The Durutti Column

The Durutti Column

"Alan introduced Tony to me. Tony came round to see me, never having heard me play. Alan brought Tony round three times before I finally agreed to take part and put a band together with other musicians. I insisted that I would have control and all kinds of ridiculous things, which was just silly."

Vini Reilly explains in his most recent interview (for Scream City fanzine) how The Durutti Column was born.

Alan was Alan Erasmus and Tony was Tony Wilson. In 1978 they were looking for a band their new record label, Factory Records.

The Durutti Column featuring Vini Reilly, a classically-trained pianist and virtuoso guitarist, took their name from Spanish revolutionary Buenaventura Durruti and the cartoon of Two Situationist Cowboys in the comic Le Retour De La Colonne Durutti (1966). Centred around Reilly, the then five-piece band recorded two tracks for FAC-2 A Factory Sample, the first ever music release on Factory Records. Vini, not happy with the band or the punk-styled recording, then walked out because it was "complete and total rubbish". Alan and Tony persuaded Vini to return, saying "you are The Durutti Column" and the rest is history.

To this day, The Durutti Column is still essentially Vini Reilly. But whilst he is the constant, legendary Manchester musician, nay institution, Bruce Mitchell (ex-Alberto Y Trios Lost Paranoias) has been the drummer since the seminal album LC (1981). A succession of other guests has augmented the line-up over the years, notably John Metcalfe (The Duke Quartet), Tim Kellett (Olive, Simply Red) and Keir Stewart (Durutti producer and more since 1997).

Always at the forefront of technology thanks to Factory's innovative (but sometimes misguided policies), The Durutti Column released the first cd-only popular music album with their Domo Arigato (1985) live album recorded live in Tokyo. Factory predicted "No vinyl within 5 years" but what did they know!? Later, The Guitar and Other Machines (1988) was the first ever commercially available album to be released on Digital Audio Tape. Perversely it was also promoted with a 7" flexi-disc - a relic of a bygone age. In 1995, the Factory Too album Sex and Death also appeared in interactive CD-ROM format. More recently, and keeping up their record of having appeared on every incarnation of Factory Records, their debut for Tony Wilson's all-too-shortlived F4 Records, was the digital download-only E.P. Heaven Sent (It Was Called Digital. It Was Heaven Sent) (2004). The launch of this release was celebrated with a live webcast of a gig from Shetland.

Throughout it all, musical experimentation has always been the keynote of The Durutti Column's music. Able to flit from Classical on Without Mercy (1984) to House on Obey The Time (1990) via Opera on Vini Reilly (1990), it has never been possible to pin Vin down. Famously, he did some sterling work on Morrissey's debut album Viva Hate. But, when asked to work on the follow-up, he declined because Morrissey didn't want to take it to the next level, to experiment.

The new album by The Durutti Column Sunlight To Blue... Blue To Blackness is released on 23 June 2008 on Kooky Records.

http://www.thedurutticolumn.com/discography/1996/11/return-of-durutti-column-factory-once.html
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The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band formed in 1978 in Manchester, England. The band is an ongoing project of guitarist (and occasional pianist) Vini Reilly who is often accompanied by drummer Bruce Mitchell.

Early history

In 1978 Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, later to become partners in Factory Records, built a band around the remnants of Fast Breeder: drummer Chris Joyce and guitarist Dave Rowbotham. Within days they added Reilly, guitarist for Manchester punk rock band Ed Banger and The Nosebleeds, as well as vocalist Phil Rainford, keyboardist Stephen Hopkins and bassist Tony Bowers, although Rainford le ft in July of that year. The band played at the Factory club (organised by their managers), and recorded two pieces for the first Factory Records release, the compilation A Factory Sample (a double 7" also featuring Joy Division, John Dowie and Cabaret Voltaire). Just prior to recording a debut album, the group broke up after a dispute about Wilson and Erasmus's choice of producer, Martin Hannett. Most of the other members apart from Reilly went on to form The Mothmen, and Joyce and Bowers later became members of Simply Red. The D urutti Column effectively became Reilly's solo project from then on; drummer Bruce Mitchell and other musicians have occasionally contributed to recordings and live performances, and Mitchell and Wilson managed the group throughout their career on Factory and for many years afterwards. The band's name is derived from a misspelling of the name Buenaventura Durruti, who led a column of anarchists during the Spanish Civil War (the Durruti Column). A 1967 Situationist International poster included the phrase "The Return of t he Durutti Column", which eventually became the title of the group's first album.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Durutti_Column
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*The Durruti Column was the most famous column of anarchist fighters during the Spanish Civil War. It was led by Buenaventura Durruti from mid-1936 until his death on November 20 of that year. The column was instrumental in holding Madrid for the Republic in the face of the falangist uprising. It had a French-speaking unit, the Sébastien Faure Century, as well as the Sacco and Vanzetti Century (formed by American anarchists) and the Erich Mühsam Century (made up of German anarchists).[1] The Column was eventually, like the rest of the anarchist and socialist units, incorporated into the general army of the Republic.*
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Durutti Column - The Return of the Durutti Column(1979)

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Durutti Column-Ic(1981)
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Buenaventura Durruti

Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (July 14, 1896 – November 20, 1936) was a central figure of Spanish anarchism during the period leading up to and including the Spanish Civil War.
Early life
Durruti was born in León, Spain. He started work at the age of 14 in the railway yard in León. In 1917 the socialist Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) called a strike in which Durruti was an active and prominent participant. The government brought in the Spanish Army to suppress the strike: they killed 70 people and injured more than 500 workers. 2,000 of the strikers were imprisoned without trial or legal process. Durruti escaped to France. During his exile until 1920, Durruti worked in Paris as a mechanic. He was persuaded to go to Barcelona to organise the workers there. In Catalonia, with Juan García Oliver, Francisco Ascaso, and a number of other anarchists, he founded Los Solidarios ("Solidarity"). Members of this group attempted unsuccessfully to blow up King Alfonso XIII. In 1923 the group was also implicated in the assassination of Cardinal Juan Soldevilla y Romero, as reprisals for the killing of Salvador Seguí. They also, after Primo de Rivera had taken the power, organized a somewhat large-scale attack on the military barracks in Barcelona and on the border stations to France. The attack, though, was unsuccessful and quite a few anarchists were killed. The series of defeats made Durruti, Ascaso and Oliver flee to Argentina (in fact, they travelled in all of Latin America, including Cuba). Durruti and his companions returned to Spain and Barcelona, becoming an influential militant within two of the largest anarchist organisations in Spain at the time, the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), and of the anarcho-syndicalist trade union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). The influence Durruti's group gained inside the CNT caused a split, with a moderate faction under Ángel Pestaña leaving in 1931 (becoming the Syndicalist Party).
In the Civil War
Working closely with his comrades in the FAI and CNT Durruti helped to co-ordinate armed resistance to the military rising of Francisco Franco, an effort which was to prove vital in preventing General Goded's attempt to militarily seize Barcelona. During the battle for the Atarazanas Barracks, Durruti's close friend and fellow militant Ascaso was shot dead. Less than a week later, on July 24, 1936 Durruti led over 3000 armed anarchists (later to become known as the Durruti Column) from Barcelona to Zaragoza. After a brief and bloody battle at Caspe (in Aragon), they halted at Pina de Ebro, on the advice of a regular army officer, postponing an assault on Zaragoza. In November 1936, Durruti led 4000 militiamen to Madrid to aid the besieged Republican defenders of that city. On November 19, he was killed while leading a counter attack in the Casa de Campo area (See also Battle of Madrid). According to author Anthony Beevor (The Spanish Civil War, 1982), Durruti was killed when a companion's machine pistol went off by mistake. At the time, the anarchists claimed he had been hit by an enemy sniper's bullet "for reasons of morale and propaganda". Another view, detailed in Durruti: The People Armed by Abel Paz, takes a more personal account of Durruti's death. Instead of being killed by a fellow soldier he was killed by distant gunfire near the Clinical Hospital in University City (Madrid), taken over by Moroccan fighters (recruited by Franco) and the Guardia Civil. After a fight to regain control and contact was re-established with troops cut off from communications, Durruti returned temporarily to the Miguel-Angel barracks to issue orders. A message from Liberto Roig arrived informing Durruti that the Clinical Hospital was in the process of being evacuated. Alarmed, he asked his Chauffeur Julio Grave to get his car and leave immediately for the Hospital. His chauffeur gives the following testimonial: "[...] We passed a little group of hotels which are at the bottom of this avenue (Queen Victoria Avenue) and we turned towards the right. Arriving at the big street, we saw a group of militiamen coming towards us. Durruti thought it was some young men who were leaving the front. This area was completely destroyed by the bullets coming from the Clinical Hospital, which had been taken during these days by the Moors and which dominated all the environs. Durruti had me stop the car which I parked in the angle of one of those little hotels as a precaution. Durruti got out of the auto and went towards the militiamen. He asked them where they were going. As they didn't know what to say, he ordered them to return to the front. The militiamen obeyed and Durruti returned towards the car. The rain of bullets became stronger. From the vast red heap of the clinical Hospital, the Moors and the Guardia Civil were shooting furiously. Reaching the door of the machine, Durruti collapsed, a bullet through his chest." He died November 20th 1936 in a makeshift operating theatre set up in what was formerly the Ritz Hotel at the age of 40. The bullet was lodged in the heart, the diagnosis was "death caused by pleural hemorrhage". The doctors wrote a report in which the path of the bullet and the character of the wound was recorded but not the calibre of the bullet, since they hadn't removed it and there was no autopsy. Durruti's body was transported across country to Barcelona for his funeral. Over a quarter of a million people filled the streets to accompany the cortege during its route to the cemetery on Montjuich. It was the last large-scale public demonstration of anarchist strength of numbers during the bitter and bloody Civil War.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenaventura_Durruti
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On July 24 the Durruti Column, made up of 2,000 militiamen leaves Barcelona towards Zaragoza. Minutes before departing Canadian journalist Von Passen has an historic interview with Durruti titled: "Two million anarchists fight for the Revolution". Some of Durruti's statements were:

"There are only two roads, victory for the working class, freedom, or victory for the fascists which means tyranny. Both combatants know what's in store for the loser. We are ready to end fascism once and for all, even in spite of the Republican government."

"No government fights fascism to destroy it. When the bourgeoisie sees that power is slipping out of its hands, it brings up fascism to hold onto their privileges."

The column overwhelmed the enemy in a few days. Local party bosses, large landowners and tycoons escaped in a panic. The first serious combat was the taking of Caspe. In a few days they were 20 km from Zaragoza. Finally the front stabilized at Pina de Ebro due to lack of weapons for the assault on Zaragoza. The column's general headquarters was installed in Bujaraloz. From there it promoted the creation of the Council of Aragon, against the wishes of the CNT's directive that was beginning to cooperate with the republican government. With respect to the ruin caused by combats Durruti said to Von Passen:

"We have always lived in shantytowns and if we destroy we are also capable of building. It was us who built the palaces and the cities. The workers can build them again, and better ones; we are not afraid of ruins, we have a new world here in our hearts".

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http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/DurrutiColumnEarly.htm

FREE-PALESTINE

Το ισραηλινό κράτος σκορπίζει ξανά το θάνατο

Το Ισραήλ βομβαρδίζει από το πρωί του Σαββάτου 27/12 την από καιρό αποκλεισμένη Λωρίδα της Γάζας, σπέρνοντας τρόμο στους κατοίκους της και προκαλώντας εκατόμβες νεκρών. Είναι ένα ακόμα, βάρβαρο και απροκάλυπτο, επεισόδιο της 60χρονης κατοχής και καταπίεσης του παλαιστινιακού λαού που τιμωρείται επειδή αντιστέκεται.

ΟΛΟΙ ΑΥΡΙΟ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑ ΣΤΗ ΣΥΓΚΕΝΤΡΩΣΗ ΔΙΑΜΑΡΤΥΡΙΑΣ ΣΤΙΣ 6 ΤΟ ΑΠΟΓΕΥΜΑ ΕΞΩ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΡΑΗΛΙΝΗ ΠΡΕΣΒΕΙΑ.

URGENT!!!

The secretary of the Union of Housekeepers and Cleaners of Greece was attacked with sulfuric acid !

Konstantina Kuneva is a Bulgarian migrant worker in Athens. She is also the secretary of the Union of Housekeepres and Cleaners. On the 24th of December, she has been attacked with sulfuric acid in front of her home by two men. She has been admitted in a hospital in a critical condition. She has burns on her face, head, hands and back and there is a possibility that she will lose her sight.

It is suspected that the attack is a punishment for her strong union activity. The Union is one of the most active workers’ unions within what euphemistically is called precarious labour: in other words, Konstantina is a migrant and a severely underpaid and unprotected worker, who decided to join a union in order to struggle against the inhuman conditions imposed to her and her fellow workers.

Behind the attack are her employers and their heavies, who have been threatening Konstantina and other women for their activity in the union.

This is the bank account for raising money to help Konstantina in her very difficult condition.

5012 019021 277 PIREOS BANK

The IBAN is GR 28 0172 0120 0050 1201 9021 277 and BIC is PIRBGRAA

DECHEVA ELENA

KUEVA KOSTADINKA NIKOLOVA

URGENT-EΠΕΙΓΟΝ!!!

Επείγον!!! Οικονομική ενίσχυση για την συνδικαλίστρια Κωνσταντίνα Κούνεβα

ΔΙΑΔΩΣΤΕ ΤΟ!!!

ΠΡΟΣΟΧΗ – ΠΡΟΣΟΧΗ

Αυτός είναι ο λογαριασμός για την οικονομική ενίσχυση της συνδικαλίστριας Κωνσταντίνας Κούνεβα που δέχτηκε την δολοφονική επίθεση με βιτριόλι από τους μπράβους των εργολάβων σαν τιμωρία για τη δράση της ενάντια στην εργοδοτική αυθαιρεσία.

5012 019021 277 Τράπεζα Πειραιώς

DECHEVA ELENA KUEVA KOSTADINKA NIKOLOVA

Να καταθέσουμε την ενίσχυση μας χωρίς δεύτερη σκέψη και τσιγκουνιές. Όχι από το περίσσευμα μας. Ας μας λείψουν τα χρήματα. Είναι θέμα στοιχειώδους ταξικής και κοινωνικής αλληλεγγύης. Είναι δήλωση ότι η εργοδοτική τρομοκρατία ΔΕΝ ΘΑ ΠΕΡΑΣΕΙ.

Οι νονοί τηςνύχτας και της μέρας θα μας βρουν απέναντι τους!

ΔΙΑΔΩΣΤΕ ΤΟ!!!

Η Κωνσταντίνα είναι γραμματέας του Παναττικού Σωματείου Καθαριστριών και Οικιακών Εργαζομένων, το οποίο είναι ίσως το πιο ζωντανό σωματείο των επισφαλώς εργαζομένων στην Ελλάδα, που αγωνίζεται σκληρά και ηρωικά για την υπεράσπιση των εργαζομένων που βρίσκονται στην πιο σκληρή εκμετάλλευση και τη μεγαλύτερη εργοδοτική τρομοκρατία, και οργανώνει Ελληνίδες και μετανάστριες - κατά κύριο λόγο γυναίκες.

Στη Βουλγαρία ήταν ιστορικός επιστήμονας και στην Ελλάδα ήρθε όταν ο γιος της χρειάστηκε να υποβληθεί σε σοβαρή εγχείρηση. Σήμερα ζει μαζί του (πάει 5^η δημοτικού) και με την μητέρα της στα Α. Πετράλωνα.

Ας ενεργοποιήσουμε την κοινωνική και ταξική αλληλεγγύη μας και ας βοηθήσουμε ώστε τουλάχιστον η Κωνσταντίνα να μην έχει να ανησυχεί για τα λεφτά. Έχει εκατοντάδες άλλα πράγματα να απασχολούν αυτήν την οικογένεια και τις συναδέλφισσες της.

Όμως ας μην νομίζουμε ότι βάζοντας μερικά χρήματα κάναμε το χρέος μας.

Η απάντηση πρέπει και θα δοθεί στους δρόμους, στους εργασιακούς χώρους και τα σωματεία.

Χρειάζεται έμπρακτη αλληλεγγύη και δράση και όχι δάκρυα.

SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR THE GREEK DEMONSTRATORS

-Οδηγός αντιμετώπισης δακρυγόνων

-Στοιχειώδη Δικαιώματα για τα υποψήφια θύματα της κρατικής καταστολής

-Νομική βοήθεια

-Oμάδα Νομικής βοήθειας

ΝΕΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΚΑΛΑΝΤΑ 2008

Δακρυγόνα και φωτιές σκορπισαν παντού
κάθε σπίτι και φωλιά οι μπάτσοι είναι παντού
Έι!
Δακρυγόνα και φωτιές σε κάθε γειτονιά
οι νέοι εξεγείρονται, βοηθάτε ρε παιδιά!

Δέντρο φωτεινό, καίει λαμπερό
Φέρνει ένα μήνυμα από το λαό.
μες στη σιγαλιά ακούμε τρία μπαμ
και κάνει η αγάπη την καρδιά γροθιά.

Δακρυγόνα και φωτιές στο μικρό χωριό
και χτυπάν αλύπητα νέους στο ψαχνό
Έι!
Δακρυγόνα και φωτιές σκόρπισαν παντού
κι η βουλή απέχει μόλις ένα ντου!

Κόκκινες μπογιές, οι πέτρες ειν' πολλές
τα κανάλια δείχνουν τις ίδιες παπαριές
Τρέχουν τα παιδιά σε κάθε γειτονιά,
φωνάζουνε συνθήματα και σπαν στα πεταχτά

Δακρυγόνα και φωτιές στο έξωτερικό
Πολύς κόσμος στους δρόμους κάτι τρέχει εδώ
Έι!
Δακρυγόνα και φωτιές χρειάζεται αλλαγή
Στον πλανήτη ας δώσουμε ακόμα μια στροφή!
(τρίγωνα κάλαντα έξω απ'τη βουλή
τα ΜΑΤ θα δουν χριστούγεννα φορώντας τη στολή!
Χούι!)

CLICK HERE ΓΙΑ ΟΛΑ ΤΑ ΚΑΛΑΝΤΑ

MEREDITH MONK

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music theater works, films and installations. A pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance,” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound in an effort to discover and weave together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which we have no words. She has alternately been proclaimed as a “magician of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest composers.” During a career that spans more than 40 years she has been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a major creative force in the performing arts.

Since graduating Sarah Lawrence College in 1964, Monk has received numerous awards including the prestigious MacArthur “Genius” Award in 1995, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Brandeis Creative Arts Award, three “Obies” (including an award for Sustained Achievement), two Villager Awards, two “Bessie” awards for Sustained Creative Achievement, the 1986 National Music Theatre Award, the 1992 Dance Magazine Award, and a 2005 ASCAP Concert Music Award. In 2006 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and named a United States Artists Fellow, and holds honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from Bard College, the University of the Arts, The Juilliard School, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Boston Conservatory. Her recordings Dolmen Music (ECM New Series) and Our Lady of Late: The Vanguard Tapes (Wergo) were honored with the German Critics Prize for Best Records of 1981 and 1986. Her music has been heard in numerous films, including La Nouvelle Vague by Jean-Luc Godard and The Big Lebowski by Joel and Ethan Coen. Monk’s publishing relationship with Boosey & Hawkes, begun in 2000, has helped make her scores available to a wider public.

In 1968 Ms. Monk founded The House, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance. In 1978 she formed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble to expand her musical textures and forms. She has made more than a dozen recordings, most of which are on the ECM New Series label. Her music has been performed by numerous soloists and groups including The Chorus of the San Francisco Symphony, Musica Sacra, The Pacific Mozart Ensemble, Double Edge, Björk, and Bang On A Can All-Stars, among others.

Monk is a pioneer in site-specific performance, creating works such as Juice: A Theater Cantata In 3 Installments (1969) and American Archeology #1: Roosevelt Island (1994). She is also an accomplished filmmaker who has made a series of award-winning films including Ellis Island (1981) and her first feature, Book Of Days (1988), which was aired on PBS, shown at the New York Film Festival and selected for the Whitney Museum’s Biennial. Both films were released on DVD in February 2007. A retrospective art exhibition, Meredith Monk: Archeology of an Artist, opened at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in 1996. Other recent art exhibits are comprised of a major installation, Art Performs Life at The Walker Art Center, a show, Shrines at the Frederieke Taylor / TZ’ Art Gallery, inclusion in the 2002 Biennial at the Whitney Museum, ev+a 2002 Exhibition at Limerick City Gallery of Art and group exhibits Show People at Exit Art and Between Thought and Sound: Graphic Notation in Contemporary Music at The Kitchen. A monograph, Meredith Monk, edited by Deborah Jowitt was released by Johns Hopkins Press in 1997.

In October 1999 Monk performed a Vocal Offering for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama as part of the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles. In July 2000 her music was honored by a three concert retrospective entitled Voice Travel as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. Her most recent CD, mercy, was released on the ECM New Series label in November 2002. Monk’s first orchestra piece, Possible Sky (commissioned by Michael Tilson Thomas for the New World Symphony), premiered in April 2003 in Miami and was performed by the Hamburg Symphony in 2006. Stringsongs, her first composition for string quartet (commissioned by the Kronos Quartet) had its world premiere at the Barbican Center in January 2005. Recent projects include a new work for the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, and recording the music from her latest music theater work, impermanence, slated for release in 2008. Monk is also publishing a piano album of her scores and working on a new piece for her Vocal Ensemble in collaboration with visual artist Ann Hamilton. http://www.meredithmonk.org/monk/index.html

- Author: Monk, Meredith
Date: 1975-07-23 00:00:00
Recorded by: Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics

-key(1978)

-dolmen music(1981)

-book of days(1990)

Greece: teenager uprising, big general strike, but the left parties refuse to give a political solution

After four days of struggle we can now start to draw some first clear conclusions. Without any doubt this movement deserves the title of "teenager uprising". We have here a new generation of tens of thousands of school students erupting in a huge explosion, the biggest for 20 years, if not even more, in Greece. We have clear symptoms of an instinctive revolutionary spirit, and a clear tendency to target not only the present bourgeois government but also the bourgeois state and the capitalist system as a whole.
http://www.marxist.com/greece-teenager-uprising-big-general-strike.htm

4 DAYS OF URBAN GUERILLA ?(ATHENS,GREECE)

BLACK SUNDAY AT ATHENS (A COP KILLS AN INNOCENT 15 YEARS OLD BOY )

One fifteen years old Greek student was killed tonight by the Greek police, at 21:50 Standard Greek Time, in Exarhia Square. The policemen claimed that the fifteen year old was part of a group which surrounded their police car and tried to break the windows. The police claims that they used at first flashbang grenades to force the crowd away from the police car. Failing that, one of the policemen fired a bullet from his gun, which alledgedly ricocceded against a marque and struct the fifteen year old in the abdomen.
http://www.indymedia-letzebuerg.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14230&Itemid=27
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