« Coachella: Day 3 - Grizzly Bear, Explosions in the Sky, Junior Boys, Rodrigo y Gabriella, CSS, Kaiser Chiefs | Main | Coachella: Day 3 (con't) - Willie Nelson, Klaxons, Lily Allen, Air, Ratatat, Rage, Spank Rock »
May 09, 2007
Retrohump Day: Joy Division
Given the fact that one of my very first entries on this site was about the pre You Tube scarcity and procurement of Joy Division footage, one would think that we would'e gotten to Joy Division before, say, the Eurovision Song Contest. We did not.
Now, before the next Interpol album emerges and false comparisons start flying about, seems as good a time as any to atone with a refresher.
Joy Division - "Shadowplay"
(What's On?, Grenada TV 1979)
In Joy Division's television debut for future Factory Records boss Tony Wilson's program the band sounds great while looking bored stiff. The guys were later appalled by overlaid projection of highways and machinery that they deemed tacky. Really, the oddly spread out band members need all the visual motion they could get. Ian Curtis, even in subdued good spirit with a bit of hand movement and foot shuffling, moves like no other human being. Not awkward exactly because it seems natural, but just not normal.
Joy Division - "Transmission" & "She's Lost Control"
(Something Else, BBC2 1979)
The energy level escalates drastically with this pair of BBC2 performances later that same year. Curtis "dances" wildly with rubber arms and dull eyes. Chris Ott's 33 1/3 book about Unknown Pleasures maintains that numbers of confused pensioners phoned in to complain about the "drug crazed" man to whom they'd been unwittingly exposed. The sound could be slightly better, but still, we caaaaaan daaaaaance!
If you're wondering, that weird disembodied string of "bloody"s that pop up briefly in between the two cips is from graciously excised footage of John Cooper Clarke's "Evidently Chickentown" that were included in the original broadcast. Despite the fact that the punk spoken word-ish reading has had it's hip factor upped recently, it's still semi-annoying.
Joy Division - "New Dawn Fades"
(De Effenaar club in Eindhoven 1980, from Here are the Young Men Factory VHS 1982)
Joy Division - "Digital"
(De Effenaar club in Eindhoven 1980, from Here are the Young Men Factory VHS 1982)
These clips have been amped up in quality from the ones I saw on my Here are the Young Men bootleg thanks to the efforts of saintly You Tube poster raverill who replaced shoddy audio with the soundtrack from an audio bootleg of the same show.
With sound somewhat restored to original levels and the small on screen frame blurring the picture further into dark and bright light abstraction, this footage finally lives up to its fabled status. You get reasonable confirmation that the band's frequently mentioned gripe of producer Martin Hannett making them sound too precise and icy in the studio might have had some merit. The guitars are loose and heavy, and the rhythm still amazingly tight. The performance of "Digital" is especially bananas.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at May 9, 2007 03:30 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/955
