I know there are 2 official releases of the song (Closer + Still), there's Martin Hannett's Mixes CD but I know Joy Division performed the song twice live (april & may 1980) and New Order did it once (may 1984). Are these live versions available on bootlegs or at least known to exist?
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Any other available versions of Decades?
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The only other JD live version that is known to have been taped is the soundcheck at the Birmingham gig. They also apparently played it at the (in)famous Bury gig and it may have been taped though no one seems to still have it.
New Order played it twice in 1984 (RFH and Paradiso), both were taped and sound pretty good, also at that Heaven soundcheck in '81 they played an excerpt of it (also well bootlegged).
I think that's it, have I missed anything?
Got it on my old bootleg cassette of the Royal Festival Hall gig , May 84 but wouldn't have a clue how to get that onto my PC
best Tunes.Old Blue wrote: From the RFH gig -
Thank you for that! 
It was cool to hear NO playing that tune. Actually not that bad, even though Hooky's bass is hoarse. I've always wanted NO to play it live, especially after they brought JD material back in their live sets. Seeing how they did In A Lonely Place in '98 was great.
johnny james wrote: The only other JD live version that is known to have been taped is the soundcheck at the Birmingham gig. They also apparently played it at the (in)famous Bury gig and it may have been taped though no one seems to still have it.
New Order played it twice in 1984 (RFH and Paradiso), both were taped and sound pretty good, also at that Heaven soundcheck in '81 they played an excerpt of it (also well bootlegged).
I think that's it, have I missed anything?
Thank you for the information. I reckon the tape of the infamopus gig did exist but was purchased by Factory and sealed for good. Just a theory.
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Old Blue wrote: From the RFH gig -
Thank you for that!
Back from when it was a real proper treat that they played a JD tune.
johnny james wrote: The only other JD live version that is known to have been taped is the soundcheck at the Birmingham gig. They also apparently played it at the (in)famous Bury gig and it may have been taped though no one seems to still have it.
New Order played it twice in 1984 (RFH and Paradiso), both were taped and sound pretty good, also at that Heaven soundcheck in '81 they played an excerpt of it (also well bootlegged).
I think that's it, have I missed anything?
And also apparently played it at the Rainbow Theatre the night they did the two gigs. It could also have been the "slow one I didn't recognise" (P.Thompson) at Bristol Trinity a couple of weeks before, and of course we have no idea at all what they played for the majority of the set at the Factory in April 1980.
And also apparently played it at the Rainbow Theatre the night they did the two gigs. It could also have been the "slow one I didn't recognise" (P.Thompson) at Bristol Trinity a couple of weeks before, and of course we have no idea at all what they played for the majority of the set at the Factory in April 1980.
Would 'The Eternal' have been identifiable at that point amongst fans going to their shows, as it had been in the set since the European' 80 dates? P. Thompson describes the slow one as having been 'Passover'...he also said it was one where IC had picked up his coffin guitar near the end...would have been no need with Passover as Bernard would have played guitar on that, right? With Decades (especially evident on the Hannett Personal Mixes version) there's indeed a repeated note near the end, live, Bernard would have been playing keyboards so who else would it have been (barring outside help)?
It's also interesting to note that the sightings of Decades seems to have occured every three gigs, not sure how significant that would be.
Doesn't seem to be a monospaced font I can use, this is the best I could come up with...
- 05 Mar D Trinity Hall, Bristol
- 02 Apr The Moonlight Club, London
- 03 Apr The Moonlight Club, London
- 04 Apr D Rainbow Theatre, London
- 04 Apr The Moonlight Club, London
- 05 Apr Winter Gardens, Malvern
- 08 Apr D Derby Hall, Bury
- 11 Apr The Factory I, Manchester
- 19 Apr Ajanta Theatre, Derby
- 02 May D High Hall, Birmingham University
Two "buts" Sam - were there two guitars on Passover? There is a part that sounds as though it could be a rhythm guitar chord, but it could as easily be Hooky playing a chord on the Marathon.
Secondly, the "slow one" and indeed "Heart and Soul" at Bristol could have been anything I suppose, Mr Thompson doesn't seem to have recognised the Unknown Pleasures songs judging by the other reviews, had he only heard the second Peel session?
Of course we don't know what was played at the Factory in April, that may scupper the 3rd gig theory! :)
It's always been surmised that JD played Decades at the Rainbow, but since no recording is in the public domain, no-one knows for sure (BTW I was offered a ticket for that gig but spent my pocket money seeing Madness instead...big mistake). I'd be interested to understand WHY it's generally believed Decades was played there since it was before the official releases, so no-one would have known what track it was anyway. And I know this will sound really ignorant, but what's the mystery around the Factory gig? Is it again no recording / no anecdotal stories?
They frequently tried out songs before recording and certainly before releasing them, they always had until the time of Republic. It's unlikely that they had played Decades live in January 1980, it was probably written in March 1980 either just before or while they were in the studio for Closer.
It's starting to sound like it was one of the slow ones they did at Bury at the riot gig, from the various recollections that have been published, and it was always included on the Rainbow setlist (that setlist has never changed in the 25 years since I first saw it, no real reason to doubt it just because we don't have a tape). We simply don't know anything about that Factory gig in April 1980 besides the encore tracks and the fact that they played a load of new ones. We don't know enough about Bristol to be sure what they played, various witnesses have included other unreleased songs (but missed the Unknown Pleasures ones despite knowing the 2nd Peel session ones).
One thing's for sure, it won't have been played that often.
Wasn't the set listed in Craig Wood's Form and Substance, way back when? That was the source of the Mountford Hall setlist as well.
