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Joy of second division
by Chris Osuh14/ 4/2005
FACTORY Records impresario Tony Wilson described Durutti Column
as a "second division" band in a recent interview with Metro
News.
The label "second division", in this case, describes a band with a
large cult following, but without the pop sensibility, or depending
on how you look at it, willingness to compromise to make big
bucks.
It's obvious that big sales do not necessarily equal big talent,
but it's also obvious that Durutti Column have never gained the
status, beyond aficionados, in quite the way New Order, forerunners
Joy Division or even Happy Mondays, whose music isn't ageing
particularly well, have.
On the band's website there is a kind of mission statement that
reads, "the basic idea behind Durutti Column's music is to break
with whatever structure supports the foundations of musical
formalism".
This might be the reason why Vini Reilly and co will never be
household names, because their aesthetic principles are closer to
free jazz types like Ornette Coleman than they are to Simply
Red.
One thing the band does share with Simply Red is the set-up - ie
one dominating creative force aided by accomplished musicians. The
band has been essentially, since its beginnings, a vehicle for thin
Vini Reilly.
Durutti Column emerged from Manchester's late 70s punk scene. Vini
Reilly cut his teeth in Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds, a Wythenshawe
band that has become legendary thanks to its alumni - Reilly, and
briefly Morrissey - and the efforts of filmmakers Crumpton and
Jones, who filmed the band's antics using primitive video
technology.
Durutti Column were originally signed to the mighty Factory
Records, and were regulars at the Hacienda. However, the band
eschewed the punk, Krautrock, and proto-House sounds that were key
influences in the period in favour of a tranquil, blissful
sound.
The name Durutti Column, is a pointer to the anarchy of rejecting
the anarchic sounds of the day that were already becoming
commonplace. Vini Reilly says it comes from a group of sixties
European radicals who used the title "Return of the Durutti
Column", which Reilly would borrow for the band's first album, in
much of their literature.
To this day, Reilly uses evocative musicianship to create ambient,
often austere soundscapes, veering between daring experimentation
and self-indulgence, as great creativity often does.
It's a good sound, one that even works at Urbis, where Reilly
played at the opening of the Peter Saville exhibition, where old
Madchester types chewed canapés instead of pills.
Durutti Column will be joined by ex-Stone Rose and fellow maverick
Aziz Ibrahim at this Academy date, and I should imagine that will
be the night's only nod to more traditional indie sounds. Well
worth a visit.
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