Tony Wilson aka 'Mr Manchester'. Photograph: Garry Weaser
You've probably heard by now: a campaign has started to build a permanent memorial to former Factory Records boss Tony Wilson in Manchester.
Coming just weeks after Wilson's tragic death and with Anton Corbijn's long-awaited Joy Division flick Control about to hit the big screen, it is perfectly timed. You can just imagine yourself signing an online petition in favour of such an enterprise, and then thinking nothing more of it until your next visit to the city Wilson lovingly dubbed "Madchester".
But is a statue really the best way of honouring a music-biz maverick whose drive and imagination permanently altered what Andrew Loog Oldham calls "the industry of human happiness" for the better?
Hulking likenesses of heroes in hobnail boots somehow make perfect sense outside football stadiums. The military memorials scattered across the country seem more invaluable with each passing day. Even the statue of Nelson Mandela seemingly spilling a tray of drinks in Parliament Square serves as a daily reminder to the neighbours across the road on how to behave.
But shouldn't it end there? Statues have always had an uncomfortable relationship with rock. When admirers in Lithuania erected a monument in honour of Frank Zappa in 1995, we could see it as both a quirky cultural triumph and a surrealist swipe at the status quo. When Michael Jackson floated a thirty-nine foot likeness of himself down the Thames the same year, it smacked -just a little - of the worst sort of pop star hubris.
Equally, the figure of John Lennon lurking in a doorway by The Cavern on Matthew Street in Liverpool might delight Japanese tourists, but for any self-respecting Beatle-ologist, it's no match for a bus ride around the city seeing where Lennon lived and worked. Ditto, you'd imagine, anyone in thrall to Wilson's achievements.
And besides, where would it end? Immortalise the Factory boss in stone, and before you know it, the whole country would be filled with a terracotta army of dead rock legends to rival that of Qin Shi Huangdi. Which isn't exactly punk, is it?
In Manchester, there's a campaign to erect a statue in honour of pro-democracy protesters killed by the military in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. To really honour Tony Wilson, get behind that.
