Joy Division; any great-sounding live album(s)

Would very much like to get one on cd, but confused by the inordinate amount of what I assume are mostly bootlegs. Which one should I be getting ?

 

There isn't anything released that really is great "sounding" (AFAIK)

Les Bains Douches is perhaps acceptable, and the performances are excellent.

 

Yeah, Les Bains Douches is probably your best bet. There is Preston, although the sound is worse.

There is also the second half of Still, which features Joy Division's final live show, but the sound quality is poor and it's generally regarded as being somewhat of a lackluster performance.

 

Yep, Les Bains Douches sounds like what it is, an off-air recording of a radio broadcast, but it's stereo with an unmuffled, big sound, and is the one to get.

The music is incredible. Play loud.

 

Bains douches contains 2 tracks from the Paradiso gig, but you can fairly easily track down a recording of the full Paradiso concert in very good sound quality. It is arguably their best live document.

 

Yes, Paradiso is the best. The 3 live recordings which accompanied the deluxe versions of each of the CDs are also good. But really, we need a live box set.

 

The live version of Shadowplay from Les Bain Douches is phenomenal, file next to live at Leeds.

Although an audience recording the bonus disc of Closer is a great show.

 

The live gig at Paradiso in Amsterdam (11th of january, 1980) is one of the best recorded Joy Division performances. It was recorded by the VPRO radio and broadcasted different times at the Dutch radio. That's the reason many fans are having it at tape. I'm still wondering why the whole performance was never being put officially at an album.
http://www.joydiv.org/c110180.htm

 

Another vote for LBD. The performance is raw, gnarly and energizing.

My sole version is on vinyl and it surprisingly doesn't sound too bad....

 

The Paradiso concert was released on NMC records in 2003:
http://www.discogs.com/Joy-Division-Les-Bains-Douches-18-December-1979/release/785772
The (soundboard) sound is a bit disappointing but a copy of the master tape of the radio broadcast (pre-fm) surfaced a few years ago on the internet. That's the one to get.
Les Bains Douches is the best in my opinion. Bernard Lenoir has broadcasted more tracks in recent years and I wish the complete concert will be issued on day.

 

Les Baines and Still are my two favorites.

 

Paradiso it is then ! How about the official ¨Peel Sessions¨ cd ? I've always been partial to everything John Peel-related.

 

Great, nice alternate studio versions without Martin Hannetts production.

 

Another vote for Les Baines Douches. Shadowplay and Transmission in particular are incredible on it.

 

Les Baines Douches is a great performance with decent sound quality, but it's a pity about the overly compressed mastering there.

 

The Peel sessions are great. I have em on vinyl and the SQ is tops.

 

That's what I have and it sounds significantly better than anything else I've heard. Still not an audiophile recording.

 

That's the key. PLAY LOUD.

At regular volumes, it's...pretty good. Maybe very good.

But the closer you get it to concert volume (c'mon, you know you can do it), the more its magic unfolds. It verges on the miraculous. Played loudly, I really would put it against anything ya got, right behind the 1970 Live at Leeds (rather than any of the re-releases).

But only LOUD.

I absolutely see why anyone would pick Paradiso (agreed, only the pre-FM), and I won't spend any effort disagreeing...except to say that for me, LBD is the one that hits the sweet spot.

 

Ha, thanks for the information. I own only a tape I once recorded from the radio and would like to find a cd with that pre-FM tape. Is this at the NMC recording? And is the NMC recording really official or just a better bootleg?

 

The official transcription of the entire VPRO/VARA FM recording is available from Beeld En Geluid. This was supposed the leak of the pre-FM now making the trading rounds.

http://www.beeldengeluid.nl/
http://www.discogs.com/Joy-Division-Paradiso/release/6017168

Additionally, the Refracturedboxone includes the Paradiso set but apparently with silent gaps in between songs. Doh!

http://www.discogs.com/Joy-Division-Refracturedboxone/release/1860991

 

Don't worry; everything I got gets played that way

 

These cds ar individual cds with a unique catalogue nr. I can see this particular cd on Discogs was burned on the 1st of April 2010 (no joke).

(Disappointed with the sound of the NMC I approached Beeld en Geluid in March 2010 and to my great astonishment the VARA approved the request and I received a flat transfer on cd in my mailbox. Maybe it was a mistake but I was allowed to share the info with others. A few weeks later they told me there had been numerous requests from all over the world and they were shipping cd's to Australia etc. Eventually in 2013 or so, someone broke the contract and put it online, with a fake story about someone who had a reel to reel tape in his possession for ages and couldn't find the right moment to let it go, bla bla.)

This is the track list on the original tapes:

1A-2 Joy Division; Wilderness; Joy Division 03:35
1B-2 Joy Division; Digital; Joy Division 03:00
1C-2 Joy Division; Day Of The Lords; Joy Division 05:10
1D-2 Joy Division; Insight; Joy Division 03:35
1E-2 Joy Division; New Dawn Fades; Joy Division 04:45
1F-2 Joy Division; Disorder; Joy Division 3:10:45
1G-2 Joy Division; Transmission; Joy Division 03:20
2A-2 Joy Division; Love Will Tear Us Apart; Joy Division 04:10
2B-2 Joy Division; These Days; Joy Division 03:50
2C-2 Joy Division; Incubation; Joy Division 04:20
2D-2 Joy Division; Twenty Four Hours; Joy Division 04:30
2E-2 Joy Division; Shadowplay; Joy Division 03:20
2F-2 Joy Division; She's Lost Control; Joy Division 04:20
2G-2 Joy Division; Atrocity Exhibition; Joy Division 07:00
2H-2 Joy Division; Transmission; Joy Division

 

Ok, I just listened to the 2cd of 'Les Bains Douches' which I recently purchased. At that 2cd you will find the live recordings of their Paris AND Amsterdam gigs, and... I really don't understand the positive reputation of the Paris recording. Yes, the band was playing fine at Les Bains Douche, but the sonics at that first cd are AWFULL! It's more than just a blanket over your speakers, it's at least two or three woolen blankets - made out of a Merinho sheep!

As expected, the Amsterdam Paradiso recording (the second cd of Les Bains Douches album) is however GREAT in sonics, a revelation as fine as the recently released live cds of the Velvets in The Matrix. WHAT A DIFERENCE! (and please help me, why is the album, for that reason, being called Les Bains Douches instead of 'Paradiso'?)

 

This is how the pre fm tape of the Paradiso concert sounds, I like it better than the official release on that 2cd version of Les Bains Douches:



Les Bains was partially rebroadcasted in 1994, 2001 and 2014, all captured from the FM on DAT. Those recordings sound brilliant, studio quality.