release date: Oct. 1981
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
Tracklist: A) 1. "Exercise One" - 2. "Ice Age" - 3. "The Sound of Music" - 4. "Glass" - 5. "The Only Mistake" - - B) 1. "Walked in Line" - 2. "The Kill" - 3. "Something Must Break" - 4. "Dead Souls" - 5. "Sister Ray" - - C) 1. "Ceremony" - 2. "Shadowplay" - 3. "Means to an End" - 4. "Passover" - 5. "New Dawn Fades" - - D) 1. "Transmission" - 2. "Disorder" - 3. "Isolation" - 4. "Decades" - 5. "Digital"
[ full album ]
Only official live album by Joy Division. It both figures as an original album release (although it's a live album released after the disbandment or name-change to New Order) and a compilation album since it's a compilation of several live performances dating from Oct. 1978 to May 1980, which basically covers their entire career as Joy Division. In that respect it is a 'must-have' for any Joy Division fan. The sound quality, however, is poor. The album has been re-issued, remastered and re-compiled with bonus tracks but the original release came as a double LP consisting of 21 tracks of both released as well as previously unreleased material including songs from their unreleased LP from '78 and it also features a remarkable cover version of "Sister Ray" by the Velvet Underground. Despite the poor sound recording (it is released by their record label, Factory Records) it really is of music historical interest to hear the band perform live. Naturally, as these recordings are from the punk rock era, the energy is extremely intense and of that specific punk feel but it also demonstrates how the band performed with much more energy even playing slower tracks from Closer. All tracks on the vinyl A and B-sides are from studio live sessions at mostly Cargo and Strawberry Studios except for "Sister Ray", which is a live recording from a concert at The Moonlight Club, London, Apr. 2, 1980. All tracks of C and D-sides are live recordings from the one and same concert at High Hall, Birmingham University, which took place on May 2, 1980.
Essential.
