The Durutti Column | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Vini Reilly (right) and drummerBruce Mitchell during a 1995 concert | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Greater Manchester, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Labels | Factory,London Records, Artful, Kookydisc |
| Members | Vini Reilly Bruce Mitchell Keir Stewart Poppy Morgan |
| Past members | Dave Rowbotham Chris Joyce Phil Rainford Tony Bowers Toby Toman Colin Sharp[1] Tim Kellett Peter Hook Martin Jackson John Metcalfe |
The Durutti Column are an Englishpost-punk band formed in 1978 inManchester, England.[2] The band is the project of guitarist and occasional pianistVini Reilly, often accompanied byBruce Mitchell on drums and Keir Stewart on bass, keyboards and harmonica.
The band were among the first acts signed toFactory Records by label founderTony Wilson.[3] They distinguished themselves from their post-punk contemporaries through Reilly's clean, atmospheric guitar playing and incorporation ofjazz,folk, andclassical influences.[4] They later incorporatedsampling andelectronic dance rhythms.[4]
In 1978,Tony Wilson andAlan Erasmus, later partners inFactory Records, assembled a band around the remnants of localpunk rock band Fast Breeder, specifically drummerChris Joyce and guitaristDave Rowbotham.[5] The name was derived from a misspelling of theDurruti Column, an anarchist military unit in theSpanish Civil War, named afterBuenaventura Durruti. The name was also taken from a four-page comic strip entitled "Le Retour de la Colonne Durruti" ("The Return Of The Durruti Column")[6][7] by André Bertrand, which was handed out amidst student protests in October 1966 atStrasbourg University.[8]
On 25 January,Vini Reilly, former guitarist for localpunk rock bandEd Banger and the Nosebleeds, joined, followed some weeks later by co-member vocalistPhil Rainford and, by the end of February, bassistTony Bowers arrived fromAlberto y Lost Trios Paranoias.[5] The line-up was short-lived as Rainford was sacked in July,[2] and replaced by actorColin Sharp, who also became one of the songwriters. Rainford went on to produce forNico andSuns of Arqa.
The Durutti Column played at the Factory club (organised by their managers), and cut two numbers for the first Factory Records releaseA Factory Sample,[6] a double 7" compilation produced byMartin Hannett,[6] also featuringJoy Division,John Dowie andCabaret Voltaire.[5] On the eve of recording a debut album, the band broke up after a dispute about Wilson and Erasmus's choice of producer.[5] Rowbotham, Bowers and Joyce went on to formThe Mothmen[6] (the latter two becoming members ofSimply Red some years later), Sharp went on to form The Roaring 80s, SF Jive, and Glow, and also dedicated himself to acting; only Reilly remained.[5]
With everyone's departure, The Durutti Column defaulted to Reilly's solo project. Other musicians contributed to recordings and live performances as occasioned. Former Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias drummer Bruce Mitchell doubled as co-manager with Wilson throughout their career on Factory and for many years afterward.[6]
The first album, 1980'sThe Return of the Durutti Column (title inspired by a 1967Situationist International poster that includes that phrase), was produced by Martin Hannett.[6] Reilly: "...he more or less got sounds for me that no one else could understand that I wanted. And he understood that I wanted to play the electric guitar but I didn't want this horrible distorted, usual electric guitar sound and he managed to get that". The record featured a sandpaper sleeve (like the title of the record, inspired by a Situationist joke, a book –Guy Debord'sMémoires – with a sandpaper cover to destroy other books on the shelf). "I didn't even know it was going to be an album. It was just the case of jumping at the chance of being in the studio. I actually didn't get up in time, Martin had to physically get me out of bed to get me to the studio – that's how little I believed it would happen. I was still doing late night petrol station shifts. I was even more amazed when Tony presented me with a white label. I was completely baffled. 'What, this is really going to be an album? You must be insane! No-one's going to buy this!' And then Tony got the idea from the Situationists about the sandpaper book, and decided to do some with a sandpaper sleeve. It wasJoy Division that stuck the sandpaper onto the card. I was mortified."[9][10]
The music was unlike anything else performed by post-punk acts at the time. Reilly rooted himself in "new wave" with "...an attempt at experimental things";[11] the record contained nine gentle guitar instrumentals (later releases occasionally feature Reilly's soft and hesitant vocals) including elements fromjazz,folk,classical music and rock. Reilly: "...I had a lot of classical training when I was young, guitar and formal training, the scales I write with and the techniques I use are classical techniques and scales – a lot of minor melodic and minor harmonic scales, which generally aren't used in pop music. Usually it's pentatonic". Hannett's production included adding electronic rhythm and other effects, including birdsong on "Sketch for Summer". The album was accompanied by a flexidisc with two tracks by Hannett alone.[2]
LC ("Lotta Continua", Italian for "continuous struggle"), released in 1981, was recorded without Hannett, and introduced percussionist Bruce Mitchell, Reilly's most frequent musical partner and occasional manager. It was recorded on a four-track cassette deck at home (while it was slightly padded in the studio, the tape hiss is intact); among the first crisp, professionally released recordings made cheaply at home.[12] The EPDeux Triangles, released in 1982, contained three instrumentals, with piano emphasised over guitar.Another Setting (1983) was again Reilly and Mitchell; in 1984, the band was expanded to includeRichard Henry (trombone),Maunagh Fleming (cor anglais andoboe),Blaine Reininger (ofTuxedomoon; violin andviola),Mervyn Fletcher (saxophone),Caroline Lavelle (cello), andTim Kellett (trumpet). The albumWithout Mercy, arranged byJohn Metcalfe, was intended as an instrumental evocation of the poemLa Belle Dame sans Merci byJohn Keats.
Say What You Mean was a departure from roots with the addition of deep electronic percussion.[13] Kellett and Metcalfe remained (Metcalfe playing viola); they also appear alongside Reilly and Mitchell onCircuses and Bread (Factory Benelux in 1985) andDomo Arigato. The latter is a live album recorded in Tokyo and the first pop album released in the UK solely on the relatively new compact disc format (and also available on VHS and LaserDisc.)
Kellett left to joinSimply Red, but guested onThe Guitar and Other Machines (1987), the first new UK album to be released onDigital Audio Tape (as well as the usual media ofLP,audio cassette and CD).[14]The Guitar and Other Machines has a far more direct sound than earlier records, with guest vocals fromStanton Miranda and Reilly's then partner, Pol, and the use of asequencer anddrum machine in addition to Mitchell's drumming. The album was produced byStephen Street, who also producedMorrissey's solo albumViva Hate (1988), on which Reilly played guitar. Reilly has said he was neither properly credited nor compensated for composing most of the music onViva Hate.[15]
Vini Reilly (1989), also produced by Reilly and Street, features extensive use ofsampling, with looped samples of vocalists (includingOtis Redding,Tracy Chapman,Annie Lennox andJoan Sutherland) used as the basis for several tracks.[2] Initial copies came with a 7" or CD single, "I Know Very Well How I Got My Note Wrong", credited to "Vincent Gerard and Steven Patrick", in which a take of the Morrissey B-side "I Know Very Well How I Got My Name" dissolves into laughter after Reilly hits a wrong note.
OnObey the Time (1990), Mitchell played on only one track, the album being otherwise a solo recording by Reilly, heavily influenced bycontemporary dance music. The album's title is a phrase uttered by the titular character ofWilliam Shakespeare'sOthello toward his fiance, Desdemona in Act One, Scene Two: "I have but an hour of love, of worldly matters and direction, To spend with thee: we must obey the time." An accompanying single, "The Together Mix", featured two reworkings of album tracks byTogether, Jonathon Donaghy and Suddi Raval (Donaghy was killed in a car crash inIbiza before the single was released). This was to be the last Durutti Column record released by Factory, in early 1991.
For the first few years after the demise of Factory, the only Durutti Column album releases wereLips That Would Kiss (a 1991 collection of early singles, compilation contributions and unreleased material on the separate label Factory Benelux), andDry (1991) andRed Shoes (1992), Italian collections of alternate versions and unreleased outtakes.
Former memberDave Rowbotham was killed by an unknown assailant in 1991.[5] He was later memorialised by theHappy Mondays in the song "Cowboy Dave".
In 1993, Tony Wilson attempted to revive Factory Records, andSex and Death was the first release onFactory Too (a subdivision ofLondon Records). The album was once again produced by Stephen Street, with Mitchell and Metcalfe, and it included, on the track "The Next Time",Peter Hook ofNew Order.Time Was Gigantic ... When We Were Kids, which followed in 1998, was produced byKeir Stewart, who also played on the album and has frequently worked with Reilly since.Fidelity was released between these albums in 1996 byLes Disques du Crépuscule and was produced byLaurie Laptop.
The eight albums recorded for Factory (The Return of the Durutti Column,LC,Another Setting,Without Mercy,Domo Arigato,The Guitar and Other Machines,Vini Reilly andObey the Time) were re-released with additional material by Factory Too/London, under the banner Factory Once, between 1996 and 1998.
In 1998, Durutti Column contributed "It's Your Life Baby" to the AIDS benefit compilation albumOnda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon produced by theRed Hot Organization.
Factory Too effectively ended in 1998, and subsequent Durutti Column albums have been on independent labelsArtful Records (Rebellion [2001],Someone Else's Party [2003],Keep Breathing [2006],Idiot Savants [2007]) orKookydisc (Tempus Fugit [2004],Sunlight to Blue . . . Blue to Blackness [2008]). Kookydisc has also released two further volumes ofThe Sporadic Recordings (along with a slightly edited re-release of the first volume from 1989), remastered versions of two very scarce LPs from the early 1980s (Live At The Venue [2004] andAmigos Em Portugal [2005]), and two subscription-club discs of rare and unreleased material. A download-only release,Heaven Sent (It Was Called Digital, It Was Heaven Sent), first appeared in 2005 via Wilson's projectF4, which was marketed as the fourth version of Factory Records.
A shortJeff Noon play adapted forBBC Radio 3, Dead Code - Ghosts of the Digital Age (BBC Radio 3, 2005), was partially soundtracked by The Durutti Column.
On 7 September 2009, Colin Sharp died from a brain haemorrhage.[16] Reilly suffered a stroke in 2011, following which he was left unable to play the guitar the way he did before.[17]
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