The Return Of The Durutti Column

First released in January 1980 in a sandpaper sleeve, assembled by members of Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, and others. While Ian Curtis did the glueing, the other members of Joy Division watched a porn movie in the same room.
The labels usually feature "Thanks also to Gammer for his melody and Rowbotham, Reid and Debord for the marketing concept", referring to Gammer (founder of Gammer And His Familiars, Reilly's first band), David Rowbotham (former DC founder and guitarist), Jamie Reid (who apparently wanted to title the first Sex Pistols album "Where's the Durutti Column?"), and Situationist Guy Debord (whose book "Mémoires" was housed in a sandpaper cover to destroy the adjacent books on the shelf).
Initial pressings are on dark red translucent vinyl (a hallmark of Pye's pressing plant Tranco). Some sandpaper copies included a flexi disc with two instrumental tracks by Martin Hannett. There were four editions of the sandpaper sleeve: "FACT 14" sprayed (in black or white) and with flexi; no spray but with flexi; no spray and no flexi; or "The Return Of The Durutti Column" sprayed in black but without flexi.
The number of sandpaper copies released as of a July 1980 Factory newsletter was reported to be 3,600 ('FACT 14; "The Return of the Durutti Column"... First 3,600 in sandpaper all gone but we have some 12' square sheets of sandpaper left'); however, Anthony H. Wilson, Peter Hook, and James Nice subsequently published the quantity made as 2,000.
Reissued in July 1980 in a black sleeve, with a painting by Raoul Dufy. The black sleeve editions come in textured and untextured versions.
The track "In 'D'" is actually a different mix of "Sketch For Winter"
There originally are two audio versions of this album:
- the first and third pressings each have five tracks on the B side (matrices A1/B1 and A3/B3),
- the second pressing (matrix A2/B2) has six tracks on the B side, but only five are listed: track B1 is new and uncredited but labeled as "Beginning", track B5 is "Beginning" but unlisted, and track B6 is "In 'D'". This configuration is also found on Italian and Japanese vinyl pressings, as well as on the CD that was part of FACD 224.
The first Japanese vinyl edition (JAL-1) has 10 tracks with new / uncredited track as B1, but the inner sleeve lists track B5 as "In 'D' (A)" and "(B)". Same audio content as on FACD 14 and FACT 14 A2/B2.
Both Japanese CD editions and FACD 14 have "Beginning" and "In 'D'" combined into one track, labeled as "In 'D'", with overall track length of 4:10 (incl. 6 second silence). Same audio content as JAL 1 and FACT 14 A2/B2.
The 2025 reissues list B1 as Untitled, B2 as Beginning, B5 as Collette and B6 as In 'D'.
14'000 copies were pressed until 17 July 1981.