More stunning live material to come out of the vaults...Ian Curtis, Peter Hook and company recorded this live at the legendary Les Bains Douches in Paris on December 18th, 1979. Containing great versions of Love Will Tear Us Apart, Shadowplay, Atmosphere, Transmission, and more, this is one of the most classic live sets of the group’s storied career.
In January of 1980 Joy Division kicked off a tour of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany with a show at the legendary Paradiso Club in Amsterdam. Little did anyone know that in less than 6 months, Ian Curtis would be dead, and the brief, brilliant run of the group would be over. This is a particularly heavy and deep set, with the band performing at their angular best, and Curtis in top form vocally. Essential live broadcast for any fan of Joy Division.
If you are not already acquainted with this gig at Paradiso in Amsterdam in 1980. Here’s some info from a blog. “The local support didn’t want to play so Joy Division stood in for them. They played two completely different sets for the price of one.” And how it was described in a fanzine at the time: ‘When I arrived at the Paradiso, it appeared that most of the regular visitors had decided to stay at home.
So the JOY DIVISION played for a handful of people only, two long sets, together around 70 minutes of excellent music. At that time only the first album and two singles had been released, so they played a lot of new songs that went down well with the small audience. The gig was (along with the PIL-gig in Bruxelles) the best I have ever seen. Fantastic bass playing by Peter Hook and a strained Ian Curtis. The Paradiso management had lowered the ceiling to make things more intimate. It was a good idea. Shame to all the people who stayed at home’ SJC This is the most bootlegged live Joy Division show, but I’m not sure any of the bootlegs have sound this good. If they do, I certainly want to snag a copy.
Check the intensity on the live versions of tracks like “Transmission,” “Digital,” and “Disorder,” plus “A Means To An End,” “These Days,” and the timeless “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
The British group Joy Division wrote and recorded 43 songs and played over 120 shows in just 29 months between 1978 and 1980.
Having successfully toured the albums from Hooky’s previous bands for over eight years now, Peter Hook & the Light have now reached the late eighties and early nineties albums of new order, “Technique” and “Republic” in their consecutive run and have announced a raft of new concert dates.
As has become their custom, all dates feature the Light performing an opening set of Joy Division material.
‘Technique’, New Order’s fifth studio album chronicles the impact of acid house on the band, marking the clearest statement of the rock and dance influences which were shaping their output. released in january 1989, just after the bands infamous G-mex gig and aftershow downstairs at the Hacienda in december the previous year, it became New Order’s first album to go to number one in the UK. it was also hugely successful in the united states where the influence of Quincy Jones’ Qwest label regularly got the band’s singles to the top of the american dance charts, ‘Technique’ was driven by the classic acid house single “fine time” which rivals “Blue Monday” as probably the most openly dance orientated record the group ever produced whilst other tracks on the lp “Round and Round”, “Mr disco” and “Vanishing Point” also reflect the dance sensibilities then fusing their way into New Order’s sound. yet like on its predecessor, “Brotherhood”, these are balanced by the vocal led, more rock leaning “All the Way”, “Gulity Partner” and “Run”.
legendarily recorded in ibiza in 1988, ‘Technique’ has often been observed to capture the sound of that summer and the heady period back them both on the island and in the uk and of course, Manchester. as is widely known, the band didn’t actually do much work in ibiza, a jaunt that Factory label boss Tony Wilson once told Peter Hook “was the most expensive f*cking holiday you’ve ever been on”. the band returned to the UK to finish the lp at Bath’s Real World studios later in 1988, itself the scene of another legendary New Order party when recording was completed.
In many ways, ‘Technique’ epitomised its time and the culture surrounding it. it came out to generally ecstatic reviews from the top notch echelons of the music press. in the uk, melody maker called it “a rare and ravishing triumph” whilst nme proclaimed the band “had fashioned an lp of rare and unflinching honesty”. across in the states, spin called it New Order’s best ever album, rolling stone referred to its “sonic presence with immaculate playing” and pitchfork sum up the album simply as “magnificent.”
“placed in the perfect position to deliver the definitive alternative take on house music, the band produced another classic record” – all music
Many consider ‘Technique’ to mark the high point of New Order and as they went on from the album to headline Reading festival in august 1989, before going on hiatus and also pursuing their solo projects, this is generally thought of as the golden period for the band.
due to the well documented history surrounding ‘Republic’, it is remarkably difficult to characterise it as sharing the same sunny outlook as ‘Technique’ but Hooky’s decision to include it in these concerts underline his commitment to perform all of his catalogue that he has committed to record. Not that ‘Republic’ wasn’t hugely successful. again it went to number one in the UK and became the band’s biggest ever selling album in america, narrowly missing the billboard album chart top ten peaking at number 11.
however it is not unknown that it was new order’s most difficult album to make. Factory records had hit financial trouble and needed a new order album to bail themselves out so the band were coerced into recording the album in to save Factory. something that didn’t entirely work out as Factory was then to go bankrupt in november 1992 and New Order then signed to London Records, an offshoot of warner bros with ‘republic’ released in may 1993.
The band roared back with first single “Regret”, still thought of as one of their finest ever, and subsequent singles “Ruined in a Day” and “World” did well, both in their original versions and as remixes which again dominated the dance charts.
It’s not hard to deduce that the demise of Factory, coupled with the ongoing difficulties surrounding the band’s involvement in Manchester’s Hacienda as well as internal friction within New Order and due to the band members’ solo projects, all had an impact on the recording sessions and mood that lies behind “republic, something that Stephen Hague did his utmost to assuage in producing the lp.
Still considered a worthwhile addition by fans to New Order’s catalogue, yet, if not perhaps hitting the standards they had previously set for themselves, ‘Republic’ did receive some strong reviews. nme’s dele fadele awarded it 8/10 on release whilst all music commented that “‘Republic’ simply borrows elements of contemporary innovations in club music to frame a set of effortlessly enjoyable alternative pop songs.”
Philadelphian indie quartet The Districts have shared a cover of Joy Division’s famous 1980 single, “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
The band’s cover is accompanied by a series of moving, flashing images of scientists performing ominous experiments. The Districts frontman Rob Grote adds a more animated take on Ian Curtis’ famously strange deadpan vocals while the band turns Joy Division’s jolting post-punk into a warm, indie-rock sound that Districts fans will recognize in an instant.
The Districts recently released a limited edition 7”, “Nighttime Girls” backed by b-side “Soft Auxiliary,” via their Bandcamp page. “Nighttime Girls” is a gritty garage-pop/rock tune, which the band says is “about the allure of escapism and a character’s general preoccupation with shallowness and neon light.”
After touring with Chicago’s Twin Peaks in support of The District’s 2017 LP, Popular Manipulations, they’ll be making a stop at various Festival’s, as well as some additional headlining shows and festivals across the U.K. and Europe.
The band’s latest album, Popular Manipulations resembles a sunset that’s far more than ordinary, the red sky at night before the darkness of the latest hours. It’s an album thats not letting anyone down.”
The Districts cover Joy Division’s classic “Love Will Tear Us Apart” along with moving images.
Peter Hook will release four new live albums this spring on CD, digital and vinyl, each capturing a performance of a different full album Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” and “Closer”, and New Order’s “Movement” and “Power, Corruption & Lies” — recorded over the past few years.
The albums will first be released as limited-edition colored-vinyl pressings on Record Store Day 2017 on April 22nd. A worldwide CD and digital release will follow on May 5th.
Full tracklists have not yet been released, but each live album features a full performance of that partcular record by Peter Hook & The Light, plus additional era-appropriate tracks fleshing out the sets.
18 years ago the Minnesota slowcore vets, Low, released their Transmission Ep. At six tracks it housed two covers – “Jack Smith” (a Supreme Dicks cover), and a glacial rendition of Joy Division’s “Transmission“, from which the Ep took its name.
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Rhino has re-issued four iconic Joy Division albums on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl. Each design replicates the original in painstaking detail, including the gatefold covers used for Still and Substance. The music heard on the albums was remastered in 2007 when Rhino introduced expanded versions of the albums.
Joy Division recorded two albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer, before singer Ian Curtis tragically took his own life in 1980. But what the Manchester quartet lacked in longevity, it more than made up for in quality. The band’s only two studio albums were groundbreaking and helped shape the sound and mood of the alternative music that followed in the band’s wake.
The compilations Still and Substance fill in the missing pieces of the band’s history with non-album singles (“Transmission” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart”), unreleased studio tracks (“Something Must Break” and “Ice Age”), and choice live recordings (“Disorder” and the only performance of “Ceremony.”)
34 years ago this weekend the Joy Division vocalist and lyricist Ian Curtis, tragically took his own life but the legacy that the post punk pioneer and his songs, have left behind is unmistakable, despite only releasing two full length albums “Unknown Pleasures” and “Closer” his influence is evident in their sound produced by countless bands who continue to be inspired, his baritone vocal, dance style amd minimilistic sound, the tone of Curtis’s voice and the lyrics were huge,
here is a cover of the song “Transmission” slowed down and recorded around the time of LOW’s second album,
next up is the Band PINK MOUNTAINTOPS and their version of “Atomosphere” sounding very much like the Velvet Underground would if they had covered this song
and a version from the seminal goth,punk band THE CURE with “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
The Fat Angel Sings 