In The Dawn

The countdown to the new Durutti Column album continues- Renascent, out at the end of the month- and a second song from it was released into the world recently, Scammer. 

Scammer sounds fragile, Vini's voice at its centre, whispering about things learned from his life. Around him there are washes of synths and keys and Vini's guitar playing, little runs of notes like pin pricks of light puncturing the swirl of sound. There's a prodding sound too, deep bass notes that push the song along. It's a lovely way to spend three minutes and coming on the back of the first single Liars, promises much for Renascent. 

In James Nice's biography of Factory records, Shadowplayers, he writes about Vini recording guitar tracks for what became the Durutti Column's second album, LC (Lotta Continua, the struggle continues), released in November 1981. LC is a wonderful album with several Durutti Column highlights- Sketch For Dawn, Jacqueline, Messidor and The Missing Boy (Vini's song for Ian Curtis) among them. The first Durutti Column album The Return Of The Durutti Column was created, produced and mixed by Martin Hannett out of sessions that Vini really hadn't enjoyed, but the completed album brought a new found confidence and this can be heard on LC. Vini knows what he's doing and what a Durutti Column album should sound like. 

Vini recorded the guitar parts for LC on a four track in a spare bedroom at his Mum's house on Pytha Fold Road in Withington, M20. He then went into the studio with drummer Bruce Mitchell and made the record in a couple of hours. When Vini made album that in 1981 in his Mum's house, I was living about a quarter of a mile away, a few streets to the west. Fog Lane Park which Pytha Fold Road runs onto was our playground. It is therefore the album that was recorded closest to any place I was living in at the time it was made. 

In 1981 I was eleven years old and had no interest in Factory Records or The Durutti Column. We enjoyed Madness, The Jam and The Specials and the weekly Top Of The Pops but were equally if not more interested in 2000AD, Indiana Jones, early evening Star Trek re- runs and The Empire Strikes Back. Funny to think though, at the time Vini was recording those songs, many of which I've been listening to for decades now, I was just around the corner.

In 1983 Vini and Bruce played at De Doelen in Rotterdam and opened with LC's Sketch For Dawn, Vini introducing himself to the crowd with, 'Hello, we're called The Durutti Column and I hope you like what we do'. 

Sketch For Dawn (Live in Rotterdam 1983)