''The Return of the Durutti Column'' is the debut studio album by English band

The Durutti Column The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band formed in 1978 in Manchester, England.Strong, Martin C. (1999) "The Great Alternative & Indie Discography", Canongate, The band is a project of guitarist and occasional pianist Vini Reilly who ...

. It was released in January 1980, through record label

Factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

Background

The initial two thousand copies also included a flexi-disc single with two tracks by producer

Martin Hannett James Martin Hannett (31 May 1948 – 18 April 1991), initially credited as Martin Zero, was an English record producer, musician and an original partner/director at Tony Wilson's Factory Records. Hannett produced music by artists including Joy ...

: "First Aspect of the Same Thing" and "Second Aspect of the Same Thing". The original 3600 LP sleeves were made of coarse sandpaper (similar to the Situationist book

Mémoires ''Mémoires'' (''Memories'') is an artist's book made by the French social critic Guy Debord in collaboration with the Danish artist Asger Jorn. Its last page mentions that it was printed in 1959, however, it was printed in December 1958. This ...

), designed to scratch LPs which were placed on either side of it. The sleeves were assembled by members of the bands and label-mates

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...

and

A Certain Ratio A Certain Ratio (abbreviated as ACR) are an English post-punk band formed in 1977 in Flixton, Greater Manchester by Peter Terrell (guitar, electronics) and Simon Topping (vocals, trumpet), with additional members Jez Kerr (bass, vocals), Martin ...

. A regular printed sleeve for later copies was designed by Steve Horsfall. Some later pressings featured a sixth untitled track on side two. The damaging to adjacent LPs led to the album frequently being placed separated from the rest, which may have been the idea for the cover. "Sketch for Summer"/"Sketch for Winter" was released as a single (Gap Records SFA-491) in Australia, with a sleeve by Andrew Penhallow of Gap. In 2013 a modified version was issued as a vinyl album by

Factory Benelux A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

(FBN-114) with an 11-inch square sheet of coarse glasspaper attached to the inner sleeve, visible through a die-cut in the front cover. The die-cut was based on the 1978 Factory 'bar graph' logo designed by Peter Saville. On this edition, the Hannett tracks were included on a bonus 7-inch single on hard vinyl. The album was given the Factory Identifier FACT14 (Vinyl), or FACT14-C (Cassette).

Legacy

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

called the album a "quietly stunning debut, as influential down the road as his labelmates in Joy Division's effort with ''

Unknown Pleasures ''Unknown Pleasures'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Joy Division, released on 15 June 1979 by Factory Records. The album was recorded and mixed over three successive weekends at Stockport's Strawberry Studios in April 1979, wit ...

''."

Track listing

All tracks written by Vini Reilly ;Side A # "Sketch for Summer" - 2:58 # "Requiem for a Father" - 5:06 # "Katharine" - 5:26 # "Conduct" - 4:59 ;Side B # "Beginning" - 1:37 # "Jazz" - 1:35 # "Sketch for Winter" - 2:22 # "Collette" - 2:20 # "In 'D'" - 2:25 ;Bonus flexi-disc # "First Aspect of the Same Thing" - 3:42 # "Second Aspect of the Same Thing" - 2:59

Personnel

; The Durutti Column *

Vini Reilly Vincent Gerard "Vini" Reilly (born 4 August 1953) is an English musician and leader of the post-punk group the Durutti Column. He is known for his distinctively clean, fluid guitar style, which stood out from his punk-era contemporaries in its i ...

– guitar * Pete Crooks – bass guitar *

Toby Toman Toby Toman, is a drummer who played with various British bands including The Nosebleeds, Ludus, The Durutti Column, Blue Orchids, and Primal Scream, working often with German singer Nico, known for her role with The Velvet Underground, while s ...

(credited as Toby) – drums ; Additional personnel *

–

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Chris Nagle –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

* John Brierley – engineering *

Anthony H. Wilson Anthony Howard Wilson (20 February 1950 – 10 August 2007) was a British record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager, impresario and a journalist for ITV Granada, Granada Television, the BBC and Channel 4. As a ...

– sleeve artwork (uncredited)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Return of the Durutti Column, The 1980 debut albums The Durutti Column albums Albums produced by Martin Hannett Factory Records albums