Four Factory Records - Buy It Now With Paypal

Four Factory Records, the 6-CD limited edition box set, is again available to buy with Paypal (only) direct from Kooky Records for GBP 37.50 inc Worldwide p+p.

The box includes the first four Factory Records albums (The Return of The Durutti Column, LC, Another Setting and Without Mercy plus two bonus discs of live and studio material. All this plus a package of interviews with the key protagonists from the period including Vini Reilly, Bruce Mitchell, John Metcalfe, Keir Stewart and Tim Kellett.

Buy It Now with Paypal

Paean: Full details

The full tracklisting for the recently-announced Kooky Records album A Paean To Wilson (Kookydisc 29/1 & 29/2) which will first go on sale at the imminent Beyond The Loop concert is:

Movement

I Or Are You Just A Technician
II Chant
III Quatro
IV Requiem
V Stuki
VI Along Came Poppy
VII Brother
VIII Duet With Piano
IX Darkness Here
X Catos Revisited
XI The Truth
XII How Unbelievable

The Trevor Johnson-designed cover has a cropped version of the black and white photo of Tony Wilson and Vini Reilly which featured on the publicity material for the Manchester International Festival. More details including full credits and liner notes available in the Discography entry for A Paean To Wilson.

The Durutti Column 2001-2009

A new 1000 copy limited edition 6CD box set comes out on Artful/Fullfill on 2 November 2009 is called The Durutti Column 2001-2009 and comprises all of The Durutti Column's recorded output for the label since 2001, namely:

Rebellion [2001]
Someone Else's Party [2003]
Keep Breathing [2006]
Idiot Savants [2007]
Love In The Time of Recession [2009]

Rounding off the package there's a bonus disc of extra material (further details to follow). A set of art prints of the individual album covers completes the package.

The box is available to pre-order priced at £13.99 via Townsend Records.

We hope that £13.99 price is NOT a misprint!

A Paean To Wilson: The Album

The Durutti Column - A Paean to Wilson; Tony Wilson and Vini Reilly

From kookydisc.co.uk:

Kooky Records is proud to announce the next album release by The Durutti Column will be the studio version of A Paean To Wilson which was premiered live at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009. This stunning instrumental suite was specially commissioned for the MIF and represents Vini Reilly's special personal tribute to Tony Wilson who died in August 2007.

As with the live line-up featured during those shows, The Durutti Column is again augmented by John Metcalfe and Tim Kellett on this full-length studio album.

This CD-only release will first go on sale at the King's Place concert on 9 October 2009 at which the band will again be playing A Paean To Wilson live. A general release will follow but the date for this has not yet been confirmed. Watch this space for more information. Tickets are still available for this gig via kingsplace.co.uk (including Saver Seats for a bargain £9.50).

The album package will include a bonus disc featuring the Heaven Sent (It Was Called Digital. It Was Heaven Sent) mini-album previously available as a digital download via Tony Wilson's F4 Records.

Four Factory Records

Four Factory Records

The next album release by The Durutti Column is a 6-CD limited edition box set on Kooky Records entitled Four Factory Records. Containing the first four classic albums released on Factory Records, all newly remastered by Keir Stewart from the original master tapes, the set comprises:

The Return Of The Durutti Column
LC
Another Setting
Without Mercy

There are also two very limited bonus CDs:

Demos/Studio - demos, versions and outtakes from the period
Live - recordings from London, Glasgow, and Brighton 82/84

All this plus a package of interviews with the key protagonists from the period including Vini Reilly, Bruce Mitchell, John Metcalfe, Keir Stewart and Tim Kellett.

Advance copies will be available for sale at the Manchester International Festival shows 15-17 July 2009. It will then be available in all good record shops (actual and virtual) and direct from Kooky from September 2009. The project will be a total edition of 1,000 copies of which a limited number will include the two bonus discs.

Kooky has tried to make this lavish package available at a sensible price. If you can't make the MIF shows, please check back at the end of July when we will start taking pre-orders for mail order through Kooky.

Auteur Labels: Factory Records: 1984

Auteur Labels: Factory Records: 1984

The Durutti Column features on a new compilation from LTM which highlights the output of Factory Records from 1984. The featured Durutti track is Duet (Without Mercy).

Auteur Labels: Factory Records 1984 is released on 1 June 2009 but is available to buy now from the LTM Mail Order store.

Love in the Time of Recession Japanese edition

Love in the Time of Recession; Japanese edition on Imperial Records

The Japanese edition of Love in the Time of Recession is set for release on 24 June 2009 according to hmv.co.jp.

Three bonus tracks are listed:

The Secret Between The Blade And Me, Duet For Piano And Guitar and Everybody's Laughing (I Don't Care).

Love in the Sunday Times

Love in the Time of Recession

Rather belatedly, Mark Edwards in today's Sunday Times has reviewed Love in the Time of Recession and given it four stars.

He notes that album-opener In Memory of Anthony, "heads off into a world of wailing noise that brings to mind Gimme Shelter-era Rolling Stones." and that Loser "wanders through a chord sequence that Noel Gallagher could easily turn into a hit single".

allgigs.co.uk reviews Love in the Time of Recession

Check out Paul Pledger's review of Love in the Time of Recession at allgigs.co.uk.

Love in the Time of Recession now out 2 March 2009

Amidst all the touring it slipped through the net that the release date for the new album Love in the Time of Recession has been brought forward to this coming Monday 2 March 2009.

Indie / Experimental / Comedy

The official MySpace of The Durutti Column is under new management and open for business. In effect it has become the sister page of this, the official website.

I've added two tracks from the new album Love in the Time of Recession, Loser and Lockdown plus Ananda from Sunlight to Blue... Blue to Blackness.

You'll also find full details of upcoming gigs, photos and more.

myspace.com/thedurutticolumnmcr

On eBay in the Time of Recession

Love in the Time of Recession

The new album Love in the Time of Recession is now available on eBay pre-sale via the Fullfill eBay Store priced 9.99 GBP + p&p.

Idiot Savants, the last Artful/Fullfill album release from 2007, is also available priced 4.99 GBP + p&p.

Love in the Time of Recession now out 20 April 2009

Vini Reilly (photo: Natalie Curtis)

Love in the Time of Recession will now be released on Monday 20 April as a few more details emerge.

The first track In Memory of Anthony is inspired by Vini Reilly's career-long friendship Tony Wilson, who died in August 2007. Vini notes that "He always encouraged me to follow my instincts. And that's still how I work. All the new songs are a very true reflection of my life and that's all I want any album to be."

Elsewhere, For Bruce pays instrumental tribute to the gonzo drum-master himself, Bruce Mitchell. Vini acknowledges that the album could not have been made without Bruce, Keir Stewart and Laurie Laptop: "Without all of them I don't know how I would be able to carry on, on any level. And as musicians there's no one else I would rather work with."

Another key collaboration on the album is the one with Vini's girlfriend Poppy Morgan which resulted in the co-written track Wild Beast Tamed and others.

Poppy also partly inspired the title of the album, a romantic (and economically accurate) nod to Gabriel García Márquez's novel, Love In The Time Of Cholera.

Live at The Venue, London, 6 April 1982

Live at The Venue; ticket [front]


Live at The Venue; ticket [back]

Live At The Venue, London is the legendary unofficial recording of a show back in April 1982 which ended up being released officially on the small VU label (and later reissued on CD by thedurutticolumn.com in association with Kooky).

Many thanks to Andrea Bianco for these scans of an ultra-rare ticket to the gig itself. We can see not only how cheap gigs were in those days but also the exact address of The Venue itself (now an Ask restaurant).

"The Venue

Durutti Column

on Tuesday, 6th April, 1982

Doors open at 7.30 p.m.
Tickets (inc. vat) £2.00

160-162 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5LB
Telephone: 01-828 9441/2/3 and 01-834 5500
Please retain ticket while you are on the premises

No admittance to persons under 18 years of age"

Love in the Time of Recession

Love in the Time of Recession

Meanwhile, the new album on Fullfill is the wonderfully titled Love in the Time of Recession which is out in the UK on Monday 2 March 2009. Full details coming soon.

Townsend Records has a pre-order offer which means that when you receive your purchase confirmation email you get a special code which allows you to download the track Rant immediately.

Factory Records: Communications 1978-1992

Factory Records: Communications 1978-1992

The digital download version of the new Factory Records box set Factory Records: Communications 1978-1992 is now available via Amazon.co.uk (and possibly other online retailers).

Whereas the 4CD version to be released on 12 January 2009 contains four tracks by The Durutti Column, it seems that the digital version contains five, the extra track being Otis.

First Four

The Durutti Column Remasters fresh from inch" to Kooky Central

As reported on the Kooky Records site, a 6CD box set of the first four Factory Records albums (The Return of The Durutti Column, LC, Another Setting, Without Mercy) will be released next year.

Following the recent acquisition of the original master tapes, the albums have been remastered by Keir Stewart at his inch" studio and will be presented in their original form without the inclusion of extra tracks.

There will be two bonus discs containing previously unreleased tracks. The precise content of the bonus discs is still being finalised but they will include studio demos from LC, 4-track demos from The Return of... and live tracks from the period 1979-1981.

More details to come.

Bread and Circuses and Bread

Bread and Circuses [TWI 988-2]

The missing image of Bread and Circuses, the Crépuscule re-release of Circuses and Bread is now in place.

The 8vo-designed cover of the original is replaced by different artwork based on a 1930s painting by Herbert Bayer with reworking done by regular Crépuscule designer Benoit Hennebert.

Top Ten Durutti Column Rarities

Time Was Gigantic / Reissued Experiments

To celebrate the relaunch of The Durutti Column Discography we present our Top Ten Durutti Rarities:

1. Experiments by Vini (FACDR 2.41) [25 copies]

Limited edition double CDR promo, 25 copies only, featuring "Time Was Gigantic...When We Were Kids" together with "Reissued Experiments" (titled "Experiments by Vini" on the label), a selection of some of the rare and previously unreleased material issued as extra tracks on the second phase of Durutti Column reissues (Factory Once). All copies signed, hand numbered and assembled by Vini himself, with "Vini Reilly" plectrum.

2. For Patti (Factory Benelux, FBN 100) [100 copies]

"Ce disque ne peut etre vendue separement du maxisingle deux triangles".

3. Voluntary Arrangement (promo) [300 copies]

300 promo copies only made but the full single release from the album Rebellion (artfulcd40) was cancelled.

4. The Return of the Durutti Column (Factory Records, FACT 14, in sandpaper sleeve) [2000 copies]

There were three editions of the sandpaper sleeve in a total edition of 2,000. Some have FACT 14 sprayed on (in black or white) and the Hannett Testcard flexi; some haven’t got the sprayed FACT 14 but the flexi; and some have no spray and no flexi. There are also initial pressings on dark-red (see-through) vinyl but this is thought to be a quirk of the manufacturing process at the pressing plant rather than a conscious decision to create a special pressing.

5. Enigma/Danny (Sordide Sentimental, SS 45005) [2730 copies]

Numbered limited edition of 2730 on the French label Sordide Sentimental. Numbers 1-2500 have a different cover to numbers 2501-2730 and contain different inserts.

6. The Sporadic Recordings (TTTTTTTTT, Spore CD 1) [4000 copies]

Essential collection of rarities and unissued material. Some copies were signed by Vini.

7. Lips That Would Kiss (Factory Benelux, FBN 2)

Rare Factory Benelux 12” single. Later expanded into a compilation CD.

8. Dedications for Japan (Japan Records, 7JAS 8)

Rare Japanese fanclub 7” single with beautifully intricate sleeve and inserts.

9. Live At The Venue (VU 1) [4000 copies]

Bruce Mitchell: “An interesting wheeler-dealer, involved in bootleg recordings at the time, arrived in his cream Rolls Royce at a Mayfair hotel restaurant that he had appointed. He brought cash and me and Vini scribbled out a contract and an agreement on a white napkin that had been surrounding Vini's burnt bacon sandwich”.

10. A Factory Sample (FAC-2, 2 x 7" + full set of 5 stickers) [5000 copies]

The first release. A double-7" E.P. in black and metallic silver gatefold sleeve, with 5 stickers. 5000 copies pressed.

Happy collecting!

The Factory Box Set

There are four tracks by The Durutti Column on the new 4-disc Rhino 'The Factory Box Set' which is released on 8 December. Details have just emerged on and Tower (Japan) which confirm that Sketch For Summer, Messidor, A Little Mercy (Duet) and Home are included.

The box set is compiled by Jon Savage with an essay by Paul Morley, and artwork by Peter Saville.

It's available to pre-order priced 27.99 GBP from Amazon UK.