Column inches

More than one person has been asking after my well-being, seeing as it's a month since my last post. I'm touched. But it's all good; I've just been living real life rather than this simulacrum.

I've been goaded into action by the delightful Jude, whose blog I came across recently. Her homage to ACR has sent me scrabbling to the CD rack to a copy of The Durutti Column's The Guitar And Other Machines from 1987. Besides boasting one of the greatest sleeves ever (and all done in camera, in the days before Quark Xpress), the CD version that Factory released as facd 204 featured three extra tracks. As well as showcasing the talents of Durutti mainstay Vini Reilly, two of these bonus tracks, Dream Topping and You Won't Feel Out of Place, featured fellow Mancunains Jeremy Kerr and Simon Topping, A Certain Ratio alumni both. Simon had left ACR some four years previously, while Jeremy is still a member of the band today.

When London Records came to rerelease The Guitar And Other Machines on CD in the 1990s, they managed to retain Dream Topping, but, for reasons best known to themselves, contrived to lose You Won't Feel Out of Place; thus the track has been MIA for the past 14 years or so, ever since the spectacular demise of Tony Wilson's experiment in popular culture. However,you can now enjoy this one that (nearly) got away, thanks to the tireless efforts of the code-monkeys at Irk The Purists, and the ongoing generosity of Pat N., whose actually lent me the CD over a year ago and still hasn't asked for it back. Cheers, Pat.

The tune? Oh, since you ask....Though it's technically a Durutti Column song with a bit of help from ACR, it actually sounds like it's the other way round: ACR with a bit of help from Vini. Cut-ups, congas, DX7; Vini's occasional trademark guitar frills make him seem like a guest on his own track, along for the ride. Still, it's a bit of a rarity, so enjoy.

Download You Won't Feel Out of Place by The Durutti Column feat. J Kerr and S Topping
(deleted Feb 2007--sorry!)

Buy Durutti Column CDs