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).

The Guardian Q&A on departed friends, Factory Records and fun with Morrissey

Vini Reilly, Bruce Mitchell and Keir Stewarts answer readers' questions about The Durutti Column in an excellent Q&A session curated by Dave Simpson in The Guardian.

Vini Reilly interview in Scream City 4

Vini Reilly's 2008 interview with Phil Cleaver which was first published in the fourth issue of Scream City fanzine [->] is now available as part of the digital reissue of said publication. Written around the time of the 'Sunlight to Blue... Blue to Blackness' album it goes into some depth on the Fac 2 A Factory Sample release.

There is also an article by the late Colin Sharp who was member of the very first line-up of The Durutti Column. 'Travel for Pleasure Alone' also includes an extract from Colin's book 'Who Killed Martin Hannett'.

Vini Reilly @ Chorlton Arts sold out

Vini Reilly's onstage interview with Dave Haslam together with a special live performance at the Chorlton Arts Festival [->] on 21 May 2014 has now sold out. The performance takes place at Wilbraham St Ninian's Church in Chorlton and will be Vini's first performance proper since April 2011.

Vini Reilly onstage interview and live show

It's been rather quiet round here so we're very pleased to be able to announce that Vini Reilly will be appearing onstage in an interview with Dave Haslam and playing live at the Chorlton Arts Festival on Wednesday 21 May 2014.

This will be Vini's first extended public performance for nearly three years following several minor strokes.

The venue is Wilbraham St Ninian's Church in Chorlton, Manchester and tickets are on sale now priced 9.00 GBP (plus booking fee) via WeGotTickets.

An Afternoon with Vini and Bruce (Part 1)

The Durutti Column 2013: An Afternoon with Vini Reilly and Bruce Mitchell (Part One) by James McGrath

Introduction

Guitarist and vocalist Vini Reilly, now 60, and drummer Bruce Mitchell, 73, tend to avoid discussing their band The Durutti Column in terms of genre or tradition. Throughout the interview on which this profile is based, the word both that both Reilly and Mitchell most often emphasise is music.

Their collection Return of the Sporadic Recordings (2002) – one of nearly forty Durutti Column albums since 1980 – ends the Manchester duo heard being pressed, and hesitating on, the question of category. In November 1986, leaving Toronto (with a tape recorder, evidently), they were asked by customs officials about their purpose for travelling to Washington DC. The drummer – who has also acted for long periods as The Durutti Column's manager – handled these formalities. Mitchell politely explained: "We're doing concerts. We're a group".

"What kind of group are you?" the official persisted.

Mitchell paused, then deferred to Reilly. "What kind of group are we?"

The guitarist answered: "Avant-garde jazz classical".

While Reilly's phrase has stuck, subsequent decades have seen the Durutti Column explore further areas, including electronic music, dance, ragga, trance, and folk. Originally managed by Alan Erasmus and Tony Wilson, Reilly was the first artist adopted by Manchester's anarchically independent Factory Records in 1978. The Durutti Column, of all Factory artists, remained perhaps the closest to Wilson, both personally and philosophically. Mitchell, primarily a jazz drummer, joined Reilly in 1981 and remains The Durutti Column's only other constant member.

Effectively affirming its celebrated ethos of prioritising aesthetic gains over financial profits, Factory culminated in bankruptcy in 1992. The Durutti Column continued releasing new albums on Wilson's next label, Factory Too, until 1998. Since then, they have prolifically issued a series of albums on further independent labels, mainly Artful and Kookydisc. Since 2012, several of their older, otherwise hard to find albums have been reissued in new editions by Factory Benelux (recently resurrected by author James Nice, who worked for the original, Belgium-based Factory Benelux in the 1980s).

The following profile of The Durutti Column is based on my meeting with Mitchell and Reilly in January 2013, as well as interviews with various collaborators and observers of this intriguing band. I approached The Durutti Column about an interview because, after completing a cultural history article on Factory Records for the journal Manchester Region History Review (June 2013), I remained frustrated by the relative scarcity of in-depth interviews with Reilly and Mitchell.

While Reilly is often profiled in connection with new projects and events, such interviews, while always intriguing, tend to be published in necessarily short forms. It was also noticeable that the band's two key members tended to be interviewed separately, almost as if reluctantly taking this in turns. Indeed, occasional media interviews to promote new releases are perhaps the only serious concessions the aesthetically independent Durutti Column make towards commercial concerns. I wanted to ask them about various aspects of their history, particularly in relation to Factory, as well as their more recent work and plans for the future. Kindly, they agreed. The interview ran to over 10,000 words, also yielding a separate, much shorter profile in The Big Issue magazine. As well as discussing their music at a somewhat uncertain point, amidst (by their standards) a long pause between albums, the conversation shows Reilly and Mitchell talking candidly about the guitarist's illness, and how fans supported him through a financial crisis.

Bruce in Didsbury

Phone calls to and from Bruce Mitchell to finalise arrangements for this interview were almost humorously brief, each ending decisively though cheerily with his "Okayee". We meet on a bright winter Saturday by Didsbury's clock-tower. Four miles south of Manchester's centre, Didsbury, where Bruce had other things to attend to earlier today, is a pleasingly suitable place to meet for an interview. Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus and producer Martin Hannett lived here throughout most of Factory's 1978-92 history, as did a network of other key Factory figures, including Bruce himself, sometimes with Vini as a lodger. From 1978-1990, the headquarters of Factory Records were located in Erasmus's flat on West Didsbury's Palatine Road.

A strikingly-dressed individual, often donning a monocle, Bruce also uses numerous distinctive vehicles, including a 1936 Austin 7. On tours, he takes a folding bicycle, which he transports inside his bass drum. Today however, he's in a Land Rover, the back of which is full of stage equipment. As virtually anyone who uses a stage in the North West knows, Bruce Mitchell runs his own sound and lighting company, and has done since the 1970s.

Bruce's onstage presence is famously charismatic. Even before he picks up his brushes at the drum-kit, he invariably draws boisterous applause, as do his intense yet jovial drum solos. Audience cheers for Reilly are equally impassioned, but carry a different tone, conveying a heartfelt welcome and perhaps also a sense of protectiveness, followed by awed silence.

Seemingly without exception, the drummer leaves it to Reilly to address the audiences from the stage, and it is hard to know what to expect when meeting Bruce, who has on occasion been ‘interviewed' on radio beside Vini, only to remain silent throughout. "Bruce is a real old gentleman", says Peter Hook, emphasising real. Dave Haslam adds: "It's always a pleasure to meet Bruce and I see him a lot. But he's choosy about who to hang out with. He's a busy man."

The impression that Bruce gives throughout this afternoon is that of a hard-working yet gentle, warm-hearted man, whose energy and work ethic wholly obscure the fact that he passed retirement age eight years ago. I begin by mentioning to Bruce that, like himself and his wife Jacqueline (an artist), I was a close friend of the American poet Linda Chase, who moved to Manchester in 1980 and died in 2011. Chase lived on Palatine Road in Didsbury, a few blocks up from Factory's headquarters. Opening an outbuilding (‘The Village Hall') of her Victorian home to a spectacular range of literary events and classes, Linda Chase was to poetry in Manchester something like what Tony Wilson was to music. These circles often linked. 

"I've always loved poetry", Bruce explains. "I was at Linda's memorial and I still have the photo from the service on my office wall. In my phone, in the notes bit, I'm always adding lines bits of poetry I've read. I read all sorts. I'm in bookshops all the time. I'm a big Christopher Hitchens fan, and have read most of his books, but I particularly love poetry. Larkin I especially love, and Betjeman. Every now and then, a Carol Ann Duffy poem gets me going. It's all about the right word, isn't it? The way it sits. And of course, there's John Cooper Clarke."

John Cooper Clarke was managed by the late Martin Hannett, of whom Bruce was a close, longstanding friend. Does Bruce still have contact with the poet?

"Yes. John is doing fantastic now. I recorded his show at Chester not long ago. He's written a modern version of ‘Beasley Street', where he calls it ‘Beasley Boulevard'. John's such good company. He'll come round the house, and just having him in the room, watching television and commenting on everything, it's a really good night. He never stops."  

As Bruce's Land Rover passes across South Manchester, he sounds greetings to various passing individuals who clearly know him, including several youngsters carrying guitars. While I'm still not sure where we're actually going, I ask if Vini will be there. "I'm taking you to Vini's place" is the reply. Bruce had conveyed a day earlier that with Vini's health remaining vulnerable following three strokes, the guitarist may or may not be present for the interview. However, "Today, he's having a good day". 

Vini

Bruce does not merely knock on Vini Reilly's front door; he momentarily treats it as a percussion instrument. Once Vini – after a minute or so – opens the door, the two bandmates embrace. The guitarist, wearing several layers of jumpers, then warmly shakes my hand, and the three of us sit in the living room of his small, rented house.

Like his sung vocals, Reilly's speaking voice is quiet but compellingly assertive, rarely hesitating or pausing for long. When Vini talks of past experiences, even those he has described in previous interviews, he seems to convey almost everything of the emotion he felt at the time. As well as some raw sadness, there is also plenty of laughter this afternoon, especially when Vini's reminiscences join with Bruce's.

In numerous interviews, as well as lyrics, Vini angrily denounces injustices, not least those emanating from the British government. His lyrics imagining the lives of war victims, whether soldiers or civilians, are as emotionally intense as his songs of personal loss. Depictions of Reilly in Factory-related writings often allude to (and reinforce) his reputation for possessing an unpredictable temper. Peter Hook affectionately but quite clearly summarises: "Vini does not suffer fools gladly". It's noticeable, though, that Reilly's angriest public statements usually refer to "some people", "some journalists", or, in political protest songs "you". Seldom, if ever, has he singled out individuals by name for any resentment.

By contrast, when conveying admiration or thanks, Vini's compositions invoke a vast network of friends, through titles including ‘For Colette', ‘For Danny', ‘For Bruse' and ‘For Belgian Friends'. Similarly, when Vini speaks of individuals from Manchester's many music circles, there is, in a different way for each person he singles out, an affirmatively loving tone.  I start by mentioning a 2005 Durutti Column instrumental, ‘Alan'. With Wilson, Alan Erasmus was Vini's manager throughout the Factory years.

"Alan had a massively important role in the whole running of Factory," Vini explains. "I was managed by both Alan and Tony together, but Alan was the one that first mentioned me to Tony. Alan had seen me play with the Nosebleeds, supporting Fast Breeder. Fast Breeder were managed by someone else by that time, but Alan still knew them all. He was always very good at choosing people. Alan is very sussed. I'm still very good friends with him."

"When the two of them were thinking about forming Factory, Alan brought Tony to meet me. I was very depressed at the time, and I ignored him! Alan brought Tony Wilson in and I ignored him. I was living at my girlfriend's house, with her parents. But Alan and Tony came again. Tony wanted me to be involved, which I didn't understand. I was very depressed and thought it was a ludicrous idea. But the more I said I didn't want to be a part of this, the more Tony said he wanted me involved. Alan had heard me play, Tony hadn't. Tony had never heard me play a note. But he talked me round to being a part of Factory."

So ill was Reilly with a stomach complaint at the start of his career that NME's February 1980 profile of him was near-obituaric in tone. Max Bell began the piece by recounting Wilson's warnings to him about Reilly's precarious health, and of it being impossible to interview the guitarist at certain times of day, because he was in so much pain after eating. As well as modestly reflecting on The Durutti Column's newly-released first album The Return of the Durutti Column (January 1980), Reilly's own comments to NME addressed his longstanding and ongoing affliction with depression.

Although, by 1980, numerous musicians had died from overdosing, the subjects of depression and suicide were rarely discussed with any depth in popular culture. Some responses in the music press to the death of Ian Curtis in May 1980 would later be criticized for glorifying and/or trivialising his suicide. But perhaps these simply marked a less (or maybe that should be even less) helpful cultural vocabulary for discussing mental health at that time.

In different ways, figures including Morrissey, Paul Morley, and Stephen Fry have confronted the subjects of depression and suicide in their work and interviews. With comparable eloquence, Reilly, though less well-known, had already been speaking and singing about depression with rare candour for several years.

Blues is not usually a tradition associated with Reilly's music, but lyrically, there is comparable consolation offered in his recurring lyrical motifs, such as "another sleepless night for me" and "the first cigarette of the day". While often emotionally stark, Reilly's compositions are also statements of survival. Perhaps in some ways this is related to the deep admiration that he has inspired in fans around the world.

"Vini's got lots of serious fans," Bruce comments. "Nowadays, a lot of the expressions from fans come less in the post than in messages to the website. Some of them are disturbing, lots are illuminating. All of them in different ways are reinforcing how important the music is to people."

Love in the Time of Recession

The fortnight prior to the interview saw Reilly become the focus of an unusual degree of attention from the mainstream media, as well as online music communities. Since autumn 2010, Reilly has suffered three strokes. In April 2011, The Durutti Column played in York, and then at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. At both events, Vini commented onstage that the strokes had affected his playing. "We love you anyway, Vini", an audience member shouted in York, prompting much applause.

Occasional updates on Reilly's health were later posted on the Durutti Column's website. In December 2012, it was announced that Vini was selling a set of headphones worth £2,000. It emerged that, having been unable to work for some time, Reilly was facing what was, for his modest living standards, a serious level of financial debt, and was unable to cover basic costs of electricity and even food.

A Facebook group was swiftly established by fans expressing their wish to support Vini by establishing a PayPal account to help raise the funds. After considerable persuasion, Vini's family agreed to this, with his nephew, Matt Reilly, dealing with most of the practicalities. The donation account was swiftly publicised thanks to websites such as Quietus, and even before the story was picked up by the BBC and The Guardian, the funds were raised, and the account had closed.

"When the money came in, I was shocked. Absolutely stunned," Vini emphasises. "It gave me enough money to pay the most important debt, which was to the landlord. The landlord's a really nice guy and he's let me live here without paying any rent, but I couldn't go on like that. There were also bills. That debt's now paid off, thanks to all those people. And throughout all of this, Bruce and his family have continually supported me."

Bruce returns the subject to Vini's fans. "I think a lot of the PayPal donations came from outside the country." Vini has a strong following in Japan, as well as across South America and Europe (particularly Portugal).

Does Vini himself use social media?

"I've got iTunes, I've got my photographs, but that's all I have. I don't use the internet. I've got an iPhone, but I don't know fully how to use it. Bruce's son-in-law set up an email account for me but I can never remember the password. I can't use the stuff."

Bruce to Vini: "I tell you what, it'd do your head in, kid."

So how is Vini, healthwise, at the start of 2013?

"I've not been well but there are people a lot worse than me. There's a hospice down the road where there are children dying. There are a lot of people a hell of a lot worse than me. I've had a life. I've been all over the fucking world playing music. It's been the best thing in the world.  I've got my dream. I'm alright."

However, throughout their career, the Durutti Column's live performances have been irregular. "We don't really tour, do we Bruce? We never really have. We do three gigs and then we're alright."

Bruce: "When I'm actually up there, playing the drums, it's the best part of the day. It's the only decent part of the day if I've spent the last few hours trying to get Vin along to the gig in the first place."

Despite the infrequency of their live work, and despite the extensive financial troubles that Vini has experienced in the 1990s following Factory's decline, The Durutti Column's onstage performances have often been for charities. The recent support for Reilly seems well-deserved.  Health permitting, what are his next musical plans?

"I'm doing a record for the children's hospice.  We've started to plan it. Hooky is going to play bass. John Cooper Clarke is going to do some poetry, and I'm playing guitar. It's a version of ‘All Along the Watchtower', and it's going to be a really tight rock version. And the other idea is going to be for a rap tune; this bunch of rappers, and me doing a guitar solo."

The Durutti Column's 2013 line-up – and a new album?

The Durutti Column's current line-up, Vini clarifies, consists of himself and Bruce with Michaela Turner Nolan, Keir Stewart and John Metcalfe.

"Michaela Turner Nolan, a new singer I've found, is ridiculously good", Vini enthuses. "She's a wonderful lyricist and she sings just beautifully. She has a great natural voice and a serious talent. So as regards the next album, I'm feeling in full flight."

"Vini in full flight", Bruce proudly states, "can knock out an album a week."

In the past, Vini has recorded numerous tracks at home. Does he still?

"I record wherever I can. Usually at the moment, it's with Keir in his studio, in the basement of his house". Keir Stewart began working with the Durutti Column in the mid-1990s, subsequently becoming their main producer. Onstage, Keir oversees the various samples used, also playing bass, plus acoustic guitar. He has also worked with The Fall, Badly Drawn Boy and Elbow.

Bruce: "Keir's doing well. He also does a lot of work for film-makers. He's just finished dubbing various things for a new Tom Hanks film. He had a good run, which meant we could never get him because he was always fully booked for these cartoon and film projects. But he's just about got enough room coming up for some brief instrumentals."

Another key musician for the Durutti Column remains violinist John Metcalfe.

"John's been playing with us on and off for years", Bruce explains. "We first worked with him on Without Mercy [1984]. We recorded it in a barn, near Moston, and John just came into the studio. We were frightened to death weren't we – you remember, Vini?" They both laugh. "Tony had booked him. John came along as the advisor to the horn section. Shaved head, looking as though he'd just committed a couple of murders on the way. He's an astonishing musician. Vini and him used to fight, though".

"Yes we did," Vini smiles. "But I gradually realised that I couldn't play with any other string player than John Metcalfe."

The Durutti Column's live shows of the last ten years have had a very different sound to their earlier performances, as heard on, say, Live at the Venue (1983) or One Night in New York (1987). In their stage performances since the mid-1990s – none of which have been released as recordings, frustratingly – there has been, it seems, a much greater element of improvisation between Vini and Bruce, often building on guitar feedback.

"After a certain point, the live shows sounded different because I like to take this Stratocaster". Vini touches his favourite guitar – the only musical instrument in his living room. "It's got a fast, narrow neck. When I first saw it, I thought it was a Les Paul. It's handmade. It was ridiculously expensive. I was in a music shop in Hazel Grove and I took it down off the wall. It just felt right. This was about twenty years ago. It's a great guitar. Wilson paid for this guitar".

Bruce: "The shop was run by a guitar player, Garry. He's a guitar expert. Vin goes to him for consultancy. I remember Garry calling me and saying ‘Vin just chose the most expensive instrument I've ever had'. But an instrument is expensive for very certain reasons. And this one suits Vini's playing really well. But you didn't take it into the studio last time, did you?"

Vini: "No, because I was so unsteady on my feet. I didn't want to drop it or bang it. But that guitar's a beautiful piece of work. It's got such a tone. On Fleetwood Mac's ‘Albatross', it's a similar guitar that Peter Green's playing."

This is news to Bruce. "I never realised that!  I stood next to him when he was playing that at the BBC for Top of the Pops."

At this point, Vini's sister Loretta calls by for a quick visit, and I am privileged to hear Bruce Mitchell improvise a song, ‘Loretta, I Feel Better'.

While she and Vini chat, Bruce describes the complicated background to the Durutti Column's most recent album, Chronicle (2011).

Chronicle 1 and LX: Chronicle 2

"There's got to be a fairly even putting out of music," Bruce explains. "Some of the time, it has to be back catalogue. It keeps Vin's royalties at a certain level. It's a very modest level, but most of the time, it keeps him rolling along. It's like this for a lot of musicians. Thank God I've got a proper job as well."

"So there are two versions of Chronicle. We did a special edition for the gig at the Bridgewater Hall, where people could get the album as part of a premium ticket deal. In 2011, we premiered the music there, with all Vini's photographs up on the screen. That was the last gig really. The following day, Phil Cleaver from Kooky said he'd got back home to find his emails full of requests to buy one. So they all sold out, immediately. Then some titles changed. But Vin had become really ill by then."

"It was a big, expensive recording, Chronicle. And Vin did this second version, taking all aspects of musical life. So there's Chronicle 1 and Chronicle 2. What I wanted Vini to do as a composer was something similar to Elgar's Enigma Variations. A piece of music about certain people in a life. I wanted him to do this and link the music to photographs he'd taken over the years. Vin's a great photographer."

However, Reilly remains the Durutti Column's indisputable leader, and had the last say. Bruce continues: "I didn't quite get what I wanted, because in the end, Vini wanted the album to be about the break-up with his girlfriend. We just couldn't afford to get it out at that time because Vin was in such a bad way. Plus, I was busy helping him to organise things with benefits. But it's there, and we've got some very interesting, very powerful music on this."

Rejoining us, Vini asserts: "For the next album, I want to do something different."

Part Two of this profile includes Vini and Bruce discussing The Durutti Column's early work and key figures in Factory's history, plus – albeit somewhat enigmatically – the climactic closing piece of their live act for a decade, the unreleased ‘Revolver'. Peter Hook, CP Lee, Dave Haslam, and jazz drummer Katie Patterson also share their observations of The Durutti Column. © James McGrath, 2013.

--

James McGrath lectures in English and Music at Leeds Metropolitan University and
writes for The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His poems have appeared in Smiths Knoll, International Times, PN Review, Shadowtrain, The Beast at Cards, DreamCatcher and The Interpreter's House.

Vini Reilly Town Hall interview for CALM

This is a recording via Soundcloud of 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.

Over to Dave: "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 - see previous post); 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."

State of the Nation

Visit thequietus.com for a new interview with Vini Reilly by John Mullen.

Close Up with Vini Reilly (updated)

23 Feb update: Vini will play at least one song as part of his interview appearance. John Bramwell of I Am Kloot is also confirmed to play an unplugged set on the night.

--

Dave Haslam presents another in his ongoing series of Close Up events on Sunday 3 March 2013. The live onstage interview with Vini Reilly is a chance to find out more about Vini at a unique event in the historic surroundings of Manchester Town Hall. All profits from the event will go to CALM, a charity that reaches out to suicidal young men.

This event is brought to you by the team behind 'Thirty One Songs', a compilation album which was released in February 2012 to raise money for CALM. Among the artists featured on the album are Elbow, Everything Everything, I Am Kloot, Delphic, Lonelady and The Durutti Column. Copies of the album will be on sale at the Town Hall.

Tickets are available now priced £7.00 from Quay Tickets.

www.thirtyonesongs.com

The Return of Vini Reilly

A 2001 24 Hour Party People website (FAC 433) feature retrieved from the depths of the internet comprises an in-depth feature on The Durutti Column and an interview with Vini Reilly. Some minor typos and spellings have been corrected to protect the innocent...

THE RETURN OF VINI REILLY

We explore long running Factory signing Durutti Column, and get a rare chance to speak with enigmatic front man Vini...

Despite fourteen albums and countless releases on a multitude of Manchester record rarities, Durutti Column remain quietly on the sidelines of popular awareness. Never quite achieving the global-munching success of their long-running label mates, New Order, the band have profically released record after record of beautifully crafted guitar soundscapes, and written themselves into Manchester's music history.

Durutti Column emanate from the guitarmanship of front man Vini Reilly, who himself was initially invited to join the band by its manager, and long running friend Tony Wilson. In 1978, the music scene was in a time of great flux - punk was sending shocks through the old establishment and opening the floodgates to a new era of musical lawlessness. Right in the middle of it all, Factory Records started up to give musicians the freedom to exert that. Vini joined Durutti Column, a name derived from two sources - firstly from Spanish revolutionary Buenaventura Durruti, who led his 6,000 'column' of men in a charge in a failed bid to liberate Saragossa, and secondly from the antics of think-tank Situationists Internationale, who decided to be really rebellous and paper up the streets of Strasbourg with posters stating "The Return of the Durutti Column" It's possible some of the effect was lost in their mis-spelling of Durruti, but this cannot be confirmed.

The Durutti Column started off promisingly, featuring on the very first Factory release (FAC-2), The Factory Sampler, along with Joy Division. However, after in-fighting, most of the members left, leaving Vini to carry on the Durutti name.

The first proper Durutti release was the debut album, The Return of the Durutti Column, recorded in two days in a studio with infamous producer Martin Hannett. Stories about the legendary über-producer run for pages, but no one could dispute his vision. "Quite amazing, but he would drive you mad" recalls Vini, "He would spent days listening to the sound of a bass drum, just one bass drum, over and over and over again. You'd have to leave the studio and leave him to it. The end result was an overall identity to an album that it wouldn't otherwise have had, so he really was quite incredible, way way ahead of his time, an amazing producer."

Vini's contributions were no less unique - tracks were often improvised, recorded in one take, and then never played again. In this manner The Return Of The Durutti Column was carved and released on Factory. A sweeping guitar soundtrack, the sound was more Gone With The Wind than Slaughter and the Dogs.

How did he fit in with the revolution going on around him?

"After punk you could do anything you wanted. There were no rules, you didn't have to sound like Roxy Music or whoever, you could just do whatever you wanted, mess about and experiment, and just be yourself. The idea of doing very personal guitar pieces, pre-1977, would be a joke really, you'd be a big old fart and generally be stale and boring, consigned to the folk/rock thing or whatever. But post-punk, it was something else, it became something other, and so it fits in to a degree with all the other mish-mash of strange things that were going on."

In fact, it wasn't just the punk ethos that Vini shared - his initial foray into the Manchester music scene comprised a brief stint with the understatedly-named Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds. Yet another contradiction?

"I'd told the rest of the band that we'd be confrontationalists." Vini counters. "So for example when we played the Roxy in London, which was the venue to play, even though we had a full set of songs, I said 'No, we're just going to play two songs all night, that's it, and keep playing the same two songs and wind them up' which we did. The audience went absolutely beserk, and consequently we were asked to play again and again, because that was what was required. But I would also do things like sit with my back to the audience and play a very melodic guitar piece, which was what I'd always been doing all my life anyway, and the punks were totally confused by this, and baffled and maybe hostile, but at least it was a reaction, and I thought that was valid."

From then on, Vini, frequently accompanied by percussionist Bruce Mitchell, would jump into the studio whenever Factory money allowed it. The Durutti Column album recording sessions are more about moments than organised and methodical planning - 1981's album LC was recorded on a four-track in Vini's mother's bedroom, after Vini happened upon a basic drum machine. "It's all kind of organic and experimental, messing about. Very self-indulgent." says Vini, with typical humility.

To Vini, the extensive back catalogue of DC material doesn't hold much interest. He owns very little of it - not even the legendary cover to the debut album, made of sandpaper, so that other records would get damaged in the rack - "I can't bear to listen to them. My friends will tell you that, a lot of them I don't actually own copies of. They're not very good." One might think we are verging on another contradiction, but Vini goes on: "But then I find the idea of recording an album and going round and listening to it for the next year, I think that's a bit sad really. The other thing is that by the time an album is released, it's usually quite a while since you finished recording it, by which time you've written a whole batch of new stuff and you play that and that's what's making the switches click."

Factory Records provided Vini with the means to produce the albums, but also did not demand anything in return. The famous artists' contract at Factory consisted of one simple phrase - "All our artists have freedom - the freedom to fuck off." And nowhere was this more true than with Vini - he was not required to do any of the usual press rounds or interviews, a chore he resents greatly - "I find it very difficult doing interviews about an album, let alone doing gigs to promote it. If I'm asked to do interviews after I've made an album, by the time you get to do the interviews, you're sick to death of the album, and you've realised its failings and where it falls down. The truth is that it usually isn't a really fantastic album and I'm not usually very proud of it. So that's it, I'm kind of stuck with that."

Despite his astonishing natural ability on the guitar, Vini has rarely farmed out his talent as a session musician. The one exception to this is his work on Morrissey's first solo album after The Smiths, Viva Hate (1988). Brought in to be the guitarist and keyboard player under producer Stephen Street, Vini found himself immediately unhappy at the situation: "I've no wish to criticise him [Street], but the songs that he had written, the chord structures were so banal and unbelievably trite that I said I would only make the album and be part of it if I could rewrite every note of every song from scratch."

Amazingly, they agreed, although contractually Street had to keep his writing credits. Vini went through and re-arranged everything, deconstructing every track except single Suedehead. Vini found the experience incredibly enjoyable, even though it required learning a completely different recording discipline to one he was used to. "I enjoyed the challenge of it really. Some of them were so abstract that they barely existed and it was only when the backing track was completed and Morrissey came in and did his lyrics over the top of it and sang that you could tell where the verse and chorus were. Because up until that point the verse could have been the chorus and the chorus could have been the verse. There was no structure. And then I'd adjust the pieces to make them make sense."

The album was, of course a major success, but Vini's relationship with the similarly reclusive Morrissey ended on a sour note, when asked to work on the follow up. "I'd felt I'd already done that side of my repetoire or my experience or whatever, so I didn't really have any interest in it." he explains. "So I turned it down, and Morrissey hasn't spoken to me since then, to this day." Vini pauses, and considers. "I think he just didn't understand why I would turn it down. I think he took it as a personal sleight, which is a shame, because it certainly wasn't that."

If Viva Hate was a pleasureable experience, the Durutti Column's latest release was the very antithesis. Recorded over the last eighteen months, with a colossal year-long gap in the middle while the producer wrangled over contracts with the record company, the Rebellion sessions could not have been set against a more turbulent time in Vini's life. Coping not only with the death of his brother and the serious illness of his mother, Vini was undergoing serious financial problems, drawn into court seven times with the bailiffs. The years with Factory Records left him with messy accounts and large debts. "I've had to sell my my home. All kinds of stuff. I've had to sell my flat and just try to avoid bankruptcy, as well as my family stuff. It's just been very very diffcult, a very hard time. So to record an album through that period was difficult, but we did manage it, so I'm pleased to that extent."

To some musicians, a turbulent time can produce the most inspiring music, but this is not the case for Vini. "Trying to make music was very very very hard, really hard. I found it very difficult. Couldn't concentrate at all. But, I'm now in the situation where I've got no creditors, and I've paid off all my debts but I don't have a home anymore."

Vini's personal life has always been a difficult area, with Durutti Column receiving much publicity in the early days about Vini's "anorexia" problem. "People who make instant judgements, they decide that I'm either a junkie or anorexic, and I'm neither.. it's a bit funny really" he says, lightly. "A lot of experts, supposedly, diagnosed me as anorexic for a long time until I went to see a specialist who realised that it was nothing to do with anorexia whatsoever. Not even related to it. I had no appetite and once I had eaten, because I was so stressed, my stomach was very tense and wouldn't digest food very easily, so it would limit how much I could eat and I had a great deal of discomfort."

The Durutti Column and Vini (both as a character and a cameo) do appear in 24 Hour Party People, but Vini has distanced himself from the project. "I wasn't really that interested, because for me it's kind of gone, that record company went under and besides that I sacked Tony Wilson maybe 18 months before the record company collapsed. I'd left Factory anyhow by then, so I was only academically interested vaguely. I've kind of moved on now, I've got a new album out with another record company and I'm doing that now."

Despite having sacked Tony in the last months of Factory's existence, Vini still holds kind words about Manchester's televisual mascot. "He had incredible vision, which nobody else had. I remember with the Haçienda when there'd be sixteen people, and it would be cold and miserable and everyone would be going 'Pull out, pull out now because you're losing so much money' and Tony would just say 'No, it's going to be the best club in the world, and it's going to be the most famous club in the world.' And certainly in Manchester he was determined that it should be so. And he could see that it would be. So he did have that vision, and he had the guts to see it through and put his money where his mouth was. I think he was quite extraordinary."

Rebellion, Vini's latest album, is released through Artful Records, is out now. But after 23 years releasing records, has he finally created something he can be proud of? "Again, not musically much of an achievement I don't think. I don't think it's a particularly good album. But I'm hoping the next one will be. Hopefully things will have settled down a bit." But then, this is no insult to the record - Vini has not liked any of his recordings. Perhaps he is just the wrong person to ask..."

The History of Amigos Em Portugal

Check out the Diazepam 0.5 blog for a new interview with The Durutti Column on the making of vintage album Amigos Em Portugal.

Vini Reilly - "I'm certainly not suicidal any more"

Read a revealing new interview with Vini Reilly at City Life. Vini reveals his anguish following his stroke and details of his next live plans - some low-key Manchester pub gig appearances with The Bigheads.

A Manchester Situational

There is an extensive interview with Vini Reilly (with occasional contributions by Bruce Mitchell) by Wilson Neate at Blurt Online.

In this brief extract, Vini and Bruce talk about Tony Wilson:

BLURT: Most of us knew Tony Wilson only via his media persona; how did the Tony Wilson you knew differ from that?

REILLY: He differed enormously. He was the same only in the sense that he was very confident, but people mistook that confidence for arrogance. He was always being described as an arrogant person, but, in truth, he was one of the most humble people I've ever met. He would never consider any task too trivial. For example, I remember that on rainy, muddy nights he'd be there helping carry equipment for our rehearsals, and on another occasion he was sweeping the floor after everyone had gone home. He was different [from that public image] in many ways. He was also very, very sensitive -- extremely sensitive -- even though he had a smoke screen of a persona, which was the only possible way he could function in the face of some of the hard-core, hard-nosed businessmen that he had to deal with. And also, some of the musicians were very awkward to deal with, so he developed this persona, which enabled things to just bounce off him. You know, people would say the most disparaging things about him, and it would be like water off a duck's back. He developed that persona over the years to a point where people thought that really was him, but he was actually a very generous-natured, warm, lovely human being. People didn't really perceive him in that way -- and I don't think he wanted people to perceive him in that way.

MITCHELL: Yes, that persona was a separate thing, as Vini says. It was a stitch-on piece of work that he enjoyed -- the laddishness of it. Nice and abrasive, we thought. But it's the way he had to be, don't you think? With some of the musicians he had! But he was always stimulating and interesting. He was ever so curious and shockingly clever. All the time. You know the Kurosawa film, Rashomon? It's like the Rashomon effect. I'm one of the "viewers" that liked him a lot: uncompromisingly. Even though he could be really badly behaved, I would always support anything that Tony did. I learnt an enormous amount off him. I'm ten years older than Tony, but I would very often defer to his judgment rather than mine. So I was a solid fan, without reservations.

Read the full article at Blurt Online.

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.

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.

Things I Have Learned

There's a new interview with Vini Reilly by Alex Ogg in The Quietus under the title Always The Bridesmaid, Never The Bride with topics covering cross-dressing, Manchester City, the Sandpaper Sleeve and writing songs.

Vini Reilly's Self-Portrait in MOJO

Reilly by Vini

Vini contributes both literally and artistically to the new edition of MOJO (#186) as part of their Self-Portrait series.

Above a hand-drawn and signed portrait (see right - "Rabbit pie, yummee!"), Vini answers questions such as what his most treasured possession is (his handmade 1967 Juan Montero Aguilera guitar and his Fender custom Strat), his biggest regret (that he's never made a decent album) and what his formal qualifications are (won music prize at his Catholic boys school three years in a row).

MOJO is out now (it's the one with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover) in all good newsagents.

Le Retour

Scream City 4

Calling all French-speaking fans of The Durutti Column!

From PopNews.com:

"Dans son quatrième numéro, le fanzine Scream City revenait sur la référence n°2 du catalogue du label Factory Records, le mythique double-vinyle sorti en décembre 1978 et comportant deux titres de Joy Division, de The Durutti Column, trois de John Dowie et deux de Cabaret Voltaire. A cette occasion, Phil Cleaver, l'homme derrière le label Kooky Records, qui sort les nouveaux disques de The Durutti Column, eut le privilège de s'entretenir avec Vini Reilly à ce propos. Toujours un peu vexé du double lapin que nous avait infligé le Mancunien en 2005 lors de son dernier passage à Paris, nous avons demandé à John Cooper, rédacteur en chef du fanzine Scream City (et également auteur du blog consacré à Factory, Cerysmatic Factory) la permission de publier cette interview... Dont voici ici la traduction..."

Roughly translated this means that Phil "Kooky" Cleaver's interview with Vini Reilly from Scream City 4 (the FAC-2 Special featuring Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, John Dowie and The Durutti Column) has been translated into French and reproduced on PopNews.com after they were "stood up" by Vini last time he was in Paris in 2005.

Salut Guillaume! Many thanks for making this happen.

Scream City 4 was first published on 23 April 2008 via eBay priced GBP 2.00 + p&p (PayPal only) and is still available.