Fifteen Minutes With...Vini Reilly - Julie Hamill

Julie's latest interview...

Fifteen minutes with Vini Reilly, guitarist with Morrissey and The Durutti Column - Julie Hamill

Excerpt:

J: Your guitar playing is beautiful on ‘Viva Hate’.

V: I want to talk about Stephen Street about whom I’ve said wrong things in the past; this is not an excuse, this is fact, I have suffered from what they call ‘displaced anger’ and this is where you’re very angry with yourself and you don’t understand, you just shout at people you really care about. Stephen Street, I’ve got to tell you, you will never find a nicer man. He is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life. Endless patience, his skills are astonishing, his ability to hear… all those skills, a fabulous result. I loved the guy.

...Note from Vini:

Since this interview was conducted Stephen Street has had the good grace to contact me. After twenty-three years we have begun to try to find our way back to being good friends, thanks to Stephen’s big heart. Vini.

vini_reilly.jpg
 
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Poor lad. He's been through a lot. He's got the resignation of someone who's done and seen it all. The stuff about women - well, his spirit is broken.

P.
 
It's truly a shame to read how debilitated physically Vini has become as a result of his strokes and how it has robbed him of his guitar-playing skill. He clearly has not had the easiest of lives. Despite this, it was very surprising and quite touching as to how he regards Stephen Street. He obviously was at a low ebb when he made statements about co-writing much of Viva Hate. Given how strong the Everyday Is Like Sunday B-sides were, it's tragic that the center couldn't hold in that unit for another album. Vini's gentleness of spirit - with the inherent contradiction of his youthful anger - seems to have made him a kindred spirit with Morrissey and where his headspace was at at the time. There was something of a misfit in both Paresi and Reilly that clicked with Morrissey in ways that no musician has before or since.

Thanks for another great interview, Julie. There is always something fascinating in each one.
 
She could've taken a better picture, turned on a light or something to warm him up. :(
 
Touchingly tragic. Must be awful to have the thing you love most taken away from you....

With the empathy shown here surely that elusive Jake interview must be getting closer. Surely? :rolleyes:

PS I never knew Pat Nevin was a friend of Morrissey, always thought he was more if a Johnny Marr man myself. The best pundit on TV imho.
 
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Strokes are cruel things. Each one being different in what it does, how it effects a person. I can't help but think "poor bastard" reading about Vini. Some people do have hard rough lives. Yet from that he wrote so many lovely songs. Nice to hear him say how proud he is of "Late Night......". He has every right to be. It's a fantastic song. I can only hope that he gets better, but he seems resigned to the fact that their will be a dawn he will never see. The Isle of Skye does seem a nice place to rest.

A difficult interview for Julie. She's done herself and Vini proud.
 
A very sad and touching read, it seems like Vini has given up on his own happiness. "No woman would want me, I have nothing to offer a woman" - I'm sure that isn't true, but he seems resigned.
He has been dealt a spectacularly bad hand, but you wouldn't know it from the gentle way he puts himself across. Hope things start to look up for him very soon, and that his financial situation is a lot better these days.
 
Bloody hell , such a shame. What a nice touch by streety to put everything behind them and rekindle their friendship. Lesson for us all I think and just proves , life is to short and you just don't know what's around the corner and when it happens , it's to late isn't it?

Why hold onto to bitterness.

Vini seems a really nice bloke aswell and I just get the feeling , he isn't going to be with us much longer and he seems to have accepted this.....scatter the ashes.

Good luck vini.
 
These interviews always have an impact. This one more than usual. I can't help but feel that if she ever gets to sit down with Morrissey, it will reveal absolutely nothing, and rank among the lowest of her interviews in terms of honesty, insight, and reflection. Note to Mum? "Life is a pigsty where people are the same everywhere." -Mossirrey.

I can't help but be struck by the contrast between Autobiography and a simple quiet interview like this. Morrissey, who seemingly never needed anybody, and offers very few kind words about those who helped make him, versus those who helped him along, and still, against all odds and long time absence, have kind words and affection for the man.
 
A really sad piece. Such a shame to see what's happened to Vini, he is a really talented musician, and clearly a decent person.
 
It's such a shame to see such an amazing guitarist who wrote the most beautiful music not being able to play a note. Songs such as "Sketch For Summer", "The Missing Boy" and "The Room" will never be played by his hand ever again. I hope he has loads of unreleased demos. I would buy anything to keep this man from living in the lowest poverty.

Wow, this must be one the rare times when Vini just speaks truthfully and from the heart. It's a complete contradiction from what he's said in the past in other interviews. Why couldn't he have just been this bold from the beginning? Lovely interview.
 
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She could've taken a better picture, turned on a light or something to warm him up. :(

It's time for him to give up on dying his hair, it just looks weird. Even Keef has let the grey shine through now. George Clooney leads the way.

I hope the effect of his strokes can be reversed through physio and he regains his ability to play the guitar.
 
Morrissey, who seemingly never needed anybody, and offers very few kind words about those who helped make him, versus those who helped him along, and still, against all odds and long time absence, have kind words and affection for the man.

das it mane

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naw. lovely interview although very sad.

vini seems like a top bloke and i'm glad stephen street has now contacted him again :o
 
PS I never knew Pat Nevin was a friend of Morrissey, always thought he was more if a Johnny Marr man myself. The best pundit on TV imho.

It's time the tale were told. From 'Is This Music?' Issue 24 Winter 2006, Pat Nevin interviewed by Stuart McHugh, ~

"Despite Nevin’s efforts – he was player of the year – Chelsea got relegated – a far cry from today. But he remained in the top league, signing to Everton for close to a million pounds. Happily, his musical interest wasn’t curtailed too much, living in the comparatively affluent Chester suburbs.
With Madchester and The Smiths in their ascendancy, the move was convenient for not just footballing reasons. And indeed, provided more proof that football and contemporary music are unlikely bedfellows. Nevin became friendly with Vini Reilly – guitarist with Factory act The Durutti Column, and former bandmate with one Steven Patrick Morrissey.

An invite to Moz’s mansion followed, in the leafy suburb of Bowden. Nevin enlisted the help of teammate, Northern Ireland international Norman Whiteside, for directions to the area.
“I live in that road! I’ll come down, we could all get pished together!” Whiteside offered. “I couldn’t do it, so decided to tell him I couldn’t find his house”. A fascinating evening chez Moz followed. “He’d bought a grand piano specifically so Vinny would play that night,” Nevin reveals. And the pair were given a full tour of the turreted mansion. “There was one room we’d not seen, but we eventually persuaded him to show us… his multi-gym!” The image of the bequiffed one working out with gladioli sticking out the back of his shorts is one which is best expunged from one’s memory. “He always was built like a brick shithouse,” Nevin reckons,”but you’d not have known at the time”.

Meanwhile, Whiteside, concerned for his teammate’s whereabouts, was spotted climbing over Morrissey’s wall. And the story doesn’t end there. “I promised I’d go for a drink with Norman after training next day, but had to see the manager and when I came out he’d gone off himself and got ratted that night.” The next Pat heard of his teammate was in the tabloids. “He was stopped on the M54 that night doing… 12 in the outside lane. So Norman lost his licence, and it’s all my fault!
 
It's time the tale were told. From 'Is This Music?' Issue 24 Winter 2006, Pat Nevin interviewed by Stuart McHugh, ~

"Despite Nevin’s efforts – he was player of the year – Chelsea got relegated – a far cry from today. But he remained in the top league, signing to Everton for close to a million pounds. Happily, his musical interest wasn’t curtailed too much, living in the comparatively affluent Chester suburbs.
With Madchester and The Smiths in their ascendancy, the move was convenient for not just footballing reasons. And indeed, provided more proof that football and contemporary music are unlikely bedfellows. Nevin became friendly with Vini Reilly – guitarist with Factory act The Durutti Column, and former bandmate with one Steven Patrick Morrissey.

An invite to Moz’s mansion followed, in the leafy suburb of Bowden. Nevin enlisted the help of teammate, Northern Ireland international Norman Whiteside, for directions to the area.
“I live in that road! I’ll come down, we could all get pished together!” Whiteside offered. “I couldn’t do it, so decided to tell him I couldn’t find his house”. A fascinating evening chez Moz followed. “He’d bought a grand piano specifically so Vinny would play that night,” Nevin reveals. And the pair were given a full tour of the turreted mansion. “There was one room we’d not seen, but we eventually persuaded him to show us… his multi-gym!” The image of the bequiffed one working out with gladioli sticking out the back of his shorts is one which is best expunged from one’s memory. “He always was built like a brick shithouse,” Nevin reckons,”but you’d not have known at the time”.

Meanwhile, Whiteside, concerned for his teammate’s whereabouts, was spotted climbing over Morrissey’s wall. And the story doesn’t end there. “I promised I’d go for a drink with Norman after training next day, but had to see the manager and when I came out he’d gone off himself and got ratted that night.” The next Pat heard of his teammate was in the tabloids. “He was stopped on the M54 that night doing… 12 in the outside lane. So Norman lost his licence, and it’s all my fault!



I'd never read anything about this before ... thanks Joe ...
 
I'd love to see another Vini/Street album. It's funny Vini says he still plays "Late Night, Maudlin Street". Maybe he can actually play quite well now?
 
It's funny Vini says he still plays "Late Night, Maudlin Street". Maybe he can actually play quite well now?

I think he means he plays it, as in he plays the record. If the poor fella can't tie his shoelaces these days you can't expect him to be able to play his guitar very well any more.
 
Well, I guess that settles the whole Vini/Street Viva Hate controversy. That was really a touching and also very sad interview.

And I am really glad to see that Street got in touch with him afterwards.

Viva Hate will always be my favorite Morrissey solo album (excluding Bona Drag--and even than it is a close call).
 

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