Vini Reilly
reissue liner notes (Anthony H. Wilson)

He was in his Morrissey phase... there you go

The story of a sleeve:  Vini wanted a photo on the cover for a change.
He even had his hair done by Andrew Berry for the shoot.  The print
went off to Mark and the usual ground breaking 8vo sleeve as created.
It's the sleeve you see on the cover of this CD; but it's the only
time this sleeve has ever existed.

Vin didn't like the sleeve, didn't like it one bit.

Mark Holt, Vini's graphics magician, founder of the legendary 8vo,
thinks today that three weeks at the Woolhall working with the two
Stephens on 'Viva Hate' had messed him up; "He was in his Morrissey
phase, wanted the picture bigger... there you go."

It was one of Vin's legendary outbursts.  Potential muggers have ended
up in hospital after encounters with our Vin -- he just loses it and
the result is frightening for the mugger manque.  Anyway, the Mark
Holt sleeve was out, "here's Bob Dylan, do it like that", said Vini.
So we did.  Mark was very understanding.  And now for all of us, in
particular Vin, there is real pleasure that the wonderful rejected
creation finally gets out ten years later.

And then there's the story of how the sequencers of 'The Guitar and
other Machines' grew up and got a baby brother, the Akai S500 sampler.

Back in 80/81 we seemed to spend all our time trying to get Simon
Topping of ACR to get back to singing, which was what he was great at,
and trying to get Vini to stop singing, which is what he was not great
at.

Complete failure.

Simon pursued the role of instrumentalist, be it trumpet or timbales.
And Vini, the great instrumentalist, just kept singing -- whenever
your back was turned.  Life.

To be scrupulously fair, we know it's kind of hellish to stand there
in front of a thousand people and just play the guitar.  When there
are things you just have to say.

It's expression and you can't forbid it; it's his dance.

And there are even Durutti fans who like Vini's singing.  But they're
off their heads.  And there are things you can do, like get him a
sampler and stand back.

Which is what we did, and we stood back in amazement.

On pieces like 'Otis' and 'Opera', Vini explored the new equipment in
his own extremely individual fashion.  'Otis' was later used for a
Pacific Bell TV ad in Northern California.  Great, eh?

For Vini, the ability to sample out the vocal tones from things he
adored and then play them back into a piece of music via a keyboard
was like letting a kid loose in F.A.O. Schwarz.

Of course we didn't not have real singers now and again.  Dear Miranda
from New York worked on 'Paradise Passage Road', and it's worth
explaining that Les Preger was next door neighbour to Bruce and one of
the first members of the International Brigade to arrive in Spain back
in the 30's.

Shortly after 'Vini Reilly', there was more stuff churning out of
Vini's brain/sampler than Factory could ever release.  So Vin gave a
bunch of tracks to his mate Paul Miller who put them out as the
'Sporadic Recordings'; the 6 tracks here are Vini's favourites from
that release.  'Shirt No.7', incidentally, was written for the
Durutti's friend Pat Nevin, in the good old days before football was
hip.  This one's still for you, Pat.


Vini Reilly

All tracks written by Vini Reilly.
Produced by Vini Reilly with Stephen Street.

Bruce Mitchell: Drums.
Andy Connell: Keyboard on 'Requiem Again', 'Otis' and 'Red Square'.
John Metcalfe: Viola on 'Finding the Sea'.
Rob Gray: Vocals on 'They Work Every Day'.
Liu Sola: Vocals on 'People's Pleasure Park' and 'Finding The Sea'.
Pol: Vocals on 'Otis'.

Respect and thanks to those we have sampled.

Recorded at Sam Theropy, Kensal; Island Studios, Hammersmith; Out Of
The Blue, Manchester.  Engineers: Stephen Street and Nick Garside.
Thanks to Sounds Great, Stuart James and Piccadilly Records.

Published by The Movement of the 24th January Publishing/
Zomba Publishing.


Related Works

Paradise Passage Road,
written by Stanton Miranda and Vini Reilly.  Produced by Vini Reilly
and Stephen Street.  Published by The Movement of the 24th January
Publishing/Zomba Publishing.  A Factory Communications Record 1989.

Les Preger's Tune,
written and produced by Vini Reilly.  Published by The Movement of the
24th January Publishing/Zomba Publishing.  A Materiali Sonori Record
1992.

Sporadic Recordings
Buddhist Prayer, Misere, Real Drums -- Real Drummer, Pathway, Rob
Grey's Elegy and Shirt No.7,
written and produced by Vini Reilly.  Published by The Movement of the
24th January Publishing/Zomba Publishing.  A Factory Communications
Record 1989.