Durutti Column: classic or dud

Since I complained about their scattershot catalog, I figured I'd go ahead and come up with a non-lp comp, presented herewith, in order of release, excluding live tracks:

Durutti Column Odds and Ends, 1978-1986:

No Communication - A Factory Sample
Thin Ice (Detail) - A Factory Sample
Lips that Would Kiss - single A-side
Madeleine - single B-side
Sleep Will Come - From Brussels With Love
Piece For An Ideal - From Brussels With Love
Weakness & Fever - From Brussels With Love
For Mimi - A Factory Quartet
For Belgian Friends - A Factory Quartet
Self-Portrait - A Factory Quartet
Enigma – single A-side
Danny – single B-side
The Eye And The Hand - The Fruit Of The Original Sin
Party - The Fruit Of The Original Sin
Experiment In Fifth - The Fruit Of The Original Sin
One Christmas For Your Thoughts - Ghosts Of Christmas Past
Snowflakes - Ghosts Of Christmas Past
For Patti - single A-side
Favourite Painting - Deux Triangles EP
Zinni - Deux Triangles EP
Piece for Out of Tune Grande (sic) Piano - Deux Triangles EP
I Get Along Without You Very Well - single A-side
Love Fading - single A-side
For Noriko - single B-side
Goodbye - Say What You Mean EP
The Room - Say What You Mean EP
A Little Mercy - Say What You Mean EP
Silence - Say What You Mean EP
E.E. - Say What You Mean EP
Hello - Say What You Mean EP
The Sea Wall - Un Hommage A Margueritte Duras
Destroy, She Said - Un Hommage A Margueritte Duras
Take Some Time Out - Un Hommage A Margueritte Duras
Tomorrow – single A-side
All That Love and maths Can Do - single B-side
Florence Sunset – Greetings EP
San Giovanni Dawn – Greetings EP
For Friends In Italy – Greetings EP

That's everything up through "Valuable Passages", the period I'm most interested in at the moment. It turns out the upcoming 2CD reissue of "LC" gathers up about half of this and the rest is available on CD aside from the first two tracks and the "Love Fading" single.

LC reissue? I've missed something.

behold

http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri/fbn10.html

Will be my 4th copy of LC, but fuck it. Need to have it.

I've always assumed that "Love fading" and "A silence" (issued as an extra track on the "Circuses and bread" reissue on LTM and on their "Short stories for Pauline" from last year) were the same song - Vini recycling his lyrics again. I could be wrong though,

wow, thanks for that list, Gerald.

Nice, was gonna hunt down th Factory Quartet double for those tracks.

Is "I get along without you" on CD then?

yes

It's on the "Circuses and bread" LTM reissue. Another track from this era - 86 - is "The aftermath", which was on a compilation supporting animals (can't remember the full details) and is absolutely stunning.

Yeah, "The Aftermath" falls between "Valuable Passages" and "Red Shoes" (which contains the Greetings EP) and thus is just out of my range. That'll start of the next odds and ends volume I compile!

Classic. Itch scratching music if you get my drift.

Has anyone got the "LC" reissue yet? Mine has shipped from Amazon today, was wondering if anyone had heard it yet?

https://www.quaytickets.com/Online/default.asp?doWork%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle=Load&BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Aarticle_id=0A585B0B-484F-4F7E-A056-77803380B7FD&BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Acontext_id=D7E9C9A3-7F42-4FA2-96B8-40348BBCABBF

An interesting interview from earlier this year which sheds some light on how Vini is now.

http://www.m-magazine.co.uk/interviews/interview-vini-reilly/

Wonder why they felt the need to have LC come out on both LTM and 1972 at the exact same time. It was hard to tell on the digipac of the 1972 release if there were any bonus tracks on it. I don't even know of the remasters are the same across both labels or if they are the same ones that were on the Four Factory Records box set. Kind of a mess.

probably cause 1972 is a boot label

Get the LTM 2cd edition, support one of the best labels around and get tons of extras.

Seconded, it's a lovely album and the extras are fab. Even the demos that appeared on the "Four Factory Albums" set sound better on the LTM issue. I've been playing little else all week.

I asked James from LTM if they had other DC reissues lined up but he was coy about it. I really hope "Another Setting" gets similar treatment!

http://thequietus.com/articles/11476-vini-reilly-interview-durutti-column

Sad thing is, every time this thread gets revived.....

From http://soundcloud.com/dave-8-2/vini-reilly-town-hall

Vini Reilly in-conversation with Dave Haslam at Manchester Town Hall on Sunday, March 3rd 2013, an event for CALM, a charity that reaches out to suicidal young men. This is an honest, and - especially from about 15/20 minutes in - a harrowing account of Vini's own problems with depression. He was determined to tell his story, uninterrupted, and discussed and agreed some of the content with Dave Haslam prior to taking the stage (and the interview is uploaded here with Vini's permission). The finale to the night was a performance of a song (one never recorded or released); his first public performance for nearly two years. But as Vini says "it's not about me". Please be aware this is not an easy listen; anyone who wants to know more, or has concerns about issues of suicide and depression please check out; www.thecalmzone.net where there's help available and also an opportunity to donate to help them with their work..

Prepare yourself. This is not at all an interview with a musician about music, and the latter part is quite intense.

I know I've written a lot on here about Durutti Column but now I've done it again on my new blog. Feel free to peruse or ignore, and maybe have a look at other things there.

https://agoldfishcalledregret.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/say-what-you-mean-mean-what-you-say/

I really enjoyed that. Part of what I liked was reading your recollections of hunting down each individual release and what they meant to you personally. My memory is so bad I've forgotten a lot of moments like these, or can only half remember them, but reading this helped me remember, in a way. Cheers.

Maybe it’s a teenage thing, everything seems more heightened then, your senses more attuned. But these days.. It’s just too easy. A few years ago I downloaded the entire career of a band I was interested in, and it took half an hour, and I still don’t think I’ve heard it all yet. I don’t feel the music is ‘mine’, I haven’t invested the time in it and the ease of getting the music has devalued it in my mind. I still prefer physical music – CDs – to anything else. I like the ‘artefact’ I suppose. I can still devote myself to new (and old, or new to me) music but the life of a mid forties family man with commitments doesn’t give so much chance to do that.

Worth repeating here. Thanks for the article.

this is pretty devastating and beautiful in parts

http://www.juliehamill.com/post/74722538816/fifteen-minutes-with-vini-reilly-guitarist-with

Loved that interview. Got my reissue of Return of from Factory Benelux this week. Gorgeous packaging.

I love the Durutti Column

I couldn't wait for reissues and bit the bullet - Japanese CDs of "Another Setting" and "Without Mercy" are on their way to me.

Liked that interview a lot, he's amazingly humble for a man who's made so many music fans happy

I bought all the Factory Too reissues and the 6 CD box thing so I'm done with buying CDs. What's the deal with the Japanese reissues? Vinyl replicas?

Fantastic, heart-tugging interview — though I have to admit I winced a bit when I saw this topic upped, thinking it was because Vini had passed.

Can't wait for that Chronicle album to get released.

quite sad. its weird, i wouldnt associate violence with the guy but it seems to be a big issue in his life.

I love Vini Reilly

Also I'm happy about the weird Viva Hate royalty dispute being settled once and for all

I must admit I came away from that interview with a vague feeling of ... I dunno ... it felt weird to hear him underplaying what he brought to Viva Hate.

He's right that Late Night Maudlin Street is the highlight though. It has the most 'Durutti' guitar sound of any of the tracks.

Not weird for me, seems more like this "humble genius" thing where highly skilled people underestimate their talents. Also having a stroke and reflecting your life/artistic legacy could have changed his self-assessment.

reflecting on*

Do you guys know about the extra/missing track on some versions of "Return" ?

I had trouble following a lot of that Soundcloud interview, even at full volume.
When he was saying "dont laugh at me", I wasnt sure if he meant someone in the audience or if it was about him feeling belittled by some people in general or something else.
Also wondering if him talking about seeing an old lady getting beaten up is about something he saw happen or comparing that to the situation of some depressed people.
I kept rewinding it and still couldnt really hear.

In that other interview he said that he doesnt get royalties from his albums. Did he mean that he actually doesnt at all or that they dont sell well enough for him to get much?

DDD ... I think what I meant was that the guitar on much of "Viva Hate" is undeniably Vini-esque ... and so it feels uncomfortable to read him crediting Street with the skills and dismissing his own previous claims as "displaced anger", when perhaps he was absolutely justified in feeling un(der)credited ... whilst not feeling surprised to read him denying he's anything special. Can understand why he would want peace with others, at this point though.

He said he'd not "Sold anything" for 4 years, so I guess it's that.

I daresay he'll get a good amount from the new "Return of" reissue

I'd hope so...but I don't know how much profit something like is going to make.

I was actually disappointed (truly disappointed) that the guitar wasn't more distinctively identifiable as Vini. Seems like he compromised his sound for the album. Where are you hearing Vini-esque playing?

If I didn't know it was Vini Reilly, I wouldn't have guessed it was him on any of the tracks.

djh, now I understand what you mean. Regarding that VH dispute: AFAIK Street composed some demos and, after getting a "Yes" from Morrissey he got Reilly to play guitar on the studio tracks. He wasn't impressed with them though (dismissing them as three-chord crap) and fleshed them out, which for him was considered composing the tracks.

There's this interesting documentary from the (early?) 00s with literally every Morrissey solo album producer, T. Wilson and V. Reilly talking about his career. Viva Hate is discussed right after 5 minutes - Reilly and Street give their side of the story, this weird "session musician/composer" discrepancy that lead to this conflict.

Relistening now to find clear examples. There's a bit in the background on Little Man, What Now.

("led", not "lead")*

Bengali actually has some distinctive Vini-esque playing too.