Vini Reilly wasn’t feeling great. Suffering from depression after the version of The Durutti Column which had appeared on the A Factory Sample EP effectively disintegrated, he’d withdrawn from writing and performing. Cue Tony Wilson, the label supremo who, still considering how to invest the money Joy Division were making, gently cajoled Reilly to finish the material which would become The Return Of The Durutti Column.
Reilly accepted the advice gratefully and working with Pete Crooks and Toby Toman alongside in house producer Martin Hannett, he set about creating what was for the time an extraordinary soundscape in which his diaphanous guitar was the primary focus. Forty five years on we have lots of names for what it was, then it was simply the antidote to miserabilist post punk.
Significantly expanded over the years from it’s original 26 minute running time, the fragile beauty of Sketch For Summer, Katharine and In ‘D’ are still to be cherished almost half a century later. This deluxe treatment adds live material, relative obscurities and demos to the base, but whether such elaboration was required is open to question, such is it’s still dazzling nature. We have a lot to thank Tony Wilson for – and The Return Of The Durutti Column still ranks as one of his greatest feats of persuasion.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 