Upcoming Closer 40th Anniversary & JD Singles Reissues

Just noticed this myself and came here to post.

Glad they’ve stuck to the ‘40th anniversary ruby red’ theme and pleased that the singles are getting a reissue.

What is interesting is that, according to the website track listing, the LWTUA 12" doesn't include the 'Pennine' version.

NotAMod wrote:

Transmish, Atmosphere and LWTUA are also getting 12" single reissues (for the first time in their cases, I think?)

All reissued on 12' throughout the 80's and 90's, but LWTUA reissued in 2011 in Russia.

perspexorange wrote: What is interesting is that, according to the website track listing, the LWTUA 12" doesn't include the 'Pennine' version.

It does.

Johnny James wrote:

perspexorange wrote: What is interesting is that, according to the website track listing, the LWTUA 12" doesn't include the 'Pennine' version.

It does.

Great! Thanks J.

Pretty feeble, but yeah, after Heart and Souled Out and Brown Owl there can't be much to put out - except maybe the 7.77 demo, but that's shit.

Any idea why the singles are newly remastered but the album isn’t?

The Ruts wrote:

NotAMod wrote:

Transmish, Atmosphere and LWTUA are also getting 12" single reissues (for the first time in their cases, I think?)

All reissued on 12' throughout the 80's and 90's, but LWTUA reissued in 2011 in Russia.

What year was Transmission previously reissued? I didn't know that.I remember Love Will Tear Us Apart being reissued in autumn 1983.Well at least i think it was a reissue, i remember it re-entering the UK chart around that time or getting a lot of radio play and was the first time i became aware of the song.I guess if it was a reissue it was Factory pushing it again after the success of Blue Monday that year.

I remember Atmosphere being reissued in 1988, think it had a different sleeve though i didn't buy it as i already had the 1980 12" with She's Lost Control b side (i hadn't bought it in 1980, i first became aware of it in 1984 which was when i bought it).Seem to recall there was a bit of a hoohah about the then new Anton Corbijn 1988 vid for the song

Edit: Discogs states if I’ve understood correctly that Transmission had a UK reissue in 1984.

Fotz wrote:

Edit: Discogs states if I’ve understood correctly that Transmission had a UK reissue in 1984.

Yip.

I'm surprised that they weren't reissued after the 12x12 campaign proved to be a success.

Fotz wrote: I remember Love Will Tear Us Apart being reissued in autumn 1983.Well at least i think it was a reissue, i remember it re-entering the UK chart around that time or getting a lot of radio play and was the first time i became aware of the song.I guess if it was a reissue it was Factory pushing it again after the success of Blue Monday that year.

LWTUA was certainly in the charts in late 1983. It reached number 19 in the week ending 19/11/83.

I was recently listening to an audio interview with Hooky from the same period (the one on the bootleg 12" picture disc) and he addresses the 're-release' of LWTUA.

He said in this (very prickly) interview that it was not 're-released'. He goes on to explain that, at that point, none of JD's singles had ever gone out of print. He stated that 'Scott' at 'Rough Trade' (who was distributing some Factory releases) occasionally 'did them a favour' and issued press releases, which made it seem that certain records has been re-released. This is what happened in this case.

So, presumably, Rough Trade issued a press release about LWTUA and this pushed sales of the record up.

Listening to Hooky, although he appreciated that 'Scott' was 'doing them a favour', he was obviously annoyed that Rough Trade had issued this "shitty press release" (without telling the band / Factory, apparently). He was obviously irked that people might've thought they were trying to cash in on Ian's death, or that they were playing the 'promotion game'. Again, this is also a good example of New Order's unconventional method of 'selling themselves' in the 80s.

What's always puzzled me about the Joy Division 12"s is that, in the case of 'Transmission' and 'LWYUA', there's no difference in the contents between the 7" and the 12". I know that 12"s are better quality, but would the average punter have known that? What incentive was there for people to buy the 12"s at the time, when the (presumably) cheaper 7" with the same tracks was available?

Incidentally, just bought the LP / 12" bundle from the New Order Store. £44.75 including postage. Not too bad. I'm guessing Amazon may be the slightly cheaper option once these are listed on that site.

Anyone in Oz see a better option than Piccadilly? JB's prices are taking the piss

perspexorange wrote: What's always puzzled me about the Joy Division 12"s is that, in the case of 'Transmission' and 'LWYUA', there's no difference in the contents between the 7" and the 12". I know that 12"s are better quality, but would the average punter have known that? What incentive was there for people to buy the 12"s at the time, when the (presumably) cheaper 7" with the same tracks was available?

Off this topic, but I always wondered the same years later with 'World In Motion'. Why didn't Stephen Hague make a nice extended twelve inch mix - or at the very least they could have moved the tracks from the second remix 12" onto the main 12" to make it the only 12" release.

Kind of similar to 'True Faith', which had identical versions of '1963' on 7" and main 12", but with just an extra minute and a half of 'True Faith' on the 12" compared to the single edit.

perspexorange wrote: What's always puzzled me about the Joy Division 12"s is that, in the case of 'Transmission' and 'LWYUA', there's no difference in the contents between the 7" and the 12". I know that 12"s are better quality, but would the average punter have known that? What incentive was there for people to buy the 12"s at the time, when the (presumably) cheaper 7" with the same tracks was available?

The sleeves.

Saville did nice, new sleeves.

With vinyl being the dominant format of the time, I can see Rob Gretton pushing to get 12" versions into the marketplace because the sound quality was better. Also, it was impossible to find the rare Sordide Sentimental single of Atmosphere - and it would be another year before Still was released - so it was important to get that back into the marketplace to head off the bootlegs. And since LWTUA and Atmosphere were available on 12", then why not Transmission, too? That's a very Factory way of thinking, since the 12" came out 14 months after the 7".

It was a way to keep product available as Joy Division's fanbase and legacy was building, and gave the fans something "new."

perspexorange wrote:

He goes on to explain that, at that point, none of JD's singles had ever gone out of print.

This makes sense. I don't ever remember NOT seeing the LWTUA and Atmosphere 12"s in the racks from the time I got into JD/NO (circa 1985/86) through to the mid 90s when records were starting to be trounced by CD sales

You only have to take a look at the discogs pages for these records to see how many pressing variations there have been over the years. It's actually quite hard to figure out the year of some pressings for that reason

Doesn't look like this Closer re-press is getting the rounded inner/matte textured sleeve treatment. That's a shame. There is not enough here to tempt me to buy again after getting the 2015 180gm black vinyl pressing (which still seems widely available?)

50poundnote wrote: then why not Transmission, too? That's a very Factory way of thinking, since the 12" came out 14 months after the 7".

It was a way to keep product available as Joy Division's fanbase and legacy was building, and gave the fans something "new."

I’d forgotten that the 12” came out later (or maybe I never knew this). Thanks for reminding me and I think you’re right.

Agreed on the nice new sleeves. LWTUA 12” sleeve is beautiful and looks wonderful in the large format.

All three 12"s were 'retrospective' releases at the time. I guess LWTUA was the only one planned as a new release before the end.

It seems likely the original intention with re-recording SLC in March 1980 was for a US release with this new 'disco' version on the A side. My guess is that events meant that the original release idea became something else by the time it eventually came out (in December I think). Though they had SLC as the A side in the US, but with Atmosphere over here.

Transmission 12" was also put out around December.

Thanks for this information, Johnny.

I hadn't even realised that the tracks were reversed between the US and UK releases of 'Atmosphere / SLC'. I wonder which version mine is. Most of my vinyl is currently in storage, so can't check.

To me, I always picture this release as a release of that 'disco mix' of 'She's Lost Control', with 'Atmosphere' put on the other side, just so that people who weren't fortunate enough to get a copy of 'Licht Und Blindheit' could get hold of the track (presumably, this is also the reason why 'Dead Souls' is on 'Still').

So, whenever I see that snow-filled cover, I always think of 'She's Lost Control'. So it seems strange (to me, at least) to see that cover on the store but with it advertised as 'Atmosphere'. It's correct of course, but just that my mind tells me different. :-)

perspexorange wrote: whenever I see that snow-filled cover, I always think of 'She's Lost Control'. So it seems strange (to me, at least) to see that cover on the store but with it advertised as 'Atmosphere'. It's correct of course, but just that my mind tells me different. :-)

Funny, i always think of Atmosphere when i see that cover with the snowy field and the trees.Just checked my 12" and Atmosphere is the A side on mine.A side and B side marked clearly on the disc's labels.

John Lennon saw Ian Curtis on 19 May. He said, Let me take you down... It was nothing to get hung about. How do I do it? I had the interview Mr Orange discusses on 7' picture disc. It was total and utter fucking shit. The interviewer was shit and Hooky was shit. You'd think one of them would be Not Shit just by the law of averages. Cool. You're probably right about identical 12" tracks - they were handsome products but you couldn't really remix Transmission, unless you were Hooky in 2018. Atmosphere was a different case and had little to do with Sordid Sentimentale: new packaging, new Bsides, even new video. Slightly off topic, but I don't consider the Factory compilations - Substance 87, Substance 88, even Still - as ripoffs cos the band were actively involved and they were bringing out rare material. When I first heard Substance, I only 'knew' BM (that shitty 88 7" compromise), TLU (a crappy radio edit that lost all the lush intro) and TF (its equally crappy 7" compromise). For me, the bullshit started with TF 94, arguably Spooky, cos the mixes were pointless and the group weren't even talking ti each other.

Michael Monkhouse wrote: I had the interview Mr Orange discusses on 7' picture disc. It was total and utter fucking shit. The interviewer was shit and Hooky was shit.

The interviewer is just terrible. I know Hooky is in a completely cantankerous mood, but the interviewer is awful. Every time he mentions anything to Hooky that Hooky disagrees with, the interviewer then backs down and ends up agreeing with him. He just completely lets Hooky steamroll him.

I wonder who the interviewer was and whether he improved his technique.

The 7” and the 12” are the same interview; just different bits of it.

Oh, and yeah, the terrible remixing certainly started around then. However, I would bring it forward two singles.

Those Sly and Robbie remixes for RIAD were just the pits.

It’s funny, but at that point in New Order’s history, we had very little inkling about how bad the remixing was going to get (both in quality and quantity). ‘Regret’ wasn’t served with particularly good remixes (the New Order one and the Fire Island one being reasonable, but the rest being pretty poor), but we really had no idea that the shitstorm of terrible remixes was just around the corner.

I remember that, at the time, I really couldn’t believe that all the mixes on that second RIAD CD were so bad. In fact, I think I thought my CD was faulty, with the same remix being repeated throughout the disc.

I'm surprised the marketeers haven't reissued the flexi-disc on 7" vinyl as it's directly linked to 'Closer' and could have been something different for collectors, even though I'm not one.

Re JD 'Still' was good but could have been even better and sequenced chronologically if they removed the pointless Sister Ray live on the studio side.

I hadn’t thought about the flexi.

I guess it’s a bit like the Procession 7”, which wasn’t reissued at the time that the Ceremony, EGG and Temptation 12”s were.

I wonder if there’s a possibility that we may get some 7” releases further down the line. It may be, though, that there isn’t really a market for 7”s. And, besides, the band (well, New Order, at least) - they were all about the 12”.

Yeah, that happened to me too with the second Ruined CD. I genuinely thought the player was buggered and on repeat. I was still a completist and had a complete backlog that only contsined remixes of they had both the full vocal and radically different backing music. The entire 94 to 95 period only yielded four that qualified: TF Perfecto, 1963 95 and Vanilli vocal, BM Andrea. I'm amazed the band emerged with their credibility intact.

I know I’ve probably said this many times before, both here and on JD Central, but I would love for a DVD to be released with all the Joy Division material available.

If the ‘powers that be’ are reading this, please give it some thought:

‘Granada Reports’ 20/09/78 - Shadowplay ‘What’s On’ 19/07/79 - ‘She’s Lost Control’ ’Something Else’ 15/09/79 - ‘Transmission’, Interview, ‘She’s Lost Control’ ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ video (possibly include the three versions out there; double-tracked vocals, standard version, '95 version) ‘Atmosphere’ promo video ‘Joy Division’- Malcolm Whitehead film (inc. Bowden Vale 14/03/79 footage) * ‘No City Fun’ film Plan K, Brussels 16/10/79 Apollo 27/10/79 Apollo 28/10/79 Eindhoven 18/01/80

That’s enough for 2 x DVDs. Maybe re-issue the magnificent Grant Gee documentary on Blu-Ray and sling all of the above as bonus features.

I know there’s an issue of the quality in source material for most of this, but I don’t think most people would mind. It would mostly be bought by fans who would probably be very familiar with the fact that the quality isn’t the best.

I know I’m repeating myself here, but I like to think that the more I post it, the more likelihood that someone with influence will see it.

* Incidentally, I think Hooky has mentioned recently that the Whitehead movie may be released at some point. I certainly hope so! If I think about it, I might try and ask him about this on his next live chat.

I never repeat myself. I told you before. - Hear hear. You could probably just dig it all out of the Net and make your own collection. The majors never get it right.

Michael Monkhouse wrote: You could probably just dig it all out of the Net and make your own collection. The majors never get it right.

Well, yes, but it would be nice to have:

a) an official release (i.e. one that gives the band money and with a Saville design, perhaps); b) the best quality available for each item.

Also, the Whitehead movie, the Plan K footage and some footage from the two Apollo gigs aren't available on the 'net, so these would be 'exclusives' and a good reason for fans to buy the release. Who knows, maybe that Leigh Festival footage does exist and could be included. Even more reason to buy.

It's a pipe dream, I know, but one day, maybe...

Besides, the majors do get it right sometimes. Look at the wonderful 'Movement' box set! Now that was a fine collection.

Then I calculate a grand total of one worthwhile rehash every 40 years. I studied at Cambridge. I wouldn't worry about the band getting paid. Given their output they're bleeding lucky. In 1996 they had sixteen million - not bad considering they hadn't completed an album in over three yeats, and that one was shit. And after Saville knocked himself out with that ''art''work for TF 94, 12 x 12 and Singles... How does he do it? Don't hold your breath.

I realised earlier that I'd never listened to 'The Idiot' - only 4 quid on iTunes. 👌