The Durruti Column 1936 - A History of Buenaventura Durruti

This textual and audio-visual history of Buenaventura Durruti appears on the 'Sex and Death CD-ROM' was written by Anthony H. Wilson according to Bruce Mitchell. The narration is by Jimmy Hibbert who is a voiceover artist and screenwriter.

This historical document forms part of the ongoing restoration of the Sex and Death CD-ROM by John Cooper.

With special thanks to Bruce Mitchell.

Note: Buenaventura Durruti's name is misspelt as Durrutti and Durutti throughout the graphic cards original version of the cd-rom but it's shown correctly here in the transcript [pdf download].

Sargasso Sea featuring Caoilfhionn Rose - Behind The Scenes

A beautiful YouTube Short featuring Caoilfhionn Rose and Vini Reilly talking about 'Sargasso Sea' in honour of the 31 July 2026 release of the album 'Renascent'. This is one of the outstanding tracks from the album and it is deservedly getting played a lot.

Keir Stewart on Lauren Laverne BBC 6Music

Keir Stewart made a short appearance on Lauren Laverne's BBC 6Music show on Wednesday 5 August 2026.

He talks about how he started working with The Durutti Column in the mid-to-late nineties (and thought he had screwed up) and, more recently, about the complicated gestation of new album 'Renascent' including mobile recording studios, cars and lots of cables.

The whole thing runs about 15 minutes and it's available for playback via BBC Sounds for a limited time (and with possible geolocking restrictions for international listeners) with Keir's bit starting around 1 hour 59 minutes in.

Vini Reilly on Stuart Maconie's Freakzone

Vini Reilly was recently a special guest on Stuart Maconie's Freakzone on BBC 6Music. They chat about Vini's health, showy guitarists and the last album 'Renascent'.

Maconie also plays Echoes in the Memory, Your Shadow at Morning, Vapour on a Matchbox and Sargasso Sea.

The interview starts at about 45 minutes in and is available for 28 days via BBC iPlayer (blackouts may apply in some countries).

Sex and Death - The CD-ROM reconstructed

 

Facdr 2.11 Sex and Death - The CD-ROM was a pioneering technological advance for Factory Too back in 1995. The Durutti Column, Anthony H. Wilson and The Boot Room (aka the Bailey Brothers aka Phil Shotton and Keith Jobling) wanted to produce an interactive version of Durutti's then new album, 'Sex and Death'. CD-ROM technology was chosen and, although it was quite advanced at the time, it came with certain limitations, notably the overall data capacity of what was essentially a glorified CD-R. Both Mac and Windows PC versions were produced and the whole package was released in a box which came in a sandpaper outer sleeve in homage to the original 'The Return of the Durutti Column' album.

The CD-ROM was authored using a now obsolete technology called Macromedia Director. John Cooper used the ScummVM Director emulator for MacOS. Oddly the only version of the CD-ROM that would load into this was the Windows PC version. Although it was occasionally a bit jumpy and not all the menus worked as they should, he was able to extract screenshots and screen recordings of the CD-ROM in operation, the initial highlights of which are in this video.

This is the first work-in-progress video and there will probably be more. It may also be possible that this work leads to a full working reconstruction of the CD-ROM using modern technology but watch this space for more on that. 

Video Summary

• Intro screens and credits for Factory Too and The Boot Room
• Too Crazy Cowboys (the existentialists) discussing drifting in French
• Vini Reilly discussed guitars and other machines
• Vini Reilly discusses the medication he was on at the time
• The album's producer, Stephen Street, gives his notes on each of the tracks and then some general thoughts on the recording process and working with co-producer Vini Reilly
• We conclude with some answering machine messages (voicemails) including Stuart Jammer James, Holly Johnson to Vini, Tony Wilson (on Morrissey) to Vini, Nico to Bruce before ending on one from Vini.