24 Hour Party People Quotes
In 1976, Tony Wilson sets up Factory Records and brings Manchester's music to the world.
Ian Curtis: [listening to their recording of "She's Lost Control"] I sound like Bowie.
Tony Wilson: That's good. You like Bowie.
Ian Curtis: [annoyed] I hate fuckin' Bowie! In "All The Young Dudes" he sings about how you should die when you're twenty-five. Do you know how old he is? He's thirty, twenty-nine, something. He's a liar.
Tony Wilson: Look, it doesn't matter. A lot of great artists produce their best work when they're... older. You know, W.B. Yeats...
Ian Curtis: I've never heard of him, mate.
Tony Wilson: Yeats is the greatest poet since Dante. If he'd have died when he was twenty-five...
Ian Curtis: I would have heard of him, Tony!
Tony Wilson: That's good. You like Bowie.
Ian Curtis: [annoyed] I hate fuckin' Bowie! In "All The Young Dudes" he sings about how you should die when you're twenty-five. Do you know how old he is? He's thirty, twenty-nine, something. He's a liar.
Tony Wilson: Look, it doesn't matter. A lot of great artists produce their best work when they're... older. You know, W.B. Yeats...
Ian Curtis: I've never heard of him, mate.
Tony Wilson: Yeats is the greatest poet since Dante. If he'd have died when he was twenty-five...
Ian Curtis: I would have heard of him, Tony!
Tony Wilson: And tonight something equally epoch-making is taking place. See? They're applauding the DJ. Not the music, not the musician, not the creator, but the medium. This is it. The birth of rave culture. The beatification of the beat. The dance age. This is the moment when even the white man starts dancing. Welcome to Manchester.
Boethius: It's my belief that history is a wheel. "Inconsistency is my very essence" -says the wheel- "Rise up on my spokes if you like, but don't complain when you are cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it is also our hope. The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away".
[last lines]
[Tony Wilson has just had a vision of God - who looked exactly like Tony Wilson]
Tony Wilson: Well, it's written in the Bible, isn't it? 'God made man in His own image'.
Rob Gretton: Yeah, but not a specific man.
Tony Wilson: No, but if you'd have spoken to Him, He would have looked like you. But you didn't, I did. And he looked like me.
Rob Gretton: [smoking a joint] Fucking top gear, man.
[Tony Wilson has just had a vision of God - who looked exactly like Tony Wilson]
Tony Wilson: Well, it's written in the Bible, isn't it? 'God made man in His own image'.
Rob Gretton: Yeah, but not a specific man.
Tony Wilson: No, but if you'd have spoken to Him, He would have looked like you. But you didn't, I did. And he looked like me.
Rob Gretton: [smoking a joint] Fucking top gear, man.
[watching Vini Reilly of Durutti Column performing "You've Heard It Before"]
Ryan Letts: Got to stop him singing, Tony.
Tony Wilson: It's avant-garde, you wouldn't understand it.
Ryan Letts: It's very poor. Very poor.
Tony Wilson: It's provocative.
Ryan Letts: Provocatively poor. Appallingly poor. They're not calling you the new George Epstein, you know.
Tony Wilson: [getting annoyed] ... It's Brian Epstein.
Ryan Letts: George Epstein, Beatles manager.
Tony Wilson: That's Brian Epstein, you dickhead. It's fucking Brian Epstein.
Ryan Letts: [overlapping] George Epstein. It's Brian Martin.
Tony Wilson: It's *George* Martin, you knob.
Ryan Letts: Brian Martin the producer, George Epstein the, er... manager.
Alan Erasmus: Tony, tell him to fuck off.
Lindsay: Come on, let's sit down...
Tony Wilson: [to Letts] You're just fucking *wrong.*
Ryan Letts: Got to stop him singing, Tony.
Tony Wilson: It's avant-garde, you wouldn't understand it.
Ryan Letts: It's very poor. Very poor.
Tony Wilson: It's provocative.
Ryan Letts: Provocatively poor. Appallingly poor. They're not calling you the new George Epstein, you know.
Tony Wilson: [getting annoyed] ... It's Brian Epstein.
Ryan Letts: George Epstein, Beatles manager.
Tony Wilson: That's Brian Epstein, you dickhead. It's fucking Brian Epstein.
Ryan Letts: [overlapping] George Epstein. It's Brian Martin.
Tony Wilson: It's *George* Martin, you knob.
Ryan Letts: Brian Martin the producer, George Epstein the, er... manager.
Alan Erasmus: Tony, tell him to fuck off.
Lindsay: Come on, let's sit down...
Tony Wilson: [to Letts] You're just fucking *wrong.*
Ian Curtis: [shouting across the bar] Wilson, ya fucking cunt!
Tony Wilson: That's original.
[to Rob]
Tony Wilson: Your drink's coming. Is he a friend of yours?
Rob Gretton: Yeah, he's our singer.
Ian Curtis: [crossing the bar to approach Tony] Out of the way, Steve.
Tony Wilson: Hi, Tony Wilson, pleased to meet you.
[Ian just glowers at him wordlessly]
Tony Wilson: ... Is he gonna hit me? You're quite close to me there.
Ian Curtis: Yeah, I know, I wanna be.
Tony Wilson: Why?
Ian Curtis: 'Cos you're a cunt, mate.
Tony Wilson: I know, I heard you the first time.
Tony Wilson: That's original.
[to Rob]
Tony Wilson: Your drink's coming. Is he a friend of yours?
Rob Gretton: Yeah, he's our singer.
Ian Curtis: [crossing the bar to approach Tony] Out of the way, Steve.
Tony Wilson: Hi, Tony Wilson, pleased to meet you.
[Ian just glowers at him wordlessly]
Tony Wilson: ... Is he gonna hit me? You're quite close to me there.
Ian Curtis: Yeah, I know, I wanna be.
Tony Wilson: Why?
Ian Curtis: 'Cos you're a cunt, mate.
Tony Wilson: I know, I heard you the first time.
Tony Wilson: [First address to camera; after his hang-gliding news report] You're going to see a lot more of that sort of thing in the picture. I don't want to say too much, don't want to spoil it. I'll just say one word: 'Icarus'. If you get it, great. If you don't, that's fine too. But you should probably read more.
Tony Wilson: Factory Records are not actually a company. We are an experiment in human nature. You're labouring under the misapprehension that we actually have a deal with, er, with our, our bands. That we have any kind of a contract, er, at all, and I'm afraid we, er, we don't because that's, er, that's the sum total of the paperwork to do with Factory Records, deal with, er, their various bands.
Rob Gretton: You know your trouble, Tony? You don't know what you are. I fucking know what you are, but you don't know what you are.
Tony Wilson: Well, my curiosity's got the better of me, Rob, tell me, what am I?
Rob Gretton: You're a cunt.
Tony Wilson: Well, you see I knew that, you see, that was something I did know.
Tony Wilson: Well, my curiosity's got the better of me, Rob, tell me, what am I?
Rob Gretton: You're a cunt.
Tony Wilson: Well, you see I knew that, you see, that was something I did know.
Tony Wilson: It was like being on a fantastic fairground ride, centrifugal forces throwing us wider and wider. But it's all right, because there's this brilliant machine at the center that's going to bring us back down to earth. That was Manchester. That is the Hacienda. Now imagine the machine breaks. For a while, it's even better, because you're really flying. but then, you fall, because nobody beats gravity.
