Buenaventura Durruti

I'm half way through a book about the Spanish Civil War and have just read this description of the accidental death of Buenaventura Durruti, the great anarchist leader before and during the war-

'A rumour started that Durruti had been shot by one of his own men who objected to his severe discipline. The anarchists, for reasons of morale and propaganda, claimed he had been shot by a sniper's bullet when in fact his death had really been an accident. The cocking handle of a companion's 'naranjero' machine pistol caught on a car door, firing a bullet into his chest. Durruti was without doubt the most popular anarchist leader. He had been an unrelenting rebel throughout his life and had earned the reputation of a revolutionary Robin Hood. His funeral in Barcelona was the greatest scene of mass mourning that Spain had witnessed, with half a million people in the procession. alone. His reputation was so great, not just among anarchists, that attempts were made after his death to claim his allegiance.'

During the war Durruti told his followers 'We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin it's own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts.' Which is quite inspiring isn't it. The anarchists refused to join the Republican government- they didn't believe in government, a philosophy which contributed to divisions among the left and let the Stalin-directed communists take the reins, and Franco take power in 1939.

There's a Spanish Civil War re-enactment society called La Columna I found while idling on the net. I'm just happy such a thing exists. You can find them here-

http://www.lacolumna.org.uk/

I'm not sure I'm going to spend my weekends dressed in 1930s clothing, digging trenches and pretending to shoot fascists. But maybe I'm just not ready yet.

On to the music. Vini Reilly's band The Durruti Column have been releasing records since the late seventies, first on Factory, managed and named by Tony Wilson. Wilson took the name from a 60s Situationist poster. From their first album The Return Of The Durruti Column this is Sketch For Winter, produced by Martin Hannett. Wonder what Buenaventura Durruti would have made of the band named after him.

http://download472.mediafire.com/80tzp1kmfhag/fkb5zb6gt5t9h5e/Sketch+For+Winter.mp3

I'd Rather Watch Drying Paint

Yesterday's duo (Pet Shop Boys) meet another duo (Electronic) and record a stand out track from the first Electronic album, Patience Of A Saint. Neil Tennant had already worked with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr on the debut Electronic single, 1989's gorgeous Getting Away With It, and on this song Chris Lowe joined in on keys as well. Seeing as Marr had more or less refused to play the guitar on the album there must have been a lot of people standing around prodding drum machines, synths and samplers during the recording of this song. It's a fantastic track nonetheless, with Neil Tennant in withering sarcasm mode (the line that gave this post it's title for example and 'If I drove a faster car, I'd drive it bloody well').

The picture shows the foursome backstage at the Cities In The Park festival held in Heaton Park in the summer of 1991. Held in honour of Martin Hannett who'd died the previous April the Sunday was mainly Factory acts plus some other Manchester bands, and was a good line-up- New FADS, 808 State (very good), Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, Revenge (they were pretty awful), De La Soul (lots of shouting. Live hip hop and festivals during daylight not mixing very well), Electronic and headlined by Happy Mondays. Security was fairly lax- fences going down left, right and centre followed by hordes pouring in, people working on the gates offering wristbands for a fiver- normal Factory/Hacienda sort of thing really. Electronic went on before the Mondays and at one point you stood looking at the stage with members of New Order, The Smiths and The Pet Shop Boys playing together and thought 'this is some kind of future we're looking at here'.

Factory was declared bankrupt just over a year later.

04 The Patience of a Saint.wma

Have Yourself A Scratchy Post Punk Reggae Little Christmas

Christmas, I suppose, means different things to different people- if your idea of Christmas is a scratchy, post punk, reggae, bass heavy kind of festival, produced by Martin Hannett, and involving people who played with PiL, the Blockheads and the Raincoats, then Basement 5's the Last White Christmas should be right up your yuletide alley.

14 The Last White Christmas.wma

Sandpaper Blues

The Durutti Column's Sketch For Summer (from the first Durutti Column album, titled Return of The Durutti Column) is as cool a piece of post-punk, instrumental, Factory music as you're going to hear. The guitar's all Vini Reilly, everything else is Martin Hannett. Not sure it's too appropriate on a day we've had several inches of rain, but it makes the thought of Monday and work a little easier to deal with.

The Return Of The Durutti Column was issued first time round in a sandpaper sleeve, so that over time it would destroy the rest of your record collection. Factory legend has it a number of them were hand-glued by members of Joy Division for some extra cash, and that Ian Curtis did most of the glueing while the others watched a porn film. If it isn't true, it should be.

01 Sketch for Summer.wma

I Don't Want To Be Nice

Some more bile for you.

I was planning to post this anyway, but after spending the last five hours at the Manchester Childrens' Hospital waiting for a CT Scan with a special needs 11 year old who hasn't been allowed to eat since yesterday, only to be told that the scan won't happen because they're an anaesthetist down today, well, I don't want to be nice. Not that it's anyone's particular fault.

The bard of Salford, the punk poet, Nico's flatmate, Manchester Dylan lookalike... Mr John Cooper Clarke, originally from the Disguise In Love lp (geddit). This song features Martin Hannett at the controls and playing bass. In case you were wondering.

04 I Don't Want to Be Nice.wma

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark 'Electricity' (Factory Version)

First of the month band from The Wirral feature. You don't get this anywhere else.

I never had any time for O.M.D. until the last year or so. Never paid them any attention or time or anything. That silly Sailing On The Seven Seas comeback, Atomic Kitten etc. It changed when I watched the excellent BBC4 Synth Britannia programme last year, and a creeping realisation that O.M.D. where actually electro pioneers. There, I've said it. Some time after a bloke from school pick-up uttered those immortal words 'I've got a box of vinyl I'm getting rid of, do you want to have a look through it?'. Amongst other things I took Architecture And Morality (featuring the ace Enola Gay) and Dazzle Ships (die cut gatefold sleeve). All very good.

Before all of that the only O.M.D. song I've ever owned was on the Factory Records Palatine boxset, and various compilations since, Electricity, FAC 6, later re-recorded for DinDisc and released in three different versions. This is the Factory version with Martin Hannett, which the band disliked as being 'over-produced'. Joy Division said the same about Hannett and Unknown Pleasures. Musicians eh, what do they know?

04 Electricity (Factory Version).wma

The Psychedelic Furs 'Pretty In Pink'

We've been on a post-punk/indie guitar trip this week at Bagging Area, so let's have this marvelous early 80s moment, a song that even that Molly Ringwold (sigh) film can't completely destroy. Hairspray, back-combing and fingerless gloves at the ready. This is the original version from 1981, with our friend Martin Hannett at the controls, rather than the re-recorded version for the film of the same name, which had some unpleasantly 1986ish keyboards and drums. That second version and the film Pretty In Pink made them big in the USA, big on college radio, top 40 in the UK, and sent them on a commercial hit chasing journey. This one is much, much better.

15 Pretty in Pink.wma

Buzzcocks 'Boredom'

A 7" single from January 1977 called Spiral Scratch gave us this song, Boredom, and in no particular order, Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto, the production career of Martin Hannett, the northern punk scene, the birth of the British independent record labels, D.I.Y. punk, the return of the Sex Pistols to Manchester, and provided the inspiration for dozens of other bands, not least Orange Juice (Rip It Up quotes it and copies it's one note guitar solo). Not bad going.

How could a song called Boredom be so exciting?

Boredom.mp3