The Dutch Recordings (Godfather Records GR285)
Tracks 1-12: Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland January 11, 1980
Tracks 13-22: Effenaar, Eindhoven, Holland
1. Digital, 02. Day Of The Lords, 03. Insight, 04. New Dawn Faces, 05. Disorder, 06. Transmission, 07. Love Will Tear Us Apart, 08. These Days, 09. A Means To An End, 10. 24 Hours, 11. She’s Lost Control, 12. Atrocity Exhibition, 13. Love Will Tear Us Apart, 14. These Days, 15. Ice Age, 16. Disorder, 17. Day Of The Lords, 18. Shadowplay, 19. She’s Lost Control, 20. Transmission, 21. Interzone, 22. Warsaw
In the early hours of May 18th 1980, two months before his 24th birthday, Ian Curtis committed suicide at his home in Macclesfield. Ian’s life and great potential which is evident on this release. The two shows contained on this release were performed 4 months prior to his death. One of them exactly 4 months. These two concerts have been well documented and some of the tracks are officially released.
The first 12 tracks are taken from the January 11th show at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Holland. They offer a fair representation of that show although not complete. There were 17 songs performed that night. Not present on this release are “Passover, Wilderness, Shadowplay, Atmosphere & Interzone”. Part of this show was broadcast on the following radio stations:Dutch VPRO FM Radio – Broadcast date: 1985 (Digital, Day Of The Lords, Disorder, Transmission, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere, Wilderness, Day Of The Lords (again). Dutch VARA FM Radio – Broadcast date: August 6, 1985 (DJ Intro, Digital, Day Of The Lords, Disorder, Transmission, Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Dutch VARA FM Radio – Broadcast date: November 28, 1989 (Atmosphere)
All 17 of the songs performed that night are officially available on the Refractured Box Set which was released in January 2004 and was a limited run of only 3,000 copies. Some tracks were officially released on Les Bains Douches (FACD 2.61) on NMC Records. Since re-released on Alchemy Records (FACD 2.61) in 2003. Also re-released on the Dynamic/Abraxas Label out of Italy with the same catalog number. The complete show has been released on numerous bootlegs prior to this release. Some of the tracks also appear on about 12 more bootlegs.
The last 10 tracks are taken the January 18th show at the Effenaar in Eindhoven, Holland. Tracks performed but not on this release are: Digital, New Dawn Fades, Colony, Dead Souls, Auto Suggestion, & Atmosphere. Some of the tracks also appeared on numerous bootlegs and the Refractured Box Set. There’s also Super 8 Film footage of this show. It was used for the Here Are The Young Men Music Video.
Godfather Records has put out a great version of these shows. The recordings sound clear and well balanced. I was never a Joy Division fan but I really enjoyed this release. The cover is a picture of Ian Curtis getting ready to sing. The inside and back cover of the tri-fold all contain great pictures of the band. The inside also lists the dates on the European tour of 1980.
There’s nothing bad i can say about this release other than neither show is complete. Now I’ll have fun trying to track down the complete shows. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. You’ll definitely enjoy it.
2 Comments
Very well said MarkG. Personally when this title was first announced I was excited, hoping to get a ‘remastered’ or improved source of either ‘An Evening With…’ or ‘Form & Substance, The Bright Side’. Songs being omitted is always a very sad thing. You can find some of the omitted songs on the ‘Les Bains Douches’ disc. Unfortunately you’re still missing ‘Wilderness’, ‘Shadowplay’, ‘Atmosphere’ & ‘Interzone’ from the January 11th show, and ‘New Dawn Fades’ and ‘Colony’ from the January 18th show.
I don’t have this recording, but I do have the full concerts on CDs released several years ago. I also had them on vinyl in the pre-CD days. I’m sure that Godfather has done a great job with the sonic quality of the release, but I am very surprised that they did not bother to release the full concerts. Sure, there are duplications of songs between the two shows, but that shouldn’t have been a reason to omit them. Maybe they didn’t think they could sell a 2-disc set, but as Joy Division has never had as much media exposure in the past two decades as they have had in the past two years, this seems to be a misstep by Godfather. The band may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but what band appeals to everyone anyway? (And how sad if any band DID appeal to everyone.) My opinion is that fans of JD might want to wait for someone to release the complete concerts, rather than buy this version from Godfather. Missing tracks means missing moments from each show, and that’s what we all like about this type of release.