New official merchandise via Viva Strange Boutique

The Durutti Column is pleased to announce new official clothing and other merchandise with our Japanese friends from Viva Strange.

Clothing options include the 'Without Mercy' long sleeve t-shirt, 'LC' sweatshirt and 'Return of...' blouson. Worldwide shipping is available.

Plus there's also an 'Another Setting' tote bag.

All products are available direct from vivastrangeboutique.com.

Meanwhile, Viva Strange is also on Twitter at twitter.com/VIVAstrange.

Kooky albums to be reissued on vinyl (finally)

It's a big welcome back to Kooky Records who have recently announced via durutti.co.uk that they will be releasing vinyl records of Kooky product mostly previously only available on CD over the next twelve months. These albums will be produced jointly by Kooky, durutti.co.uk and Cargo Records.

The planned albums are:

• Tempus Fugit
• Sunlight to Blue... Blue to Blackness
• Chronicle XL
• A 7" Single (details tbc)
• A Paean to Wilson

All vinyl will be 180gm with anti-static inner sleeves. Download codes are not planned but bonus CDs may be included.

A limited amount of each pressing will be on coloured vinyl. The limited runs will be at independent record shops.

These won't be Record Store Day releases and all profits from digital and physical sales will go to the band.

Details are still being finalised but if you have any questions about these releases please direct your attention to durutti.co.uk.

See also:

- all the original albums on Kooky

Vini Reilly [Factory Benelux, FBN 244 CD]

Factory Benelux presents an expanded 2CD edition of Vini Reilly, the acclaimed seventh studio album. Originally released by Factory Records in 1989, the album has now been newly remastered with 23 bonus tracks including companion single WOMAD Live.

Produced by Vini Reilly and Stephen Street (The Smiths, Morrissey, Blur), the original working title of the Vini Reilly album was The Durutti Column Sampler. "People describe them as found samples and found voices," explained Vini at the time. "I always build up a catalogue of interesting loops and voice samples and stuff. Then I forget where I got them from a lot of the time, which is quite convenient... A lot of the time I manipulate the sample anyway, so it's singing my tune, rather than the original tune."

Stand-out tracks include Otis, Love No More and My Country. "The tune always comes from playing the guitar," added Vini. "As soon as I pick a guitar up I'll come up with a tune. I don't know whether it's good or bad - but there's always a tune there."

The sleeve itself samples Bob Dylan circa Highway 61 Revisited, showcasing an iconic portrait by Mark Warner. Indeed much about the album flirts with mainstream culture, being a deliberate attempt to position Reilly as a 'pop' artist following his chart-topping collaboration with Morrissey on Viva Hate. This collaboration was further celebrated on bonus track 'For Steven Patrick'.

Other bonus tracks on this 2020 double-disc remaster include a multitude of demos and outtakes from the same period (some previously issued on The Sporadic Recordings in 1989), plus all four tracks from pristine performance CD WOMAD Live. Recorded at the WOMAD Festival in Cornwall in August 1988, the core Durutti duo of Vini Reilly and Bruce Mitchell are here augmented by Andy Connell on keys and Chinese opera singer Liu Sola.

A third, optional bonus cd, contains 'I Know Very Well How I Got My Note Wrong', an outtake from the Viva Hate sessions with Morrissey.

Available via Factory Benelux Mailorder.