Fond memories of a friend (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

Fond memories of a friend

10:49am Thursday 16th August 2007

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Like so many others I was devastated to hear Tony Wilson had died after a brave battle with cancer.

I was lucky enough to count him as a friend, and first met him when he was the host of a late night debating programme, Up Front - as a local politician I regularly appeared on the show.

He had a reputation as being anti-Liverpool, but I found that nothing was further from the truth. He was just fiercely pro-Manchester.

As everybody knows, with Tony, Manchester was first, second and last.

But he was a very creative guy, and outside of his work in the music industry for which he was best known, he made a genuine contribution to the debate about regeneration in Liverpool, and most recently to the Elevate project in East Lancashire.

Alongside his partner Yvette Livesey, he was a key player in devising some very creative strategies and that is what his legacy will be in East Lancashire.

I know he absolutely loved that job and it was a real passion for him.

He thoroughly enjoyed the work and came to love the area.

What is probably less known about his work in Lancashire is that in the late 1990s he did some work in Skelmersdale, with young people in particular.

He gathered about 100 youngsters for an Up Front type event and ended up with a number of key messages from them about the future of the town.

Recently the Skelmersdale Vision document was published - a masterplan for the regeneration of the area.

Many of the findings chimed with the messages Tony was able to draw out from that young people's forum several years earlier.

He will be sadly missed by many.

There is a massive gap in our lives, and nobody will be able to replace him.

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