The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band formed in 1978 in Manchester, England.[2] The band is a project of guitarist and occasional pianist Vini Reilly who is often accompanied by Bruce Mitchell on drums and Keir Stewart on bass, keyboards and harmonica. They were among the first acts signed to Factory Records by label founder Tony Wilson. 　　The Durutti Column was primarily the vehicle of Vini Reilly, a guitarist born in Manchester, England in 1953. As a child, Reilly first took up the piano, drawing inspiration from greats like Art Tatum and Fats Waller, before learning to play guitar at the age of ten. Despite an early affection for folk and jazz, Reilly ultimately became swept up by the punk movement, and in 1977 he joined the group Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds. 　　In 1978, Factory Records founder Tony Wilson invited Reilly to join a group dubbed the Durutti Column, the name inspired by the Spanish Civil War anarchist Buenaventura Durruti and a Situationists Internationale comic strip of the 1960s. Along with Reilly, the nascent band included guitarist Dave Rowbotham, drummer Chris Joyce, vocalist Phil Rainford and bassist Tony Bowers; following a handful of performances, Rainford was fired, and after recording a pair of tracks for the EP A Factory Sampler, Rowbotham, Joyce and Bowers broke off to form the Moth Men, leaving the Durutti Column the sole province of Vini Reilly. 　　Recorded with the aid of a few session musicians and released in a sandpaper sleeve, the debut The Return of the Durutti Column, a collection of atmospheric instrumentals, appeared in 1980. With 1981s pastoral LC, recorded with drummer Bruce Mitchell (who remained a frequent collaborator), Reilly attempted vocals on a few tracks, and continued expanding his palette with a pair of explorations of chamber music, 1982s Another Setting and 1984s Without Mercy. Electronic rhythms, meanwhile, emerged as the pivotal element of 1985s Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say. 　　After 1985s live effort Domo Arigato, Circuses and Bread marked a return to the densely-constructed guitar textures of previous works, while 1987s eclectic The Guitar and Other Machines ranked among the Durutti Columns most ambitious works to date. In 1988, Reilly backed Morrissey (also an alumnus of the Nosebleeds) on his solo debut Viva Hate before returning the Durutti Column to release a 1989 LP titled Vini Reilly, another diverse affair which incorporated vocal samples from Otis Redding, Annie Lennox, Tracy Chapman and opera star Joan Sutherland. 　　1990s aggressive Obey the Time preceded 1991s Lips That Would Kiss Form Prayers to Broken Stone, a collection of singles, rarities and unreleased material. After a long layoff, the Durutti Column returned in 1995 with Sex and Death, followed a year later by Fidelity, which fused dance beats with Reillys guitar lines. Night in New York arrived in 1999. Among Durutti alumni, Chris Joyce and Tony Bowers achieved the greatest success as members of Simply Red; tragically, founding guitarist Dave Rowbotham was slain by an axe murderer in 1991, inspiring the Happy Mondays song Cowboy Dave. 　　In 1993 Tony Wilson attempted to revive Factory Records, and Sex and Death was the first release on Factory Too (a subdivision of London Records). The album was once again produced by Stephen Street, with Mitchell and Metcalfe, and it included, on the track "The Next Time", Peter Hook of New Order. Time Was Gigantic ... When We Were Kids, which followed in 1998, was produced by Keir Stewart, who also played on the album and has frequently worked with Reilly since. Fidelity was released between these albums in 1996 by Les Disques du Crépuscule and was produced by Laurie Laptop. 　　The eight albums recorded for Factory (The Return of the Durutti Column, LC, Another Setting, Without Mercy, Domo Arigato, The Guitar and Other Machines, Vini Reilly and Obey the Time) were re-released with additional material by Factory Too/London, under the banner Factory Once, between 1996 and 1998. 　　In 1998, Durutti Column contributed "It's Your Life Baby" to the AIDS benefit compilation album Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon produced by the Red Hot Organization. 　　Factory Too effectively ended in 1998, and subsequent Durutti Column albums have been on independent labels Artful Records (Rebellion 01, Someone Else's Party 03, Keep Breathing 06, Idiot Savants 07) or Kookydisc (Tempus Fugit 04, Sunlight to Blue . . . Blue to Blackness 08). Kookydisc has also released two further volumes of The Sporadic Recordings (along with a slightly edited re-release of the first volume from 1989), remastered versions of two very scarce LPs from the early 1980s (Live At The Venue 04 and Amigos Em Portugal 05), and two subscription-club discs of rare and unreleased material. A download-only release, Heaven Sent (It Was Called Digital, It Was Heaven Sent), first appeared in 2005 via Wilson's project F4, which was marketed as the fourth version of Factory Records. 　　On 7 September 2009, Colin Sharp died from a brain haemorrhage. Reilly suffered a stroke in 2011, following which he was left unable to play the guitar the way he did before.