A Life of Reilly – The Durutti Column – James Nice – Book Review
For those aware of the gorgeous, understated music of Vini Reilly, a book about his musical project the Durutti Column is long overdue. The package itself is beautifully put together, a fine ‘coffee-table’ style hardback, with plenty of black and white illustrations. The book flips between a narrative style and interviews with Reilly, drummer Bruce Mitchell and other key personnel. Equally, it’s a tale of Tony Wilson and Factory Records, who legendarily disliked Vini Reilly’s singing voice.
The book focuses on the first decade of Reilly’s recording career (the eighties) and features amusing anecdotes about his encounters with Pat Nevin, Stephen Street and wrestling with, believe it or not, Morrissey. Reilly is scathing about his own music and particularly detests the idea of his music being considered ‘ambient’ or background.
While not for the casual fan, it’s a fascinating source of information about the Durutti Column, filling a sizeable gap. It’s available here.
Categories: Book Reviews, Books, Header, Music
No More Workhorse 
I must say I find it very disquieting & spooky how the last 10 years have been omitted, written out of history. Even the pics of the albums finish at ‘Paean to Wilson’.
Also omitted is Steppenwolf, and the albums from Rebellion to Recession are just quickly skipped over. Weird…….
‘Chronicle XL’ is totally airbrushed out of the story. This despite having possibly THE most profound piece he’s ever done – ‘ Free From All The Chaos’ iirc – it’s too long since I played it.
Makes one wonder, does he not want anyone to know about the strokes he suffered, his appeal for financial help from fans, the Town Hall interview Nice called publication of by the interviewer ‘irresponsible’? It was online to be listened to!
Strange. Was Nice referring to the talk of abuse? Vini sang , or spoke of it on ‘Time was gigantic….’ already. Nice is apparently a lawyer so maybe legal action was threatened? But would that not apply to the track on TWG also?
This business rather spoils what otherwise is a good book…….full of contradictions and lies as is the wont of musicians. At the time of the appeal made to fans for example, Vin said he’d never been on benefits in his life. According to the book, that was a lie. The perennial, classic musician’s lie of course comes up: ‘I was always skint’. Really tired of hearing that one. Oh well…….good book, if you can afford it, glad it finally came out…..
I don’t like rewriting history/revisionism/censorship.