Durutti Column London Riverside Studios

THE DURUTTI COLUMN 

London Riverside Studios

SIXTY FOOT up in the Riverside gantry, amongst the clutter of microphones, lights, and soundmen, we witness the return of The Durutti Column. A grand piano booming converts into a delicate trickle of keys, and introduces Vini Reilly and his right hand man, percussionist Bruce Mitchell: if you’re coming back, you might as well come back in style.

The truth is that The Durutti Column have never really been away  they’ve just been ignored slightly - and the fact that on each of these two nightly stints hundreds have been turned away inspires tremendous confidence in that tenuous motion that people actually don’t always believe what-they read (or don’t read) in the music press.

They performed short, crisp numbers using combinations of grand piano, guitar, keyboards, and snareless drum. With the arrival of violinist, cellist, oboeist, and brass section, familiar tracks (like the excellent ‘Jacqueline' from ‘L.C.' album) ended and the soon-to-be-released ‘Without Mercy' began.

Cynics in the press doubted Reilly's ability to combine delicate guitar work with such a large number of instruments. In fact, the combination worked very well indeed, largely because Vini Reilly not only plays a very fine guitar but also excellent keyboards and piano.

'Without Mercy' began with grand piano - oboe and violin blending in - and gradually built up into floods of rhythm, supported by waves of brass, and the gentle ripples of background percussion. In this work, as in his other work, Reilly’s great quality in his ability to take sombre structures and build them up into majestic fanfares. Occasionally melancholy is punctured by fleeting drifts into the airiness of solo guitar, distorted and reverberating, uplifting, a blind dart, a release into the nothingness of happiness.

At the end of set which received rapturous applause, only one possible fault lay. For £3.50 the set was, arguably, a little short. But to pay tribute to Vini Reilly’s monumental talent, in truth the audience got excellent value for money.

- Neil Taylor