Joy Division

   

2nd October 1979: Mountford Hall, Liverpool University
On tour with the Buzzcocks

   
This was the opening night of the Buzzcocks 24 date British tour - with Joy Division in the support slot. It seems Joy Division were on form, but the Buzzcocks weren't.

Songs performed:
01. Wilderness
02. Ice Age
03. Candidate
04. Shadowplay
05. Insight
06. She's Lost Control
07. Twenty Four Hours
08. Disorder
09. Transmission
10. Warsaw
Appx. duration: not known. Sound quality: not known.

Tracklist info taken from the Form (And Substance) book, page 37. The authors got the song list information from Mark Johnson's original manuscript for the An Ideal For Living book. Mark did not have a copy of this tape, and the information has never been verified. However, gig goer Rick Alan remembers Shadowplay, She's Lost control and Transmission (see below) .

It is uncertain if a recording of this gig actually exists, but it has been rumoured since the early / mid 1980s. We have never found a copy of this tape and we doubt if it exists outside Peter Hook's private collection.

Penny Kiley's review (unknown UK Music Paper - but reproduced in the A History In Cuttings book) doesn't mention any song titles. But she did notice "experiments with varying speed within one song". This is most likely a reference to 24 Hours.


Thanks to Tim Youens for the poster scan


Photos (C) Rick Alan reproduced here with permission

   
Rick Alan was there:  I went to that gig to see The Buzzcocks. I had heard of Joy Division, but had never heard any of their material. I used to hate standing through support bands in those days, I wanted to hear tunes I recognised. A couple of songs into Joy Division's set I was transfixed. They had an incredible amount of presence which I had to admit supassed that of Shelley & Co's subsequent performance....and I was a Buzzcocks fan.

I think that was a Friday night and the following morning I trotted off to buy Unknown Pleasures. Putting the record on, I recognised many of the tracks from the night before, but most notably She's Lost Control and Shadowplay". When I later bought the Transmission single, I also recalled that from the gig.
   
A review of a Penetration concert earlier that year describes the venue like this:

"The Mountford Hall is a hall in the Students' Union where Eric's occasionally put bands whose audience is larger than the capacity of the club. It is distinguished by its overwhelming lack of atmosphere and its overwhelming lack of bar facilities (unless you're an NUS member)".

Mountford Hall is now called
Liverpool Academy 1 (at June 2004)


Buzzcocks / Joy Division Autumn Tour 1979 Gig Schedule


Image from Peter hook's 2019 Omega Auctions auction


Liverpool Echo advert