The Culture Show

If you missed it tonight on BBC2, you can catch up with The Culture Show featuring The Durutti Column via the BBC iPlayer. The programme is also repeated on BBC2 at 00:00 on 26 July.

The programme itself featured new interview footage with Vini Reilly, Keir Stewart and Bruce Mitchell, brief rehearsal footage which also featured Poppy Morgan and, interspersed amongst all that, short clips recorded on Wednesday 15 July at the first night of the recent 'A Paean To Wilson' concerts.

A (Final) Paean To Wilson

The Durutti Column - A Paean to Wilson; Tony Wilson and Vini Reilly

Dave Simpson in The Guardian reviews the final night of A Paean To Wilson at the Pavilion Theatre in Albert Square, Manchester.

Apparently, before proceedings started Vini said "So you won't have to put up with my awful voice and schoolboy lyrics."

In summary, Simpson said, "After the humour came exquisitely mournful music. With Reilly and drummer Bruce Mitchell augmented by bass, keyboard, violin, electric piano, drum machine and trumpet, the band's beautiful pieces reflected Wilson's love of rock and classical. Reilly's plangent guitar work showed grief's emotional spectrum, from sadness to overdriven anger. As in life, Wilson had the last word, his recorded voice expounding thoughts on socialism with an eerie echo. Silence followed as Manchester pondered the loss of one of its truly larger-than-life characters. Then everybody cheered."

A fold-out poster booklet designed by Trevor Johnson was given away at all of the gigs. It features pen pictures of all the Durutti protagonists including John Metcalfe and Tim Kellett. The new box set Four Factory Records was available to buy at the Kooky stall - don't worry, there are still plenty left. And it was very hot. The first night was about 80% full but by the third and final night there was not a ticket to be had.

A Paean To Wilson will be featured on the BBC2 Culture Show on Wednesday 22 July.

Vini Reilly's Paean To Wilson

Vini Reilly pays his own personal tribute in words to Tony Wilson ahead of next week's MIF shows in an interview with Paul Taylor for City Life.

An obligation to be youthful

The Gonzo Drum Master

Check out a great interview with Bruce Mitchell, "the real Mr Manchester" by Dave Simpson in The Guardian.

Four Factory Records

Four Factory Records

The next album release by The Durutti Column is a 6-CD limited edition box set on Kooky Records entitled Four Factory Records. Containing the first four classic albums released on Factory Records, all newly remastered by Keir Stewart from the original master tapes, the set comprises:

The Return Of The Durutti Column
LC
Another Setting
Without Mercy

There are also two very limited bonus CDs:

Demos/Studio - demos, versions and outtakes from the period
Live - recordings from London, Glasgow, and Brighton 82/84

All this plus a package of interviews with the key protagonists from the period including Vini Reilly, Bruce Mitchell, John Metcalfe, Keir Stewart and Tim Kellett.

Advance copies will be available for sale at the Manchester International Festival shows 15-17 July 2009. It will then be available in all good record shops (actual and virtual) and direct from Kooky from September 2009. The project will be a total edition of 1,000 copies of which a limited number will include the two bonus discs.

Kooky has tried to make this lavish package available at a sensible price. If you can't make the MIF shows, please check back at the end of July when we will start taking pre-orders for mail order through Kooky.