Songs performed:
01. The Sound Of Music
02. Wilderness
03. Colony
04. Day Of The Lords
05. Shadowplay
06. Transmission
07. Interzone
08. Disorder
09. She's Lost Control
10. Insight.
Appx. duration: 40 mins. Sound qualtiy: 7+/9
Song 01 appeared on the following bootleg:
Death Trip LP
The full concert appeared on the following
bootleg:s
The Day of The Lords CD
Electric Music LP
Steven Pares was there:
Although I don't recall much in detail, for me
that gig remains one of the most significant that
I ever went to (and I've been to plenty over the
years). I'd travelled down alone from my home town
of Derby (2.5+ hours by train in those days).
Standing out on Camden High Street queueing to go
in, there was a real buzz of expectation in the
air from everyone around me - one of those rare
moments when you just knew you were at the coolest
place on the planet for a few hours.
Scritti Politti were a new band to me that night -
and almost everyone else there as well I think -
but they were interesting enough that I later
bought all their early records as a result. I've
still got them too I'm pleased to say. They were
fashionably skanky - I remember that their drummer
was a white guy with dreadlocks, which was a real
novelty at the time!
After them came the Monochrome Set they were the
least interesting band in that night's line-up;
after more than 20 years, my memories of the
evening are rather hazy, but I remember nothing
about them at all - I dare say I went to the bar
pretty soon after they came on!
I was almost as keen to see A Certain Ratio as Joy
Division (if ACR hadn't been playing that night, I
doubt I would have travelled down) but I don't
reckon many others in the crowd that night shared
my enthusiasm for them. I seem to remember they
were all wearing baggy military-style shorts,
which was really at odds with the post-punk style
at the time, but was at least appropriate attire
for the heat inside the venue. ACR were ahead of
their time with that dour whiteboy funk sound (but
they appealed to me as I'd been a soulboy before I
got into punk) and I thought it was really
refreshing to see and hear a band using
instruments such as trumpets like they did, which
no-one else was doing at the time. As I said, not
many other people seemed to appreciate them, but I
thought they were great.
I'd bought 'Unknown Pleasures' on the day it was
released and had played it to death, along with
the 'Transmission/Novelty' single (one of the
gretest singles ever made if you ask me). As I'd
never seen them live before, I think I'd built up
such a level of expectation about JD that they
couldn't possibly live up to it. Sure, I knew
plenty about them in advance, but I think I was
almost expecting to see four Nietzschean
Ubermensch rather than four working class young
men from Manchester. Not surprisingly, this did
not turn out to be the awesome quasi-religious
experience I might have been expecting, and I
remember feeling rather disappointed by the
quality of their performance musically - I
struggled to recognise some of those awesome
moments I loved so much on record.
But it made me appreciate even more what a huge
achievement 'Unknown Pleasures' was (Martin Hannet
was definitely as
important as any of the 'real' members of the
band), and it simply invited failure to try to
recapture its brilliance live. At the same time it
was a great feeling to be watching the group at
last, like it was a privilege, and you knew you
were witnessing something special. Despite the
fact that I can't remember anything outstanding
that they did that night, they were a captivating
force nontheless. Curtis on stage was electric and
mesmerising.
Although a little disappointed, I actually came
away admiring them even more for even trying to
live up to their own standards. Inevitably they
fell short, but the 'warts n all' experience of
Joy Division on this night endeared them to me all
the more. |
Electric ballroom photographed in 2002
(C) Copyright Joy Division - The
Eternal
web site
(Michel Enkiri) and reproduced here with
permission
NME advert thanks
to Steve Benham
Ticket image
thanks to DMXI
Ticket
image thanks to Mark Gale |
