied all over the place. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Everybody after the first album thought The Stone Roses was all to do with John Squire, and I used to go round to people and say, ‘nobody’s getting it’.I used to say 'some people make money and some make history', which is very funny until you find you can't afford to keep yourself alive. I think it really captured their sound – John Leckie was obviously brilliant, just like Martin Hannett was with Joy Division. Ian Brown has a very distinct, very soulful and very passionate voice, whereas Reni was just a good singer and I reckon there was a little bit of a competition between the two of them there; a little bit of friction that I thought was a bit sad. Wilson, it seems, was very much a radical socialist-cum-entrepreneur who loved to shock, prepared to throw a fortune at certain projects which took his fancy and philosophical about losing it.