A Lifetime of Guitar and Sadness

7/30/2023

A Lifetime of Guitar and Sadness

VINI REILLY [Ed. Note- rex advises that he has been planning to do a post on highly influential and respected guitarist VINI REILLY and his band Durutti Column 🇬🇧 for some time now. This article in The Guardian came to his attention this week on the sad state of his life. If you are interested in a good Sunday read, it is attached it HERE.]

One of the original FACTORY RECORDS artists, Durutti Column were on the first vinyl released on the label. FAC 2 was entitled “ A Factory Sample.” It contained 2 songs each by 4 artists. The others were my personal favourite JOY DIVISION, another key artist for me CABARET VOLTAIRE /and an otherwise obscure musician named JOHN DOWIE.

DURUTTI COLUMN were punk without sounding punk. REILLY’s pristine guitar dominated the work of every song. You need to listen to it repeatedly to begin to appreciate its greatness.

One of their greatest punk acts was the cover of that debut LP (FAC 14). “The Return Of The Durutti Column” (1979) had a cover ofvsandpaper. The purpose of that was to destroy the cover of other LPs when you put this LP in your record rack.

I never owned the original. However, I obtained a copy of the re-release of the LP in 2020. It contains a glasspaper/ sandpaper sleeve but in a more controlled sleeve. See below:

Group member Liam from Dr. Disc Records generously gave me a CD- ROM version of their LP entitled “Sex and Death” (1994).

It is covered with sandpaper. I keep it a bag to protect my collection.

Like so many great artists (ie. LAWRENCE from FELT) it is sad to learn that today REILLY is essentially penniless and in poor health after releasing over 20 highly regarded LPs.

In the GUARDIAN piece it mentions that the DURUTTI COLUMN 1981 LP entitled “LC” is considered the greatest ever recorded by none other than BRIAN ENO. Here is the entire LP as remastered in 1996.