The show, being held for the Durutti Column icon, comes after a special performance created for Harry Styles' Meltdown Festival in London...
One of Manchester’s most influential musicians is getting a special homecoming celebration this November, as the music of Vini Reilly and The Durutti Column is reimagined by a group of his longtime collaborators.
The show follows two sold-out performances at London’s Southbank Centre earlier this summer, staged as part of Meltdown festival, which was curated this year by Harry Styles. Styles himself has cited The Durutti Column as a key influence on his album Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally, finding himself just latest in a remarkably long and varied list of artists to fall under Vini Reilly’s spell.
For almost 50 years, Reilly has occupied a space almost entirely of his own making. Emerging from Manchester’s Factory Records era, his delicate, instantly recognisable guitar playing pulled together post-punk, ambient music, jazz, flamenco and classical influences alongside electronics in a way that sounded like very little else around him.
His influence has travelled considerably further than the cult status often attached to The Durutti Column might suggest. Chris Martin, Dev Hynes, John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Caroline Polachek, A.G. Cook and composer Max Richter are among the musicians known to admire his work, while Blood Orange sampled The Durutti Column on The Field. Reilly’s fingerprints can be found across generations of guitar music, electronic music and leftfield pop.
Now that celebration comes back to Manchester. While Reilly himself is unable to perform live due to ill health, producer and musical director Keir Stewart – who has worked alongside Reilly and drummer Bruce Mitchell since the late 1990s – will lead the ensemble, playing guitar, bass, samples and keyboards. Mitchell joins on drums and percussion, alongside Caoilfhionn Rose on vocals and piano, Liz Rossi on violin and Sam Morris on French horn and piano.
Together they’ll reinterpret music from across The Durutti Column’s six-decade catalogue, stretching from the pioneering Factory Records years through to Renascent, the band’s first new studio album in more than a decade.
Released in summer 2026, Renascent marked an unexpected return for the group and brought another wave of attention to Reilly’s singular approach to music.
For Vini: The Music takes place on Thursday 19 November, bringing a celebration first staged at Harry Styles’ Meltdown back to the city where The Durutti Column began.
Tickets go on sale Friday 11 September at 10am via the Albert Hall website…
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