I was upset to hear yesterday of the news of the death of Tony Wilson (obituary here on the BBC News website, though Blogdial says it nicely too). I got the chance to meet and chat with him in 2005 and I’m glad that I was able to let him know how much his TV arts show, The Other Side of Midnight, had meant to me.

It ran on Sunday nights in the late 80’s, and as the name implies, it was a very late night show, so…I used to video it (I still have bits of some of them left on VHS). At the time I was living and growing up in a town where art was pretty low on the general agenda, and I can remember how exciting it was to watch the tape on the Monday afterwards. It always made me feel like it was okay to want to be creative and to enjoy creativity without any boundaries, and for that I was and am truly thankful to him.

I was pretty worried about whether I could or should blab about this when I did meet him (having cocked up meetings with my heroes in the past), but I plucked up the courage anyway and I was relieved when he didn’t make me regret mentioning it; he was attentive and generous with his time and really pleasant to talk to. I’m sad he’s gone.