Dear readers — Two days ago, we published one of our biggest investigations to date. A comment on Instagram called it “proper journalism”. Someone on Bluesky also called it “proper journalism”. A reader in our own comment section admired our “commitment to journalism and investigation”. Praise like this we have not received even in our hitherto finest hours.
We refer of course to Ophira and Ethan’s meticulous calculations of the height of Tony Wilson. News broke on Saturday that ex-Salford councillor Steve Coen, with the aid of Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook, was proposing a seven foot statue of Mr Manchester, to be erected in a non-descript part of Greengate. As our investigation revealed, the Factory-founder barely scraped the height of 5’8.
But that’s not all. We also used Monday’s newsletter to throw our weight around and make gross allegations towards the defenceless Peter ‘Hooky’ Hook. Eagle-eyed readers might recall that we referred to him as a “known flayer of Factory Records’ corpse”. At the time, we were ringing Hooky repeatedly, but he wasn’t picking up the phone. Then, yesterday, Hooky called back. He hadn’t read our Monday briefing (shockingly), and when we asked what he made of the people coming out against the proposed statue — Wilson’s ex-wife Lindsay Reade and long term Wilson-watcher and journalist Andy Spinoza — he responded by laughing for approximately 15 seconds. “If they came out fully supportive, I’d fucking die of shock.”
More on that to come, plus a round-up of The Mill team's favourite statues. But first, we have to right a serious wrong…
A formal apology from The Mill
Imagine the scene. It’s the weekend just gone, and the final drabs of summer are leaking through the clouds. In Cathedral Gardens, just west of Urbis, hundreds, possibly thousands of Millers have gathered. They’ve gone there on the recommendation of one Lucy McLaughlin, staff writer at The Mill and cultural guru. “Celebrate all things Italian this weekend,” Lucy had crooned in our newsletter the Monday before. “No tickets required… just show up”.
And show up they did, in their droves — Manchester’s most clued-in readers all huddled in the glassy sun-glare of the Football Museum. But absent were the bars selling Negronis and Bellinis, the live Tarantella, the Italian street food “and more” that Lucy had so flippantly promised. The only thing to be found in Cathedral Gardens that fateful weekend were the usual handful of teenage TikTokers, and not even Italian ones at that.
So what went wrong? It can all be traced back to this late July article from Secret Manchester, hailing the return of Festa Italiana, a “weekend-long takeover” of Cathedral Gardens that occurred on the same dates last year. Had they looked a little closer on Festa Italiana’s website (where the details of last year’s event remain up) they might have noticed the small ‘2025’ on either side of the logo — or the fact that the festival ran from 22-24 of August, touted as a Friday-Sunday affair, when this year those dates actually landed on Saturday-Monday. But they didn’t, and neither did we. And indeed neither did the MEN, Visit Manchester, and various other Manchester-media outlets that have since taken their recommendations down. On behalf of Lucy, The Mill formally apologises. As a disciplinary measure, if any paying members of The Mill run into her on the streets of Manchester, she owes you a cannoli.
However, what we can’t yet explain is this AI generated poster for the festival that’s been doing the rounds on local Facebook groups in the last few weeks, claiming that the festival was going ahead this year, and also incorrectly stating that it was a bank holiday weekend.
We’ve emailed the contact on it, but have not yet received a reply. Updates will come as they come, but if you know anything about it, let us know.
A quick call-out from ex-Mill editor Sophie
Were you based in Manchester and have you relocated to Merseyside in the last year/s to buy a home? Our sister paper the Liverpool Post would love to hear from you. They’re doing a story on Liverpool’s rocketing housing market — and testing out a theory that many incoming house buyers are coming from here.
Sling your Hook
On Monday, the one person we didn’t hear from about the proposed statue of the nightlife legend Tony Wilson was its key backer, fellow Hacienda founder and collaborator Peter Hook. But now we have.
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