Tony Wilson, 57; music impresario promoted Manchester bands

Tony Wilson, 57, a music impresario credited with guiding a crop of bands from industrial England to the international stage, died Friday at Christie Hospital in Manchester, England, of complications of kidney cancer.

Wilson, educated at Cambridge, promoted a host of influential musicians from his native city of Manchester in northern England, including Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays.

Wilson’s influence on the city and on British music is documented in the 2002 movie “24 Hour Party People,” which charts the rise and eventual fall of Wilson’s empire, which included Factory Records and the Hacienda nightclub.

Wilson’s record label and nightclub were credited with making the city Britain’s most vibrant music center through the 1980s and 1990s, spawning bands including the Smiths, the Stone Roses and Oasis.