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Manchester music mogul Anthony Wilson has died tonight of a heart attack.
The Factory records and Hacienda founder passed away in hospital at the age of 57. Wilson's death follows his being diagnosed with cancer last year and emergency surgery to remove a kidney in January.
After chemotherapy failed to alter the course of the disease doctors pointed him in the direction of the drug Sudent - a £3,500 per month programme that the NHS refused to bankroll.
Funds to pay for the treatment were raised by bands that Wilson had helped over the years - such as The Happy Mondays - but ultimately he was never to recover.
""Part of me, part of Manchester, part of modern British music has died tonight," lamented former Factory cohort Phil Saxe.
"Tony was a genius, basically."
Wilson's doctor at Christie hospital confirmed that his death was caused by heart attack: "It's very sad. He died as a result of something unrelated to his cancer.
"His cancer was responding well to treatment but obviously did contribute to his poor health".
Wilson's recent endeavours in the industry had been mixed in fortune, but whether Saxe's view finds consensus or not the impact the Salford-born entrepreneur's moments of vision have had on British music is surely beyond rebuke.
