Joy Division Day By Day - Part 2

Postscript

Unknown Pleasures Collectors Edition - CD2


Ian Curtis - The Factory 13-07-79


The Factory - 13-07-79

Dead Souls
The Only Mistake
Insight
Candidate
Wilderness
She's Lost Control
Shadowplay
Disorder
nterzone
Atrocity Exhibition
Novelty
Transmission




After the release and critical acclaim of their debut album Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division were able to attract much larger audiences. Approximately 444 people attended this legendary Factory concert at the Russell Club in Manchester on July 13th, 1979, and this was almost as many as the Buzzcocks were drawing in at the time ( Buzzcocks played there May 14th, not the night before as googling typically suggests).

This is a fantastic recording full of energy, this particular night Martin Hannett had been drafted in to do the sound engineering which might be why it sounds so good.

 

A bit early.... but saves me doing it in the morning

 

One more quick post on In A Lonely Place. Hope you don’t mind me posting a cover, and believe me I don’t generally like them (especially one guy and a guitar covers for some reason), but it was Nine Inch Nails’ Dead Souls cover that really got me into JD (I already posted that), and I think this is a really well done one.

The drums sound immense and it’s just great to hear this song in top quality. It’s got a similar industrial feel to the NIN cover. I’d love to hear Deftones cover this. Seems like the kind of cover they’d do

 

...and I was one of them!

 

Woo hoo........ Nice one...... Can you remember anything of the night?

 

Peel Sessions - A great chance to hear some well recorded 'live' JD. Just listened again, and I can't say I'm crazy about the January 79 session. I quite enjoy Exercise One but that's about all. The Peel Transmission clearly pales into insignificance against the monstrous 'Something Else' BBC version later on the disc. I imagine that many people watching that TV performance at the time wondered what the hell had just happened. You can tell that by the time of the second Peel session that same November, the band had grown in confidence. Those 4 songs just seem to be performed more assuredly, and they all sound great to me.

 

Well I saw them many times and it all becomes a bit of a blur. The only thing that really stays in one's mind is Ian up there doing his crazy dance with those piercing eyes. I also remember how impressive Stephen Morris's drumming was and how he well incorporated the electronic drum sounds into his playing.
There was one night at the Russel/Factory (not sure if it was 13/07/79) where some nutter/skinhead was walking around and generally being a pain. This carried on while JD were playing and it really pissed off Hooky, who, while still playing, had a sort of exchange with the twat, then suddenly swung his big bass guitar round and brought it down on the guys head! A bit like that image on the cover on London Calling. Burnt in my brain.

 

I really enjoy the Factory 13/7/79 gig. To my knowledge its one of the very best 1979 live recordings. Didn't realise that Martin Hannett was doing the sound until reading as such here. The band appear to be really into the performance. Its energetic, lively and ferocious. We get a rare recording of The Only Mistake, a blistering Novelty, a very early outing for Atrocity Exhibition with some different lyrics, and Ian barking a speaker-rattling "GET OUT!" in Interzone and going similarly berserk at the end of She's Lost Control. I think we covered this in part one, but I love this version of Candidate. Whilst very short, I just think that every instrument sounds great, and going on the guitar parts, this version was obviously copied by the band actors in the Control film, as opposed to the UP version. This live cut is my favourite version of Candidate.

Yes, they are well worth getting. As per @bettsaj info the other day, the ULU gig was re-remastered in 2012 so I guess its worth going straight to that one. I haven't heard this newer version myself yet but aim to rectify this soon. The High Wycombe one has soundcheck songs too, some of which weren't actually played at the gig.

 

To date I've got Analog Loyalists remasters of The Warsaw album, and the University of London Union gig. As far as his High Wycombe remaster is concerned I'm unsure whether that's actually "out there", I don't think he's upped it to be honest. Regarding the remasters of In A Lonely Place, otherwise known as "The Spring Rehearsals" they are out there..... But hard to find. This set has got the edited IALP with a stitch job of takes 2 and 3 which were originally presented to the band for use on H&S, but obviously not used in favour of the version that eventually ended up on the CD.

 

It's about the only time I've known them to play Ice Age live..... don't think I've got a recording of them playing that song live except this one...... Quite the rarity

 

There are a couple of live performances of the song in circulation, the best of which (both in terms of sound quality and rendition) is from the full Effenaar tape. Don't miss it!
It's kinda funny that you bring up the soundcheck recording from Hemel Hempstead - especially in relation to your earlier question about the change in Ian Curtis' vocal style and timbre (a couple of weeks ago, when we were sparring about the lead vocals of Interzone on the UP version). I've resisted bringing it up at the time, because it's like opening up a can if worms, but in some quarters the sc recording of Ice Age is a smoking gun for technical enhancements made to Ian Curtis' live singing...

 

Ahh haa.... I forgot about that one.... I have that. Just haven't listened to Effenaar in a long long time

 

Perish the thought..... You think they used Autotune on his vocals??

 

Stitched is the best word to describe this version. Being a composite track Hook felt that it was absolutely not a true representation of the band's performance. Although I do like this version I would tend to agree with Hook. It never happened the way you hear it on this version. It's's basically a Frankenstein track and as such has no real place on a proper album release.

 

I only found out Hannett was engineering the live sound that night, when I heard Kevin Cummins say as much in an interview... Check 5:45 into the video... "They played a gig at The Factory, and Martin mixed the sound for it"...

 

To be honest, as much as curiosity is getting the better of me, I'm really not too fussed about hearing that version to be fair for those very reasons. I have however recently "acquired" a complete set of flac file rehearsals from 1977 and 1980 which includes all the available takes of IALP, just missing the composite. I'm happy

Although I am miffed the High Wycombe Town Hall remaster wasn't released...... Would loved to have heard that.

 

Side note....... Just booked my tickets for this.... Just 3 days before the 40th anniversary of Ians death

 

That’s fair enough really. I’d like to hear the track but it’s not the easiest to track down. If I get it someday I’d probably put it on a playlist of all JD songs. I get what you say though, a Frankenstein botch job track shouldn’t really have a place on an album. I like the thought though of having ‘take 2’ or ‘take 3’ full length version on an official release of some kind, beyond the very limited RSD one that’s already out. Perhaps on a potential future pressing of Heart & Soul box

 

Postscript

Still Collectors Edition CD2


Ian Curtis High Wycombe Town Hall 20-02-1980


High Wycombe Town Hall 20-02-1980

The Sound of Music
A Means to an End
Colony
Twenty Four Hours
Isolation
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Disorder
Atrocity Exhibition
Isolation (soundcheck)
The Eternal (soundcheck)
Ice Age (soundcheck)
Disorder (soundcheck)
The Sound of Music (soundcheck)
A Means to an End (soundcheck)

 

High Wycombe Town Hall..... I had this concert recording back in the day on a bootleg called Live Transmission...Dance To The Radio which I bought from a shop off Oxford Street London called "Roks Off Records" I played it to death, and this quickly became one of my favourite live recordings of Joy Division for a few reasons. Firstly, the version of Means To An End on this is more aggressive, with a totally different drum pattern to what would eventually be on Closer, Still and any of the other live recordings out there. I really like this version, and it seriously kicks a*se during the instrumental breaks between the chorus sections. I don't know why they changed the drum pattern, maybe it was a suggestion by Martin Hannett when they recorded Closer, maybe not..... Either way the song to me became a tad watered down when they changed the drums on this song. On this recording it's got a totally different feel.... And I like it.

Secondly I love the version of Twenty Four Hours on this recording, it's powerful, and the remaster on this CD is just brilliant, so much better than that old bootleg of mine. Twenty Four Hours is a big favourite of mine, and I tend to judge a lot of recordings and especially the performances on how this song is performed. This song is performed well, and the sound is punchy. I was listening to this in my car last night on the way home from work, knowing I had to write something about it today... I found myself playing this song over 5 times one after the other, but every time I turned the volume up just a tad more, until in the end the car was filled with this glorious sound... The snare drum punched the air, and that bass guitar, so deep and menacing... This version seriously is brilliant.

The rest of the recording doesn't disappoint either, and to top it off we get some songs recorded at soundcheck with a very rare outing for Ice Age, one of only 2 times I've known them to perform it live (I'm sure there's more, and I'm happy to be corrected on this). The soundcheck tracks were not included on the original bootleg release so getting them now is an added bonus.

All in all I love this recording, and was really pleased when it finally had an official release. Apparently, the mastering engineer Analog Loyalist remastered it again in 2012 and that version is even better, but so far that version has yet to see the light of day...... We can only hope it'll be released into the wild one day, I for one will be first in the queue.

 

If you’re having trouble finding the 2012 remaster I’ll get for you
I only have mp3s of it at the moment for some reason
What was interesting about the soundcheck (and the one at the Lyceum) was how clear it was that they weren’t all doom and gloom and spent a lot of time laughing and messing about

I’ve always thought this was a better sounding recording than ULU but maybe not such a good performance/setlist. You should track down October Electric Ballroom too if you don’t have it

 

I also have to thank everyone involved for making this an awesome thread. I was thinking of other bands to cover like this, but might give it some time.
Amazing job, everyone!

Here my opinions on the H&S demos.

Ceremony:
There’s a great song in there a la LWTUA.
However, it’s obviously unfinished.

In A Lonely Place:
This is a much better recording.
With some more love this could have been a highlight on a future album, no doubt.
Pretty much in the vein of Closer’s side 2.

See ya around!

 

Still need to get back to those live recordings.
I’m scheduled into a corner lately.

 

You need to check them out...... They really are worth a listen.

 

man if I was in the area I'd go to this. I'm betting on a lovefest