
14th March 1979: Bowdon Vale Youth Club, Altrincham   
Bowdon Vale wasn't a youth club - it was a Social Club
and cost 25p to join
Supported by Staff 9. The support band included the Hanleys
and Craig Scanlon, soon to be members of The Fall
Songs performed:
01. Exercise One *
02. She's Lost Control
03. Shadowplay
04. Leaders Of Men
05. Insight
06. Disorder
07. Glass
08. Digital
09. Ice Age
10. Warsaw
11. Transmission
12. I Remember Nothing
13. No Love Lost. **
Appx. duration: 40 mins. Sound quality: 7-8/9
There are two different recordings of this concert:
An audience tape which does not have track 01
Exercise One* and a soundboard tape which does. The
soundboard tape didn't turn up until 2004 and the
last track, No Love Lost is cut short**, presumably
because the tape ran out.
It's not clear if Exercise One on the soundboard
tape is from this gig as there's a pitch difference
between Exercise One and She's Lost Control and it
sounds like the end of Exercise One has been
recorded over rather than the recorder being paused.
The full concert, from the soundboard tape, was
released on the following bootleg CD::
The Youth Club
This gig was released on the following bootleg LPs.
These are taken from the audience tape and do not
have track 01 Exercise One.:
Lost Control LP
Live! Bowdon Vale Youth Club,
Altringham 14/3/79 LP
Death LP
Two tracks appears on Another
Ideal For Killing LP
Two tracks appears on Live
at Bowden Youth Club 7"
All or some of this gig was filmed by Malcolm
Whitehead,
songs 02-04 were used in the "Joy
Division" 8mm film,
produced by none other than M. Whitehead, and
premiered
on 13 September 1979. This is according to Mark
Johnson's book
"An Ideal For Living", page 42.
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Photos (C) Copyright
Martin O'Neill
Used here with permission

"Firstly,
it was wild to have a band like Joy Division In
a Youth Club !!...but my main memories are of
first seeing Ian Curtis start dancing .. he
really scared me .. I wondered what was wrong
with him !!
Then, after I'd walked around the room shooting
various angles of the gig I ended up actually on
the low stage with them (Wow to think I've stood
on the same stage as Ian Curtis!!) ... I got
behind Curtis and Hooky, and Hooky told me to
fuck off! I was so proud that I'd been told to
Fuck off by one of Joy Division !! ... Years
later I photographed Hooky again for my local
newspaper, and reminded him of that time ... He
interrupted me by saying "I told you to Fuck
off!" ... and then two years ago, at one of the
events marking the 25th anniversary of Curtis'
death, I finally asked Hooky for an autograph.
He wrote ... "I told you to Fuck off!" ...
Brilliant!"
-
Martin O'Neill
Karen D was there.
I was at this gig. Bowdon Vale wasn't a youth
club - it was a Social Club and cost 25p to join
-I still have my membership card but
unfortunately not the ticket.
Joy Division were amazing. Ian Curtis hypnotic.
The DJ was Ian Robinson and did it with his
brother.
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Peter Cook was there: |
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It
seems unbelievable now, but in March 1979, Joy
Division were still playing gigs to a packed
room of kids at Bowdon Vale Youth Club. Joy Division
played the show as a thank you to Bob Jefferson of
Streets Ahead Records in Altrincham.
It was Bob who used the money generated by his
record shop to buy the Joy Division partnership out
of their first contract, thus allowing them to sign
with Tony Wilson's Factory Records. In the audience
was a young Ian Brown of Stone Roses, attending his
first gig. He has since described it as one of his
favourites of all time.
The late Andy Wake was in attendance with his friend
Peter Cooke. Andy was 16 at the time. Fortunately
for posterity Andy recorded his remembrances
of his night with Pete Cooke, Ian Curtis,
PeteHook, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris. "I'd
seen the group play as Warsaw at the Check Inn club
in Altrincham the previous November and I already
had their first EP which I thought was interesting,
but it was the release of the Factory Sample EP
which really got me fired up. Something special had
happened between the two gigs.”
The gig at Bowdon Vale Youth Club youth club back in
1979 was filmed by Malcolm Whitehead. Andrew
again takes up the story. “Interestingly enough, the
wonderful Bob Jefferson put on both gigs, and he
owned Streets Ahead records in Altrincham where
loads of us hung out, complaining we had nothing to
do. The dozen or so gigs he put on were a godsend
and attracted a crowd from all over South Manchester
to see the likes of Manchester bands such as The
Fall, V2, The Passage, and a memorable night
featuring The Red Crayola and a fledgling Scritti
Politti in support.
I actually grew up in Bowdon Vale so the weekly gigs
were on my doorstep. I remember taking my Joy
Division records down to the club early in the
evening and meeting the band, who happily signed
everything for me. Ian Curtis was playing pool when
we arrived, and I also remember him dodging traffic
in Cuban-heeled Chelsea boots and a double-breasted
olive-green raincoat as he ran to the local shop for
cigarettes.
All four members of the band were approachable down
to earth and happy to chat, but I found Peter Hook
was the most sociable. I suggested there was a
Northern Soul feel to their rhythm section which
seemed to please him no end as he admitted he'd been
a 'suedehead' and loved the stuff when he was
younger. It's worth saying that they all enjoyed
having a laugh and were not the 'serious, young men'
portrayed in the media.
As for the gig, well, they were phenomenal.
Everything seemed to have fallen into place
since I'd last seen them when they were
performing under the name Warsaw. I think everyone
in the room knew they were witnessing
something truly magical and there was a power and
raw energy to the band live which was never captured
in the studio. |
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The club's stage was
cramped and low. Pete and I pushed our
way to the front within touching distance of
the band: The gig was hot and loud and
condensation dripped from the ceiling.
Gone were the covers of Sister Ray and Louie Louie
to be replaced by an entire set of original songs,
most of which were soon to appear on Unknown
Pleasures. I got a bootleg tape of the gig which I
played to death prior to the album coming out. The
show reinforced my opinion that Joy Division were
very special and destined for much bigger things.
Pete and me spent the rest of 1979 and early 1980
catching them as often as we could. I still have a
really soft spot for Joy Division and those great
times. Punk rock had a profound effect on me as it
did with many others, and that spirit still rushes
through my veins. Joy Division refined that feeling
and moved it forwards in a new and exciting
direction.
Andy’s mate Pete Cooke takes up the story and in the
process gives the reader a vivid glimpse of what it
meant to be a young Joy Division fan immersed in the
Manchester music scene, “We decided to start a
fanzine and conducted some interviews and spent an
unexpected afternoon hanging out for a couple of
hours with Hooky, Bernard and Steve in their
rehearsal room while we all waited for Ian to
return from walkabout. Sadly, we never got round to
actually publishing the fanzine I have to confess
that I did have the obligatory charity shop long
raincoat. Andy and me tried to mimic what Ian was
wearing in the famous Kevin Cummins band portrait
photograph. He wore that raincoat often. That iconic
Joy Division photograph was taken on one of the
bridges over Princess Parkway in Hulme , next door
to Moss Side. I lived there for two years in the
infamous four 'Crescents'. They were purportedly
designed to evoke those famous Georgian
Crescents in Bath can you believe! They were all
named after famous architects, though god knows
which godforsaken architect designed the place.
During my time, I lived in William Kent and Charles
Barry crescents. By coincidence I had to move out of
my William Kent flat so Ian Brown of the Stone
Roses, who I’d last seen at the Joy Division Bowdon
Vale Youth Club gig could move in!!
All the Crescents are gone now and the whole area
has been regenerated. The City Centre, Hacienda,
Russell Club (The Factory) and Rafters were all
minutes away. Hulme was a deprived and horrible
place, but I had a very good time there. It was
cheap for students at the Universities, so lots of
interesting people who started bands as some had
moved up to Manchester to be nearer the 'music
scene'! The pub I would frequent to meet
friends before going to the Hacienda, was just
around the corner from the Britons Protection This
was The White Horse pub in Hulme, about 50 yards
away from the Factory club venue. What a dive it
was!” |
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