How many of you...

... saw Joy Division live?

Wish i had. But seen as Ian killed himself 4 months before i was born...

...would have if they had ever made it to the states...

Malvern 5/4/80. Very scary 40 mins.

There was far from any sense of it being a big special occasion. Sure, I liked the tracks I'd heard, having got Unknown Pleasures and Transmission, but it was pretty much like any other gig I'd been to at that stage. The stage lighting was very sparse, Ian's dancing very unsettling (had no idea he did this from just having listened to the records, not having seen either of the TV showings at the time - plus the fact I was 13 and a bit), and the sound was shite. It seems funny now that I didn't know half the songs they played - though I'd heard Atmosphere, 24 Hours and LWTUA on Paradiso boot/Peel session. Had it not been for what was to unfold a few weeks later, I doubt this gig would have been anything more than just another gig. I can think of countless relatively unknown bands I saw once over the years having already owned one of their records, and a few who inspired me to go out any buy their records, but nobody who blew me away on stage. Pixies aside !

Originally posted by Benny's Cobweb Eyes Malvern 5/4/80. Very scary 40 mins.

not the winter gardens????

my brother saw them in derby supporting the buzzcocks...he was a mad j.d fan who ultimately got me into the order..

Originally posted by PAUL TROWELL > Originally posted by Benny's Cobweb Eyes> Malvern 5/4/80. Very scary 40 mins.

not the winter gardens????

One and the same. Far more there for the Order !!

JD is far closer to a fine wine or a classic novel than a video game. The longer you puzzle of them, the better they get. Just seeing them alone is not something that would have moved me the way they do now. I am sure if I had seen them, I would have thought "that was interesting", but listening to their music over the years has deepened my appreciation of them and their timeless influence over music. But live, they probably did not have the appeal of a band like The Clash for instance. Just like New Order, Joy Division was not a great live band in the beginning. New Order would not have swept too many people off their feet in the early years. It was their illusiveness in the states that made them what they were in the early 80's. That's my perspective anyway - as skewed as it may be.

I saw them at the Apollo in Manchester on 28th October 1978. They were awesome. They played for almost an hour. I was only 13 at the time....

These are the kind of stories that make me wish I'd been born at least twenty years earlier! Having been sold on the whole "myth" of Joy Division (dark brooding figures), I can't ever really know what they were really like onstage. Watching HATYM, I think I would have made a point of catching their gigs, but I don't think I'd been overly impressed enough to remember (like Benny said) without the whole Ian-killing-himself later on. Oh well, my mom couldn't just have me as a prebubescent, she had to wait til her late teens..... (just kidding, Mum)

Originally posted by The Happy One > Originally posted by Wolfmann> JD is far closer to a fine wine or a classic novel than a video game. The longer you puzzle of them, the better they get. Just seeing them alone is not something that would have moved me the way they do now. I am sure if I had seen them, I would have thought "that was interesting", but listening to their music over the years has deepened my appreciation of them and their timeless influence over music. But live, they probably did not have the appeal of a band like The Clash for instance. Just like New Order, Joy Division was not a great live band in the beginning. New Order would not have swept too many people off their feet in the early years. It was their illusiveness in the states that made them what they were in the early 80's. That's my perspective anyway - as skewed as it may be.

New Order isn't a great live band???

I think myself...and Johnny Giles, and Jarvo, and any of the others who have travelled thousands of miles to see our heroes would have to disagree with you on that one...

they may not be the most polished show band around...but they are certainly the best live band I've ever had the honor of seeing...

Yeah, I guess I should qualify that statement - I was thinking more of polish and ambiance. New Order was not about polish, therefore they are not a great live band unless you know that about them and that it one thing that pulls you to them. No doubt many a person has been turned off by their lack of togetherness on stage. I like the fact that they treat playing live like some musical hypothesis instead of a display of a prepared conclusion.

seeing as i was five when ian topped himself, and that they never made it to colorado...nope. oh, to have been born a decade earlier and an ocean away.

No offence to any American fan...but I always saw Joy Division as intimately associated wirh MY city (I'm from Manchester) and MY time...they arose in the time of post-industrial decay, the abandoned factories that were their rehersal rooms were their own heritage. The industrial culture was inimical. I saw them twice...rightfully in my and their city of Manchester, and in that time...the late seventies to early eighties. To me, above all things, Joy Division captured the moment, the spirit of the 80's. They WERE the post-punk movement into inner space. And they encapsulated that wasteland as no-one else ever could.

I saw them live... on video. Does that count?

Being a massive fan I am now, I would have killed to see them, but unfortunity Mr. Curtis killed himself a year before I was born.

I was 13 when he died... but either way I heard them for the first time in 1981!