2nd November 1979: Winter Gardens, Bournemouth 
On tour with the Buzzcocks
Thanks to Neil for
the scan.
Songs performed:
01. I Remember Nothing
02. Love Will Tear Us Apart
03. Interzone
04. Colony
05. Insight
06. These Days
07. Digital
08. Transmission
09. Atrocity Exhibition.
Appx. duration: 40 mins. Sound quality: 8+/9
This concert appeared on the following bootlegs:
Winter Gardens 2CD
Dante's Inferno LP
Bournemouth LP
(this issue does not feature all nine tracks)
Let The Movie Begin CD (one track)
The Marble Index CD (one
track)
Closer To The Unknown
Treasures LP (one track)
Alternate
Unknown Pleasures LP (one track)
Unknown
Pleasures Live LP (one track)
Closer
Live (one track) |
Thanks to Neil Woodvine for the scan.
Grymm was at the concert: "I went to
the Bournemouth Winter Gardens (and the High
Wycombe) Gig.
My memories of the Bournemouth gig are not
happy ones,it all started well with Ian
performin well and doing his usual 'plugged
into the mains' dance but as the show
progressed Ian's singing became increasingly
incoherent, with periods that he was staring
glazed and very pale into middle distance.
Then towards the end during another frenzied
dance he keeled over backwards into the drum
kit and was carried off.........end of
show!."
Thanks to Neil for the scan.
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Ian Curtis had indeed suffered a
lengthy seizure and approximately 90 minutes
after the end of their performance an ambulance
arrived for him. Mark Woodley has transcribed
the following from an unofficial tape of the
Buzzcocks performance:
The Buzzcocks finish their final encore with
the trashing of guitars, etc, the waves of
howling feedback are suddenly killed as a very
worried Pete Shelley returns to the mic ...
"Right, hang on, an important announcement,
right, whatever you do don't block the entrance
'cos the singer of Joy Division’s just come down
seriously ill and an ambulance is coming round
for him, right, so if you block the entrance
outside everybodys gonna be (he breaks off to
shout at a heckler). Right, I'm telling you
don't block the entrance going backstage 'cos an
ambulance is coming for him. Right, thank you." |
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| In
2019 Tom
Vague had the following recollections
based on a review he did for Vague #2 |
After begging 10ps outside the Winter Gardens
for an hour, I got in to discover that Chris had
a guest pass for me, as the bands were staying
at the hotel where he was working. He got the
drinks in and then it was decision time, Joy
Division were coming on, should we go in and see
them or stay in the bar?
Our decision is made for us by the bouncers, who
herd everyone out. I would have gone for another
pint otherwise. We seat ourselves amongst the
reluctant punters and are immediately enthralled
by the Gothic strains of Joy Division.
A familiar figure starts flailing his arms about
in the centre of the stage - Ian Curtis, the
star of Leeds Sci-fi Festival. But it looks like
we’re the only ones enjoying it; the teeny
bopper audience are dead lethargic, it’s the
most they can do to clap a bit between numbers.
Joy Division do ‘Transmission’, the new single,
and ‘She’s Lost Control’ and I can see what all
the fuss was about in Leeds. After their set
ends with Ian Curtis having an epileptic fit, we
find sanctuary back in the bar and run into the
other people who came to see them, Cherry, Roy
and Clare, but we’re hassled out again when the
Buzzcocks come on, despite Cherry’s protests. |
This was the end
of punk rock and the beginning of post-punk for
us. The next day at the hotel, Joy Division told
Chris that they weren’t pissed off with the
Bournemouth audience but regretted taking the
support slot to a certain extent.
At the time of the ‘Control’ film, which
features the Winter Gardens gig, the AFC
Bournemouth photographer Mick Cunningham told
the Bournemouth Echo’s Nick Churchill: “From the
start I remember the sheer power and simplicity
of it. I think many people there were expecting
another 1-2-3-4 band like the Buzzcocks, but it
was so different. No one got up and moved,
everyone sat transfixed by them and the power of
the set with Ian Curtis absolutely mesmerising.
At the end he was doing a dance I’d never seen
before and when he started convulsing on stage
near the end of the set I, like everyone, just
thought it was because of the sheer energy and
emotion he put in. Only when the St John’s
Ambulance men went up to treat him did you
realise he’d had a fit.’
Click image for original article (C) Tom Vague |
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| Buzzcocks / Joy Division Autumn Tour
1979 Gig Schedule
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