In The City plans

Tony Wilson's partner Yvette Livesey reveals the preparations for this year

10 August 2008 - One year after Tony Wilson passed away from cancer at the age of 57, one of his pet projects In The City, is preparing for another year.

In The City was founded by Tony Wilson and Yvette Livesey in 1992. It aims to bring together 'the brightest and best in the business' to debate the present and plot the future of the music industry. 

The event also lays claim to the biggest city-based music festival in Europe, In The City Live, as the bands and fans take to the streets.

Regarded by many in the global music community as one of the premier new music events worldwide, ITC has helped launch the careers of Oasis, Radiohead,Suede, Elastica, Coldplay, The Darkness, Doves, Foo Fighters, Elbow, the Stereophonics, Muse, Orson and many more.

Without Tony, Yvette still intends to carry on the event and has the support of most of the industry: "I went to all the majors and to all the indie companies and everyone was brilliant. Everyone has really helped me pull things together this year. We wanted to make it much more consumer facing, the thing that Tony in particular wanted." 

He touched so many people's lives in so many different areas - Yvette Livesey

"We never really marketed In The City to either the industry or the public," she explained. "It was always a case of if you knew about it then you knew about it. In The City has to grow and has to change if it's going to survive."

And how will they expand the event? Yvette let us in on the plans: "One thing I am going to do is bolt on a festival. We already have In The City Unsigned, but we are going to expand that and grow and become much more all encompassing. The opening night is going to be a club night by Eat Your Own Ears, with Tricky and Simian Mobile Disco. We've got a new bands night with the NME, a showcase from Drowned In Sound, Heavenly 18th birthday party, Fierce Panda are doing a night, there are loads of special events."

A year after Tony Wilson's death, Yvette is still overcome by the tributes, she remembers the day he died: "I think it was quite astonishing actually, the day that Tony died the city council rang me up and they said, 'We've never had this kind of response to anyone who has ever died in the city before. It's unpredendented.' They couldn't get over it."

Yvette also says that there was something about Tony Wilson that unified the city of Manchester: "I think Tony was very special in the sense that all the people who knew him, people had grown up with him watching Granada televsion or they had become part of the music industry in the city. He touched so many people's lives in so many different areas. He was always around. He was one of those forces, he was such a strong force that people never expect to go away. I think it was such a shock that he was such a huge personality and he wasn't there anymore."

In The City runs from 5-7 October.


Ruth Barnes