A MANCHESTER SITUATIONAL Durutti Column (Pt. 2)

Feb 18, 2010

More of the band's remembrance of the late Tony Wilson.

Ed. note: we continue our interview with Durutti Column's Vini Reilly and Bruce Mitchell, in which they discuss the late Factory Records impresario Tony Wilson, to whom they recently paid tribute via the A Paean to Wilson concert and album. Go here to read part one of the interview. The A Paean to Wilson album, released by the Kooky U.K. label, is available in the U.S. via Darla Distribution. In addition, Reilly and Durutti Column pianist Poppy Morgan recently performed a haunting excerpt from the work on the BBC's "The Review Show"; it's viewable at this YouTube link.

BLURT: Do you know if Tony Wilson had a favorite Durutti Column track or album?

REILLY: I have no idea.... I think he liked "Sketch for Summer" [from The Return of the Durutti Column]. Actually, I know he liked that because he told me so, but he had a kind of tacit approval of any of the instrumental things I did. With the exception of "The Missing Boy" [from LC], he didn't like any of the songs that I sang on because the lyrics were very poor and my voice is very weak -- and he made no pretence of liking the singing or the lyrical content, which is why I've made this album. So I think this might be the only album since the very first album that Tony would have liked.

What's your fondest memory of him?

REILLY: I wouldn't be able to pick out just one; there are so many. Bruce and I have so many memories of him. He was so unusual and so fascinating as a character. He was a real character, a real individual. You don't meet people like Tony every day. He was extremely engaging. There are lots of small things, though. Like, he had a dog. His partner Yvette [Livesey] bought him a dog, a huge dog -- a huge Great Dane, I think -- and I forget what the dog's real name was.* Tony used to have to try and catch this dog all the time. It was a bit stupid, this dog: it was wild and it would run about and escape -- every time he took it for a walk, it would just run off. So I have this great memory of Tony running after this dog shouting, "Come back, dickhead!" [laughs] That's just one memory, but there are hundreds of them.

*It was a Weimaraner named William

What do you think his broader legacy is?

MITCHELL: The inspiring thing, really, was the guy's positivity. He was the most positive man I ever met in my life. It had a profound effect on the way I run my life and the way I run my business as well. If something were to go wrong and everybody were to be in dismay around something going wrong in a major way, he would immediately find a positive way of interpreting it: either by direction -- what he was going to do -- or if he couldn't do anything, he would equate it to a piece of Proustian philosophy almost immediately. So, the guy's positivity.... And, of course, his legacy is very, very profound in the northwest of England. People used to work at really disliking him because his manner in his broadcasts and in his business meetings was, as they used to say, "arrogant," but now they agree with him. When he used to argue his points, he would sometimes say, "You should listen to me, I'm right. I haven't been wrong since August 1968." [laughs] And when he made these pronouncements -- and sometimes they were in press releases -- people would complain about his attitude, but whatever he said nearly always came true. And he took great satisfaction in being able to say, "You see, I was right."

REILLY: It's hard to say. There can't be very many people in the northwest of England who don't know who Tony Wilson was or who didn't know who he was when he was alive. His influence was enormous. The thing is, a lot of what he did provoked people; it provoked a reaction from people, whether that was a good reaction or people disagreeing with him. He would always elicit some kind of gut reaction from people. I think that many of the things he said were outrageous. He predicted many of the things that happened, way before anybody else had even spotted it -- like the rise of compact discs. When we were in Japan once, he took me to a pressing plant and let me hear one of the first, early CDs, and this was when it was in its infancy. And he said, "This is going to take over, and it's going to be much more important than vinyl, very quickly." And I didn't believe him and nobody else did, and of course he was right. It was the same with the Haçienda. When the Haçienda was losing thousands every single week and they were plowing money into it week after week after week, even his business associates and the accountants and everybody, including me, we were all saying, "You should pull out now; this is just crazy." But he was determined. He just said, "This is going to be one of the most famous nightclubs in the world -- and one of the best." And, of course, he was right again. He was right so often. And that meant that even the people who had been scornful of Wilson, they ended up going to the Haçienda. It was his vision -- along with Rob Gretton, New Order's manager -- but it was really Tony that made things happen. Bruce was describing his positivity. That's really where it came from. He drove things through thick and thin and through all the worst trouble you could imagine. He made it happen. He was so determined and so positive that these good things would actually occur, and he just made stuff happen all the time. You speak to anyone in Manchester as they're going past where the Haçienda used to be and they'll immediately say, "Oh that's where the Haçienda was." And everywhere you went in the world, as soon as you said you were from Manchester, people would say, "Oh, Manchester United and the Haçienda." It was as famous as that. It's not a particularly good answer to your question, but his impact in the Northwest, especially, was incalculable. Enormous.

You mentioned football; is it true that, as a boy, you had a trial for Manchester City?

REILLY: Well, I was offered a trial for Manchester City, but I didn't go and my school got very annoyed with me. One of my uncles, who was an aficionado, was also very annoyed -- and he's still annoyed with me -- but I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was seven years of age. Actually, just as an aside, Johnny Marr was also offered trials, but I'm not sure for which club, and like me, he didn't go either.

History might have been very different. You could have played together.

REILLY: [laughs] Yeah, but my career would have been over by now, wouldn't it?

So do you support Manchester City?

REILLY: No, I'm a Manchester United fan. That was something else that Tony felt very passionate about. He was a very keen Man Utd supporter. He used to take his kids and go with people to the matches. He just loved it. He loved all sport, actually. He was a huge fan of sport. He thought it was a fine thing. And I agree. I think it is.

Bruce and Vini, you two have worked together for almost 30 years now. Could you both articulate the attraction and the pleasure of that association?

MITCHELL: Oh, the music! He's always a handful, Vincent Reilly, but no matter what goes wrong, once he starts playing, it's all the things that brought Tony to it as well. So I regard my job as Artist Support.

REILLY: How can I answer what the great pleasure of working with Bruce is when he's sitting here? [laughs] It's not a question of that. It's more a question of how on earth does Bruce put up with me? Bruce doesn't earn money from working with me. You have to understand that. It's not financially rewarding.

MITCHELL: I'm a Medici.

REILLY: Yeah, he's a Medici. Bruce is like a patron. He literally keeps me going on a daily basis -- financially -- and he feeds my soul when I'm really down and I'm fed up. He's my best friend. It's that simple. He's the best friend I've ever had.

[Pictured in the photo above, circa late ‘90s: Vini Reilly, foreground; behind him, L-R, Bruce Mitchell, Keir Stewart, Tony Wilson]

blog comments powered by Disqus

More Photos