"Everyone's living in their own little world.

When I was about 15

or 16 at school, I used to talk with me mates and we'd say: 'As soon
as we leave, we'll be down in London, doing something nobody
else is doing.' Then I used to work in a factory, and I was really
happy because I could daydream all day. All I had to do was push
this wagon with cotton things in it up and down. But I didn't have
to think. I could think about the weekend, imagine what I was
going to spend me money on, which LP I was going to buy ...
You can live in your own little world."
Ian Curtis, July 1979.

AN IDEAL FOR LIVING

An History of Joy Division
From Their Mythical Origins as The Stiff Kittens
To Their Programmed Future as New Order
Mark Johnson - Outside
David Lees - Background
Paul Morley - Faces & Masks
Jon Wozencroft - Inside

Proteus Books
London New York

PROTEUS BOOKS is an imprint of

The Proteus Publishing Group
United States
PROTEUS PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
9 West 57th Street, Suite 4504
New York, NY 10019
distributed by
Cherry Lane Books Company, Inc.
P.O. Box 430
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United Kingdom
Proteus Books Limited
Bremar House, Sale Place
London W2 1PT
distributed by
J. M. Dent & Sons (Distribution) Limited
Dunhams Lane, Letchworth
Herts. SG61LF
ISBN 0 86272 165 4 (paperback)
ISBN 0 86276 166 2 (hardback)
ISBN 0 86276 247 2 (cloth)
First published in US 1984
First published in UK 1984
Copyright 1984 Mark Johnson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including
information storage and retrieval systems without permission in
writing from the Publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
brief passages in a review.
Cover photography: Robin Roddey at PGF
Design (outside): Peter Saville Associates
Design (inside): Garry Movat at Ai
Frontispiece: "Unknown Pleasures" by Anton Corbijn
Filmset by SX Composing Ltd, Rayleigh, Essex
Cover reproduction by Aragorn Colour Repro
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Blantyre Printing and Binding, Scotland

INTRODUCTION
This is an eclectic history of Joy Division, a band which have gone
through as many (or more) faces as they have names. Whether they
were called Warsaw, and played a distinctive industrial punk in cellar
clubs supporting groups now-forgotten, or New Order, with their
ethereal, soaring "music of the spheres", the band are Joy Division,
because that is the point from which they are invariably considered.
Like a significant part of Britain's independent music, even New Order
are a post-Joy Division group. They may call it irrelevant, they may rise
above it, but they cannot escape their past.
Obviously, numerous errors will creep into a project of this type and
for these I heartily apologise. Factory Records' release dates for Joy
Division and New Order vinyls are approximate at best, primarily due to
Factory's record-keeping system. I welcome all corrections, which
may be addressed to me in care of the publisher. Also, considerable
information (including set-lists) was deleted due to space
considerations, and I will happily answer any questions I can.
A short note about bootleg cassettes and albums: those events
where bootlegs are available are marked *. If you are searching for
them, just ask about when you go to your next New Order concert and
you will surely find other fans more than willing to accommodate.
An Ideal for Living is, I hope, food for thought. Reviews of the band's
vinyls have not been included because the recordings are all available
in one form or another, and each time we hear them new meanings
emerge. Concert reviews, on the other hand, help return a past
moment to life keeping in mind that they but reflect the mood of the
reviewer at the time. There is an 'outside' and an 'inside' to life as well
as this book, and my aim has been to leave all myths unexploded and
all reality undisturbed.
Mark Johnson
London

THE NAME CHECK

What you are about to read is really a culmination of the contributions of
fans from Britain, the United States, and Europe who have, over the
past almost six years, saved every scrap of information they could find
about Joy Division. I have been very lucky, indeed, to have been given
both their trust and their help. To these fans (many of whom wish to
remain anonymous), and to the music professionals in Manchester
and London who have also assisted, I express my gratitude: Mark
Standley and Kathryn; Tim and Steve at-Bonaparte Records, Kings
Cross; Paul Briden; Steve Brotherdale of The Earwigs and Gill; Kevin
Millins, Hugh Jones, Sharon Maconie, and Colin Faver at Final
Solution; Stuart James; Dave Kitson at Red Flame Records; Pete
Fulwell; Debbie Cannon (US); Sylvie Gibory (France); Karen Pierce;
Gary Thompson; Mike Eastwood; Mick O'Driscoll; Andrew Dawson;
Craig S. Wood; Dave Pils; Jed Duffy; Nick Wraith; John Keenan; Alan
Wise; Malcolm Whitehead at IKON FCL; Gordon Charlton; Richard
Boon at New Hormones; The Bedford N'd; Nigel Bagley; Bernard
Connor and Gary Desmond in Liverpool; lain Thomson; Kathy Kelly
and Kate at New Musical Express; Martin Hannett and Susanna
O'Hara; Tony Wilson and Leslie at Factory Communications Ltd; those
of the band and their management who assisted with corrections and
suggestions; and, certainly not last, Jim Van Tyne who first led me into
the atrocity exhibition.
To The Lady In Hawaii: Aloha nuiloa. Au-ia-oe. Keiinineiau oe ku me
a'u.

PRE-FACE
I left my memory to play its tricks, rather than fight it. It's only
recently that I've been reminded that Warsaw were waiting for me
in the Manchester city centre before they drove off to an
underground bunker in the mourning Pennine wilder/ness, to
record. To-days exaggeration considers that they waited four
hours for my baby blue presence, but they probably paused for
minutes before hissing open cans and hitting the silver road.
I think that they wanted me to produce - a loose term covering
four bald sins, I expect- their first recording, seriously called 'An
Ideal For Living.' Who knows how my life would have been
changed if I'd managed to squabble through a hangover out of my
bed and keep that Sunday appointment. (How drunk could I have
been when I made the promise, suggesting I could conjure up the
crystalline mystique of Spector, Brod, Eno and Czukay
combined?)
A change in my life? Probably none at all: things were blinking
in and blanking out lazily and fast in those 77-heaven days,
causing no effect that would stick fast. We were all pale hysterical
ghosts of anything we were to become. I would have produced
Warsaw, the record would have been no different because if the
time isn't right the trees don't joke, and it would have been as
important in my life as a stone in a date, and for Joy Division my
association would have settled into social blandness. You see, and
I knew this the time we all sprang up in our places at the Free
Trade Hall to see Buzzcocks and Sex Pistols, it was all
predestined what we were going to get up to. Even if I'd started
out as a Stiff Kitten I would still have threaded my way into the
position as top pop writer of the post-modernist times: and
nothing except a real fine joke would have stopped Joy Division
alighting on that empty space which stretches between person and
person, between ignorance and knowledge, between one hand
and another, and shocking those who were awake with what it was
they did.
What it was they did. . . all those creeping inside here hoping to
embrace the essence, the essential sinful pleasure, of what it was
they did - a minute or a century past 'An Ideal For Living' should fade away: Back Off Boogaloo! as Ringo said, aptly. No
such luck: not much luck is left. All the luck of the century is
greedily snatched at and soaked up by young people like Joy
Division, searching for nothing to do so that they might do
something. Joy Division were drunk on luck before anything else,
pernod or bitter. Joy Division were lucky, lucky that they turned
the damned whore rock language back into a virgin, lucky that out
of their common sense blossomed a peculiar beauty, lucky that
amidst it all they were quite stupid, lucky if you assume that what
they wanted to do was create something rich and better than some
fucking decorative abbreviation. And we should thank our lucky
stars that they were so lucky, if not think about what it was they did
every other minute of the day. To look straight at luck, head on
into the glare, is to have it disappear, twitch away, like a black spot
on the eyeball: it hovers, in vision but out of it, irritating and
enthralling, restless and nowhere, here and then. Luck; just like
Joy Division, in vision but out of it. A grasp that can be found even

in our artificial and fearful times.

In a way, and I say this a lot to myself as my memory plays with
its tricks, my connection with Joy Division and their particular
halo is that of a minor character in a minor Beatles biography:
I tell my story to a dim researcher, I went to school at 14 with Pete
Best, I once almost asked out George Harrison's cousin or, in this
case, I talked with Ian in ranches circuses and factories about
glueing our personalities to the world through words and pauses.
Nothing much, I wasn't there, but in the end I wasn't far away.
Somehow, reminding us how much the pop writer was viewed
disproportionately, I gained small time fame as the one who took a
torch to this dark Division: shined a light on this. . . un-usual
commitment to living. People will approach me at Rainbows and
Odeons to say that if it hadn't been for my support... I blush, and
might even boast, because I don't tell good jokes. But it was all so
slight-what else? I mentioned Joy Division often enough for
everyone nearby to know of them, and maybe look for themselves.
I never said anything about the group: I did little more than talk
about the weather, hoping that readers knew their Oscar Wilde
and would be certain that I meant something else. (This also
applies to the best ever interview with a member of Joy Division,
when I asked their guitarist what he wanted to drink.) I was as
quiet as I possibly could be allowing for my former urge to babble
bouncily given the flimsiest encouragement, because what I feel
about Joy Division is no business of yours. What New Order are to
me is nothing, really, to do with you. What I let leak out may give
you a clue, it may be a joke; when I use the word 'impatience' I'm
showing you a glimpse of one of my biggest secrets.
So, they won't name any streets after Joy Division. At least they
never tried to help anyone. They just took their chance, as
everyone can, to reinvent the things around them. Until we are
stopped. I think we're all aware in our own private ways that we
can only respond, in public, to what spun out from what they did,
to what surrounds what it is they do. The Division, the order, is all
guessing, luck, wishing, indifference, impatience.. . to a point,
and past that point we're forced to disentangle and wipe away our
habitual conceptions of reality. We can never talk sensibly in
public of'the inside.' No words reach that deep. I've often felt that
those on whom the group's effect would be most beneficial are
repelled, and on those on whom they most fascinate their effect
may be dangerous, even harmful. And then, when I reach this far
in, somewhere between patterned leaking and plain spilling the
beans, I just have to tell a joke. Heard the one about the tragicjew
and the lucky scholar . . . ?
I am inclined to believe that one should only listen to Joy
Division when one is in an eupeptic state of physical and mental
health and, in consequence, tempted to dismiss any scrupulous
heartsearching as a morbid fuss. When one is in low spirits, one
should possibly keep away from them, for, unless introspection is
accompanied, as it always is with New Order, by an equal passion
for the good life, it all too easily degenerates into spineless
narcissistic fascination with one's own sins and weaknesses. Now
we wouldn't want that, would we?

GLASS : MESH
"The only alternative to the spectacle becomes the spectacle of
the alternative" -Factory Newsletter, Sep 79.
"Who is right, and who can tell, and who gives a damn right now. "
Until the spirit, new sensation takes hold, then you know."
-"Disorder".
"Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day."
-Albert Camus, The Fall, 1957.
Broadcast. Here it is, and was as it were, no design -1 knew the
tone the image effect of the project-1 had that: the mood, the
colours and a fear of the REactions - There is and is no plot, only
the soundtrack to market machine, counterfeit ticket to the highpeep show.
That is, this thing has the morals that you invented for it after
the event, and the character is exactly what it is in the confines of
the film. The talk between the scenes .. .
The open reels seem twisted - inverted - but they were like that
when they found them at the outset - there is no meaning in the
story, and it seems that there was no story when they filmed it what you see in that direction is your own invented coating -1
have no control over it. Let's say this story was aborted by reason.
(Film) the bloody thing I did not make! It constituted itself. ..
while I watched -1 have enough difficulty determining the
contents, certain that isolated scenes will conflict with the
already-fuzzy subtitles.
This is the film I saw. . .
"A mass of harmless attitudes
Attack them or subside.
No matter what they say you do.
Your heart meets you, late at night." - "Procession".
STIFF KITTENS & WARSAW
The histories of many bands which began in 1976 and 1977 start with
The Sex Pistols, and this is no exception. The youth of Manchester
were strongly affected in June of 1976 when Howard Devoto twice
brought the Pistols to the North to play the Lesser Free Trade Hall with
his new group Buzzcocks. No matter what opinion one holds of The
Sex Pistols, they proved once and for all that anyone could start a band,
whether you could play or not. New bands sprang up almost overnight
all over England.
By the time the Anarchy Tour (The Sex Pistols, The Heartbreakers,
and The Clash) rolled into Manchester, school friends Bernard Dicken
of Salford and Peter Hook, and Terry Mason had formed their own
group. They were on hand when the Anarchy Tour played The Electric
Circus on Thursday, 9 December 1976, and received their first
mention in the press: "The sentiments were echoed by most every kid
I spoke to-they were certainly all in the process of forming bands, Stiff
Kittens (Hooky, Terry, Wroey and Bernard, who has the final word)
being the most grotesque offering" (Pete Silverton, Sounds, 19 Dec
76). Although Sounds listed Bernard's neighbour, Wroey, it was not
really anticipated that he would join the band when they began playing

ABOUT-FACE
Now we turn from transplantation to acclimatisation. A group oh, any group, hip or square, hard boiled or hysterical - became
The Noise.
Not any noise.
The Noise settles and unsettles around the fundamental
disorientation of being which Conrad speaks of as "the heart of
darkness" or Bettelheim as "the extreme situation". What Ringo,
talking to Russell Harty, called "madness".
The group-we call such things "groups" but four young boys
teaming up together, why, it's almost a little gang - were as
threatening as a spilt drink. It's no use crying. But The Noise is the
threat: a little hell after my own heart.
The group rocked, in the antique sense of the word. They were
snapped into place like a white lego brick. The Noise - antiPlatonic - sees art not as an imitation of "the real" BUT MORE
REAL. The Noise is homeless and proud of it: it's no accident.
The group's ambition was to use up as little space as possible,
and here make various experiments, folding their arms and
crossing their legs, huddling close together. (It is for them and
their kind, the unfinished and the bunglers, that there is hope.)
The Noise keeps its distance but moves inside, has an ambition
to, say, recreate the sensation of fright, extend mild flirtations, a
violent temper, a lonely craving, a dreadful shyness into a
restlessness the other side of time and outside history. I do not
claim that this ambition is a conscious one, but it is bound to be
present: it is The Noise's reason of state.
How do we explain the sense of this Noise, or the true (literal)
non-sense? Perhaps we imagine something, anything, connected
to the sentence: 'the outbreaks of rage are timed to the tickings of
the seconds to which the melancholy man is slave.' Perhaps we
pay tribute to the stupidity of the broad masses. Perhaps The
Noise is only fit to throw away. Is it enough to announce that The
Noise is infinitely new and uncanny? Does it enact the dialectical
reciprocity of cloture and radiance? The Noise - mood for
thought? It is not known if Ringo has any thoughts on this.
So - is The Noise, perhaps, Ideal?
Not particularly.
JOY DIVISION
A rather serious problem had developed late in November of 1977 with
the release of an album by the London-based group Warsaw Pakt.
Their claims to fame, as it turned out, were to play a lot of dates at one
venue, Hammersmith's Red Cow, and to put out Europe's first
"instant" album. Recorded directly onto a master disc in a single take
just after midnight one Saturday night, 5,000 copies of their Needle
Time were in the stores by the next Monday morning. Manchester's
Warsaw planned to expand its following by playing London, a major
step toward winning the elusive record contract. But, as they were told
by one of the major London booking agencies, a band called Warsaw
would have difficulty getting gigs in the capital because of their
similarity of name with Warsaw Pakt.
With their future at stake, the group chose to accept the risks
involved and change their name. After some discussion, they chose
Joy Division, the name coming from a lurid novel of sado-masochism

THE FACTORY
Friday October 20th

JOY DIVISION
CABARET VOLTAIRE
THE TILLER BOYS

RUSSEL CLUB
ROYCE ROAD
MOSS SIDE

Meanwhile, Joy Division preyed on Rob Gretton's mind. He had

awakened the morning after the Stiff Test with the group's songs still
running around in his head, and he soon decided that he wanted to
manage them. Stopping by Bernard's house, he found that Joy
Division has just signed contracts with Anderson and Searling and that
an album was in progress. Bernard suggested that Rob come to the
rehearsal studios the following Sunday to talk with the group about
managing them, but when he arrived he found that Bernard had
forgotten to mention him to the band who were wondering what
Gretton was doing there. When Bernard arrived, he introduced Rob to
the band saying, "Aw, I've got a lot to tell you. This is our new
manager." After sitting down to talk with them, Rob Gretton became
Joy Division's manager.
Joy Division's good impression on Gretton at the Stiff Test was, as it
turned out, very fortunate because it was Gretton's dogged
determination which made much of the band's public success
possible. In addition to having been manager of The Panik, he had
co-produced with the band their single, "It Won't Sell" -which didn't.
Steve Brotherdale has said that had The Panik gone along with what
Gretton was trying to do when he managed them, The Panik would
have been much more successful. He had a reputation for being a very
steady and deliberate manager who made no promises but somehow
made things happen.
Gretton did not immediately involve himself with the on-going album
deal - it was more a matter of waiting to see what RCA would come up
with. And the waiting went on for some months, with the band growing
more impatient as time passed. One of Rob Gretton's first acts when
he became Joy Division's manager early in May was to commission
Better Badges London to produce a series of a dozen badges, six
designs in black on white and repeated in white on black (Fig. 9). A run
of six thousand was completed in June 1978 and then deleted at the
time of Unknown Pleasures when Joy Division decided to eliminate the
group's name from the badges and use designs based on their
sleeves.
The Factory I, Manchester (Friday, 9 Jun 78): The connection with
Tony Wilson, made so boldly by Ian at Rafters' bar during the Stiff Test,
led to the band's association with Factory, and Joy Division headlined
the fourth Friday night of the opening of the Factory Club. The Factory
was Wilson's brain-child, and grew out of his strong support of the
Manchester area's young bands. He had been responsible for the

Fig. 12: FAC 3 poster, 20 October 1978

24

popular (but ahead of its time) television show, "So It Goes", and his
confidence in the talent of the Northern groups, combined with a lack of
viable Manchester rock venues, led to a one-night-a-week showplace
held on Fridays at the Russel Club, usually a West Indian cultural
centre. The Factory now became the venue for all the Mancunian
bands struggling to make names for themselves.
Joy Division was selected to headline by Richard Boon, manager of
Buzzcocks, who envisioned the gig as a showcase for his new act, The
Tiller Boys (made up of Pete Shelley, Eric Random, and Francis
Cookson), which was playing its first performance that night. Also on
the bill for the series of four nights were The Durutti Column, Cabaret
Voltaire, Jilted John, Big In Japan, and Manicured Noise, a sufficient
diversity of musical talent to guarantee sold-out houses. The poster for
the evenings, designed by Peter Saville (later responsible for most Joy
Division and New Order product design) in the style of the
Constructivists in yellow and black, became Factory's first "event",
FAC I (Fig. 10).
"And after The Tiller Boys came Joy Division who were so much

different from how they were as Warsaw. And they were supremely
better. They stuck out as being so much better. No matter what the
band or Tony Wilson might say, Warsaw were nothing. No one was
really interested in Warsaw. Then all of a sudden it was Joy Division. I
would say this was really where Joy Division started. And what came
after all worked up from this point" (Nigel Bagley, Jun 82).
During June of 1978, Joy Division self-issued the 5000 copies of
their An Ideal For Living EP (Enigma PSS139) in the form of a 7" (Fig.
11) which came with "a special folding Sleeve which turns into a 14" x
14" full colour/black-white poster-a real treat for all 'Collectors item'
fans" (letter from Steve to London promoters and record distributors).
The 1" was to be distributed "on our label-Enigma-but. . . it was
discovered that another record company existed with the title Enigma,
so once again we are in a 'HAVING TO CHANGE THE NAME'
situation."
Unfortunately, the terrible quality of the stacks of 7" records had not
been improved by sitting on the shelf for six months, and Paul Morley
reviewed it by saying "the record is structurally good, though
soundwise poor, a reason it may not be widely released" (A/ME, 3 Jun
78). The poster-sleeve for the 7" was designed by Bernard and made
up of four 7" x 1" segments: upper left is a drummer-boy noticeably
resembling a member of the Hitler Youth but more exemplifying the
concept of "music by youth" and the EP's title. The upper right
segment contains two outdoor photographs, one of Bernard and Steve
and the other Ian and Peter.
The lower left quadrant of the sleeve is a photograph of the band
standing together against the wall of what looks like the inside of a cell.
The photograph on the lower right is a very famous one of a young
Jewish boy in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II with his hands in
the air being guarded by an armed Nazi storm-trooper, and the
opening four lines of the EP's song "Leaders of Men". The poster/
sleeve is most certainly "an enigma", and one which caused the group
further accusations of Nazi sympathies: "Another Fascism For Fun
And Profit mob, judging by the Hitler Youth imagery and Germanic
typography. But interesting, and definitely worth investigation if you're
gripped by the grindilgriff gloom and industrial bleakness of the Wire/
Subway Sect order."
Eric's, Liverpool (Saturday matinee, 15 Jul 78): Joy Division
supported The Rich Kids on one of the first stops of the latter's debut
British tour.
The Fan Club (Roots Club), Leeds (Thursday, 27 Jul 78): The Durutti
Column and Joy Division were co-billed.
Finally, in July or August 1978, the long-awaited offer came back
from RCA's Derek Everett. RCA would put out one album and see how
it sold before committing to a second, and there would be no advance.
Joy Division was shocked because they believed that they deserved
better - they had made considerable progress since the aborted LP,
and they knew they were more saleable than the offer implied. A
couple of weeks later, at 11.00 one Friday night, Rob Gretton phoned
John Anderson - neither man had met or spoken before - and laid out
the band's terms: a 10,000 advance and 15% royalties to the band or
no deal. A raging argument broke out between the two which ended
when Anderson, who had never made anything from his efforts and
expenses on Joy Division, told Gretton to "Fuck off!"
Anderson wanted nothing more to do with the band or Gretton, and
soon after received a letter from the solicitor retained by Joy Division.
The solicitor had gone over the American-style publishing contract,

beyond expectation, as Mick Middlehurst related (The Face, Nov 80):

"The intensity, the passion of this music completely eclipsed anything
the audience had seen in a long, long time. Most people left the gig in a
state of exhaustion, unable to explain just why this tiny local band had
affected them so deeply. In fact, Joy Division were as surprised as
everyone else by their apparent power. All they had done [since their
last Factory appearance] was to solidly rehearse and tighten a few
musical knots. They had brought their drumming to the forefront. They
had found the style which would soon prove to be a major influence on
Britain's music scene."
Joy Division was giving the rock press free copies of their 12"
release of An Ideal For Living EP that night (Fig. 13), and this new
master solved the problem of the old 7"'s poor sound. Though they
were now playing a set mostly made up of a different and more mature
music than when the EP had been recorded, and had changed from
one of many barely-distinguishable punk groups into the band which
would never be mistaken for any other, the EP was all they could use to
publicise themselves (because their recording contract was still in
force). Mick Middles told of his first listening, after this Factory Club
concert: "The next morning arrives too soon. I crawl out of bed with a
dull throbbing at the back of my head and intent on self mutilation I
reach for the record deck. Joy Division's EP is cruelly slapped on. I
flinch as the static clicks in the speakers and await my fate. The music
begins, dark and loud, almost early Black Sabbath. The lyrics cut
through my head.. . . I've never, in all my record collecting life, known
a record that is produced as loud as this. The second track is loud but
experimental. Hard to compare it to anybody but perhaps Wire. It is
magnificent in every way and I couldn't be more sincere."
Though not quoted above, Middles shows in his article that he was
also given the lyrics to "Ice Age", "Warsaw", and "Walked in Line" as
a courtesy to the press. Unfortunately, the courtesy was hardly
returned when Middles focused his attention on why "when everyone
thinks of Joy Division they automatically think of this Nazi thing". The
band had no more of an answer to this than usual. Ian, apparently
resigned to the charges, said simply that "everyone calls us Nazis,"
while Bernard Albrecht (the surname coming from a commercial film
editing table) suggested "people tend to take a radical viewpoint on
everything, whereas if they would just think for a change, they would
see that it is absolutely nothing".
It was this 12" which began the tradition of Joy Division's vinyls
containing messages in the run-off grooves: "Don't ever let it fade
away" (A), and "Feel it closing in" (B) - both lines from "Digital".
The release of 1200 copies in October was by Anonymous Records
(ANON 1), and a November 1978 indie records catalog listed its office
as Steve's home in Macclesfield; Enigma Records was listed at Rob
Gretton's residence in Chorlton, Manchester. Both labels,
enigmatically enough, shared the same Manchester telephone: Rob's
home number. Distribution was also by Rabid Records after their
in-house producer, Martin Zero/Hannett, convinced his partners to
take on the distribution of the 12" EP.
A Factory Sample (double 7" EP; FAC 2; rec. 11 Oct 78; rel. 24 Dec
78):
1. Digital 2. Glass (later re-released on Still)
On Wednesday, 11 Oct 78, Joy Division were at Cargo Studios in
Rochdale laying down the two tracks which were to be their
contribution to FAC 2, the Factory compilation of Northern bands. An
accommodation must have been made with Anderson and Searling to
allow this recording, which was produced by Martin Zero. Though

support.
The Odeon, Canterbury (1979?): According to Steve Morris, this
concert supporting The Cure featured Joy Division's only public
performance of "Something Must Break".
*Bowdon Vale Youth Club, Altrincham (Wednesday, 14 Mar 79):

JOY
DIVISDN

During their first night at Bowdon Vale, Joy Division's support was Staff
9, a group headed by Craig Scanlon of Manchester's The Fall.
"And every week at this club the punks would come down from
Salford and Stretford, and they were always there heckling. So were
The Bidet Boys, sitting on the floor right in front with their huge tape
machine recording every gig" (Nick Wraith, Jun 82).
This night was no exception, and The Bidet Boys were their normal
boistrous selves, shouting out "Seig, Heil!", "Nazis", and an eloquent
(for them) "Yes, fascism is very clever, now fuck off!"
During an "interview" which took place on 23 Mar 79, Rob Gretton
took a casual look into Joy Division's future:
RG: "I should imagine in a year from now we'll have- I'll calculate
we'll be more, you know, better known - more widely-accepted
throughout the country. We'll have broken out of the north-west
provincial shell. Whether that's a good thing or not, I don't know."
Q: "What direction would you like most not to see them going in?"
RG: "South."
Youth Centre, Walthamstow (Friday, 30 Mar 79) (Fig. 17): Once Joy
Division had "broken" London, the demand for them increased. Their
next gig in London came about when Jasmine Hooper, who managed a
youth centre north of the city, and Dave Pils, later to be the group's
drum roadie, saw Joy Division at both Hope and Anchor concerts.
Jasmine talked to the band about doing a gig at Walthamstow and they
agreed. Dave's group at the time, SX, provided support. A very small
audience turned out that night because Joy Division had not quite
caught on in London. The band drove straight back to Manchester after
the gig because Martin Hannett had arranged a special rehearsal rate
for using off-peak hours at Strawberry Studios in Stockport-the
"first" album was being birthed.
The month of April was primarily spent in pre-recording rehearsals
which culminated in a four-and-a-half-day marathon session at
Strawberry, with Martin Hannett as producer. Working "say, from 2
o'clock in the afternoon to four in the morning getting it done" (Ian),
Joy Division laid down fifteen and a half tracks, the ten best being
selected for their debut album.
Eric's, Liverpool (Thursday, 3 May 79): With the album completed, Joy
Division headlined an Amnesty International benefit at Eric's with
fellow Mancunian bands The Passage and The Fireplace in support.
Ian Wood (NME, 26 May 79) gave an extended view of Joy Division's
'state of the art': "Feeble and pretentious in their past incarnation, Joy
Division now sketch withering grey abstractions of industrial malaise.
Unfortunately, as anyone who has. . . lived in the low-rent squalor of a
Northern Industrial city would know, their vision is deadly accurate.
Musically, Joy Division are much more punishing than any Heavy
Metal band. What makes them unique is singer Ian Curtis. A slight, thin

Fig. 19: Badge for The Acklam gig, London, 17 May 1979 (actual size)

32

figure, he moves deftly and delicately, his voice surprisingly strong, in

his eyes a look of humility and fear. If this sounds like a mere stage play
on paper, in reality Curtis'transparent humanity-thatofaloser caught
in a world only partially understood - is totally credible.. . . When Joy
Division left the stage I felt emotionally drained. They are, without any
exaggeration, an Important Band."
Having returned to the club circuit, Joy Division played three gigs on

Fig.20: Unknown Pleasures LP, released June 1979

a Factory tour with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, A Certain Ratio,

and John Dowie:
The Factory I, Manchester (Friday, 11 May 79) (Fig. 18).
Acklam Hall, London (Thursday, 17 May 79): Factory Records
contacted Final Solution to set up Joy Division's next London date, and
Rob Gretton even had 100 or so special badges made up by Better
Badges London which read "Joy Division At The Aklam" (sic) (Fig.
19). Unfortunately, despite advertisements in the rock press and
handbills passed out at record shops, only about a hundred people
(many of them rock journalists) turned out for this "Factory Night". Joy
Division had been well-received in the small club atmosphere of The
Hope and Anchor and Marquee, but they were still not well enough
known to hope to fill a hall the size of the Acklam as headliner,
especially with the support of other Factory bands even more obscure
than they were.
Bowdon Vale Youth Club, Altrincham (Wednesday, 23 May 79):
Although this was part of the Factory Tour, Orchestral Manoeuvres in
the Dark did not show up at Bowdon Vale because they thought that the
stage - really only a low platform in the corner-would be too small for a
two-piece band, its equipment, and (in their case) fluorescent lights. At
one point during Joy Division's set the stage lights went out, sending
Ian into a real flap. He had been hard at work learning to play the guitar
and when it went dark he could not see the chalk marks he had put on
the neck to show him the chords. This gig was one of the few times Joy
Division played the Still version of "The Kill".
Royalty Theatre, Holborn, London (Sunday, 17 Jun 79): With John
Cooper-Clarke.
Unknown Pleasures (LP; Fact 10/Factus 1; rec. Apr 79; rel. Jun 79):
1. Disorder
1. She's Lost Control
2. Day of the Lords
2. Shadowplay
3. Candidate
3. Wilderness
4. Insight
4. Interzone
5. New Dawn Fades
5.1 Remember Nothing
Joy Division's debut was first issued as FACT 10, and contained a
message in the run-off groove which reads "This is the way" (A) and
"Step inside" (B) from the song "Atrocity Exhibition". The American
edition, FACTUS 1, reads "I've been looking for a guide" (B) (a
variation on the lyric to "Disorder").
The sleeve of Unknown Pleasures was Peter Saville's stark design
(Fig. 20) which contradicted many proper design principles and was
the better for it. "Everything on Factory is designed, as opposed to
decorated" (Saville, Sep 79). Record sleeves usually evolve from
ideas supplied by the band themselves - the graphic on Unknown
Pleasures being suggested by Bernard's discovery of the intergalactic
scream of a dying star. The group had originally suggested a white
cover with a black inner sleeve but agreed with Saville that the image
would be stronger with a black cover. Having an "inside" and an
"outside" to the album "was a purely arbitrary design decision which
had to do with my having a black label on one side of the record and a
white label on the other side" (Saville, Sep 82). The photograph on the
inner sleeve was given to Saville by the band who had cut it from a
book, and it wasn't until two years later that Saville found that it was
really a very famous picture by Ralph Gibson.
Unknown Pleasures' accessibility was one of its major attractions, as
Mick Middlehurst observed: "The album displays two levels, a
background of partially hidden noise - smashing glass and muffled

THE SOUND OF MUSIC : 5.8.6

"No language, just sound, is all we need know,
To synchronise love to the beat of the show." - "Transmission".
" 'Dead Souls', the single most powerful performance on Still,
would have been pure grade-B melodrama. . . if the music and
Mr. Curtis's electrifying intensity hadn't transcended its lyrical
contents. The importance of the other musicians and of Martin
Hannett is unwittingly emphasized by the concert performances
on Still. Songs that are unforgettable evocations of mental
anguish in their original studio versions sound disjointed and
desperate on stage, and so does Mr. Curtis." -RobertPalmer, The
New York Times, 13 Dec 81.
When examining the archives of film, the first unusual aspects of
the recordings to emerge was that of the voice carrying the verbal
information in musical form. On the earlier examples, the style is
abrasive, almost shouted, with a heavy regional accent. These
examples, obvious even to the averagely-trained ear, were
recorded on more primitive equipment than the later. However, it
would appear that once a fairly substantial amount of time in a
recording studio had come within financial reach, a period of
isolation and eventual transition ensued. The corporate title was
changed, and, much more interestingly, the vocalist changed his
method of delivery.
Voice of Report: On certain unofficial recordings, this transition
is well-documented. The vocal has gained an american accent,
and added to this was a drop in pitch of about !/3. This style shows
evidence of being extremely uncomfortable for the performer, the
key of a certain piece being fixed seemingly for ever, never to
deviate, and just about a tone too low. The pieces invariably stay at
a fixed tempo and key, then, inexplicably, they swoop down - just
too low for the range of the voice. This evidence is apparent in
nearly every instance of the unofficial early recordings. The
published examples are another matter entirely.
As a result of investigative research, it would appear that
halfway through the assembly of what was to be their first major
commercially-available recording, a piece of equipment known as
a harmoniser was discovered. It is used for specific purposes in a
large variety of situations, for instance in news broadcasts where
the voice of an interviewee was considered to be, for the benefit of
security, better disguised. The harmoniser took the sound to be
processed, and presented it back to the operator of the equipment
in a state where the various harmonic structures in the sound were
easier to manipulate. This meant, in effect, that the vocalist was

The harmoniser went some way in giving the appearance of his

voice being "slowed down" whilst performing in front of an
audience, but as private evidence shows, the keys that the
instrumentalists had fixed the pieces in when working with this
technique were simply too low for the vocalist to "force". When
he attempted the lowest notes of his forged performance in the
studio, the only way of achieving the desired keys would have
been:
a) the other musicians raising (ie., transposing) the pitch to
accommodate the vocalist's difficulties in realising his
previously-doctored performances, and
b) singing an octave higher, either all the way through or just at
points of difficulty.
Needless to say, this would have required a falsetto in the first
instance, and a good deal of vocal gymnastics that would have
appeared odd in the second.
Strangely, the first alternative listed above was not employed.
Certainly the musicians were of basic ability, but bearing in mind
the nature of individual parts, this would not have been difficult.
Most of the pieces are based on major, seventh, or minor chords,
played with a bar chord that can be moved up and down the neck
and fretboard of the guitar quickly and easily. The chords are for
the most part simple 4 or 5 chord patterns that would have
required little effort on the part of the guitarist to move two or
three frets up. The bassist's parts tended to move in similar single
lines high up the fretboard into the guitar's area of range. It must
have been obvious to anyone concerned that in this "live"
situation, the vocalist was in great distress.
The use of varispeed increased with every successive
recording. Added advantage - slowing down sound intensifies the
previously-inaudible frequencies now rising to the surface,
thereby "filling out" the sound.
"They write songs about such hackneyed subjects - alienation,
mental and social collapse - yet they play them with such a curious
attitude, almost as if performing some violent and urgent
operation upon the material, that I find it impossible not to stare in
a kind of numb horror." -Steve Taylor, Melody Maker.
"We may do justice to their conflicting statements by accepting
that twice two can sometimes equal five." - Hans Richter,Artand
Anti-Art, 1964.
"A simple movement or rhyme
Could be the smallest of signs." - "Dreams Never End".

spared the obvious discomfort of performing the material

"unaided" when in front of an audience. In the studio, on the
other hand, another device had just been developed for
recording: the varispeed control. This enabled the vocalist to hear
his accompaniment, say, a third higher (and of course faster) than
normal. While singing along at this "false" pitch, he was recorded
on another track. When the completed track was played back at
the "normal" or "correct" speed, his performance would be
lowered by the same third, but still be in time and in tune with the
backing.

36

Fig.23: Stockport, 28 July 1979

of Joy Division before. They just blew them off because Buzzcocks
didn't give the impression that they cared what they were doing on
stage" (Bernard Connor, Jul 82).
Leeds University (Wednesday, 3 Oct 79): The Leeds gig was
completely mad, with 20-30 people fainting as they were crushed
against the stage to see Joy Division and Buzzcocks. Joy Division
played a very short set and Ian had to be helped off the stage at the
finish of "She's Lost Control."
"It is Ian Curtis who symbolises Joy Division, even though one can
hardly believe that he triesto.. . . The 'gothic dance music' he
orchestrates is well-understood by those who recognise their New
Wave frontiersmen.... A theatrical sense of timing, controlled
improvisation (allowing for apparently arbitrary intro-length), intelligent
decibel-variation and good ol' fashioned distortion (unintended or
otherwise) are the sum total of Joy Division's secret.... The
Buzzcocks had to be pretty hot to follow that, and a lot of people
thought they were" (Des Moines, NME).
*City Hall, Newcastle (Thursday, 4 Oct 79).
The Apollo, Glasgow, Scotland (Friday, 5 Oct 79): The hotel bar at
Glasgow was emptied during the night, and all eyes (including those of
the police) turned to the merry pranksters of the Buzzcocks tour. No
guilt was admitted nor charges levelled, and the hotel was reimbursed
for the missing alcohol.
Odeon, Edinburgh, Scotland (Saturday, 6 Oct 79).
Capitol, Aberdeen, Scotland (Sunday, 7 Oct 79).
Caird Hall, Dundee, Scotland (Monday, 8 Oct 79).
A couple of periods occurred on the tour when no gigs were
planned, and to fill in these gaps Rob Gretton arranged concerts away
from Buzzcocks. One of these concerts was planned to be Joy
Division playing atthe Reichstag in Berlin. Though the idea had begun
as a joke, the band started having serious thoughts about it and ended
up planning it as the live side of their second album. For some reason,
however, the gig never quite came together.
Plan K, Brussels, Belgium (Tuesday, 16 Oct 79) (Figs. 34-35): Joy
Division played at the opening of Brussels' new art centre, a recently
converted sugar refinery in, coincidentally, rue de Manchester (just off
rue de Birmingham). Accompanied by Cabaret Voltaire, Joy Division
did not headline the debut of Plan K - that honour being reserved for
American author William Burroughs. Burroughs, to give him the benefit
of the doubt, does not seem to have been enjoying himself much for,
when Ian who was a great fan of his went up to talk with him, the author
told him graphically to get lost. Ian got lost immediately, not a little hurt
by the rebuff.
The gig was reviewed by the noted iconoclast and publisher of the
fanzine NMX, Martin X. Ruffian, who began the evening in typical
fashion by giving Ian the latest number of his paper-forgetting "this
was the issue in which I called [him] a 'right prat' or words to that effect,
but he took it quite well considering". Ruffian's review displays a raw
naturalness often lacking in the more 'polished' music press: "I'm still
not convinced that [Joy Division are] brilliant enough to justify all the
good press they've had -1 can think of unknown groups I rate higher
but there's no denying they are very good. The music varies from
punky fast and simple to doomy slow and weird, always emotional and
compelling, though not half as depressing as has been made out. I was
compelled but entertained as well.. . . Experience this for yourselves.

44

AUTO-SUGGESTION : THE HIM

"It's a very rare sight to see four individuals working
harmoniously together in search of one unique sound. Any band
finding themselves in this position are very lucky indeed. They
can achieve almost anything (musically, not commercially) that
they wish. [Joy Division] are powerful and dangerous." -Mick
Middles, Sounds.
"He invented for the Glass Bead Game the principles of a new
language, a language of symbols and formulas, in which
mathematics and music played an equal part, so that it became
possible to combine astronomical and musical formulas, to
reduce mathematics and music to a common denominator, as it
were." - Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game, 1943.
"I did everything, everything I wanted to.
I let them use you - for their own ends." - "Shadowplay".
History. Art and Sculpture, created by Literature. All of this
solidifies adaptability, and then listen to the Music.
Second Voice: A technique that they used in the old films
illustrated the manner in which a voice can be represented to
carry an information effect: when the government wanted to
present the armed forces in the Second World War with
information quickly and effectively, information such as the right
way to strip and reassemble a bren gun, the instruction film would
be played to soldiers one or two frames per second slower than
normal. The result was a greater assimilation of the image and the
information-events, as sights and sounds are absorbed in an
almost photographic way with this technique. Comparable to
exposing an ancient photo-plate to an image through a lens, the
image remains fixed. This technique was classified secret at the
time.
Few were aware that a rapid-exposure technique could
produce the same effects as those of the slowed-down film. With
this technique, every 14th frame contains the desired "input" that is to say, the message to be implanted by stealth. This image
or message would actually be much too fast to see (unless
forewarned), but would be registered and acted upon. The most
famous example (now discontinued) that they cited at the
Institute was that of the ice cream firm which successfully grafted
the Pavlovian message "YOU WILL EAT ICE CREAM" on to
the minds of a thousand casual film-goers, then called "movies".
The process was perfected in children's cartoon programmes,
where obvious animation attached an extra layer to the "input".
To detect its operation, the viewer would have to slow down the
film so that the individual frames became visible for inspection.
A more subtle, even more effective ploy was then discovered.
Hypnosis in its advanced states sometimes employs a technique
upon those with lower susceptibility to suggestion. It relies on
confusing the subject by issuing conflicting commands or
instructions in rapid succession. In the crux, where the mind of
the subject cannot comprehend, the hypnotist strikes with the real
object of command or suggestion, and, due to the confusion, or
possibly in instinctive desperation, the subject surrenders to the

50

suggestion(s) and is hypnotised. The technique was employed in

the structures of a large number of the group's compositions.
Devices such as multiple drum tracks (mainly on the later
recordings), the cymbals, hi-hat and bass are all slightly out of
time with each other. By separating these elements as far as
possible in the stereo picture, the direct message, or "REAL"
information was impressed. This was conveyed in the vocals.
Voice disguises further technique.
This episode came to our attention some time ago, but it seems
that the flow of information was slight - the technique was known
as "Backward Masking". The effects of the reversed messages
that were played to subjects has been well-documented
elsewhere, but in essence diagnosed messages were understood
on a subliminal level.
The masking effect utilises (in this case) the vocalist's
allegorical and "open to interpretation" words in the foreground
to mask other, more 'important', messages. These arrangements
were based on the old magician's trick of making the audience
look one way, whilst the magic is effected with the other hand.
Mis-direction of attention is familiar in early hypnotic
experiments, where the subject concentrated on a moving object
- usually a pendulum of some sort - while receiving commands
directly in the subconscious mind. The important thing, of
course, was not to draw attention to the process - thus, the other
information, the 'hidden' sounds or words, only appear 'behind'
another sound or word. As was discovered, the subject, however
impressionable, will not accept suggestions totally contrary to the
normal moral code unless subjected to long periods of treatment.
Therefore, in this case, the information behind the message is
really little more than a gentle push towards the frame of mind so
desired.
The reasons for this are further revealed by a number of
circumstances. The medium that the persons involved chose to
use presented problems in terms of form and time-span: a record
limited to a speed of 33V3 is also restricted to less than Vi hour per
side; also, the cultural climate of the age dictated that recordings
were rarely listened to on a mass scale, a) with complete attention,
and b) in anywhere near the right frame of mind.
The material had to be sufficiently magnetic to maintain
listener interest over the course of as many exposures as possible
for message to infect. The best way to do this, they re-discovered,
was through trance. Such a mood had been used in ancient
religious ceremonies for thousands of years before that time.
The most successful examples were the moderate or slowpaced compositions which affected most deeply. Even when
attempting to use a faster speed, a slow, trance-inducing passage
would be added. The distractionary device mentioned earlier also
contributed to the induction of the listener. Another distraction
was added - especially in audience surroundings - which was to
deliberately de-tune the pure-set on the most correct instrument,
often the synthesiser machine. On the recordings, the
discrepancy is not quite as apparent, but most noticeable at the
points where the melody played on it is at its peak. At such a time,

the bass tends to "boom" at its loudest, forming a vertical

complement to the horizontal stereo distractionary technique
described above. This technique is also of ancient origin,
eminating from 'african' and 'tibetan' religious musics. In this
light, it should be noted that hypnosis techniques can be, and
often were, used for noble ends.
Another device was brought into play in the more
unpredictable setting of the performance. The vocalist adopted a
sporadic, seemingly random series of movements which, it
transpires from our efforts to trace, formed a dance used in an
earlier 'Japanese' technique of hypnotism. Whatever its
effectiveness on a 'Japanese' form of artistry, its appearance was
startling and original, capable of capturing the undivided
attention of the audience for long periods of time.
"Ian Curtis on voice, reacting to the music as if on a hotplate,
discovers the scope within tonal limitations - used his vocals for
force... Lyrically, philosophically, their ideas and intentions are
lost, the peril of fast communicative music performed with poor
equipment in dire venues. This could be an advantage - they may
be advocating a police state and restrictions of freedom for all the
listener can discern." -PaulMorley, NME, 9Sep 78,
When I first discovered the Institute's research report just
transcribed, the contents did not surprise me. It was not a
question of shock or outrage at the fact that the film had taken my
mind to arenas where consent fades to inhalation, for I
understood that the process had been employed on many other
occasions before, and that (at least) this screenplay made little
attempt at camouflage. Whatever I thought that might have been
at the time.
As the report suggested in its own way, all information must be
feared for its accumulative effect. Although I am still companion
to doubt, the compilers of the report concluded that at least these
extremities might have forced effective reaction (as they did in my
case, but after the event). In such a way a collective selfinterrogation system might have been effective in countering the
balance against the present inaccessible forces.
"One of the most common 'hallucinations' of subjects during
sense withdrawal is the feeling of another body sprawling though
the subject's body at an angle... yes, quite an angle it is the 'Other
Half worked quite some years ago on a symbiotic basis." William Burroughs, The Ticket that Exploded, 1962.
"I've got a friend in here somewhere,
Who can help me out.
Believe in meAll I said to you.
Believe in me All I did for you." - "Death Rattle".

*Second Peel Session (Recorded 26 Nov 79; 1 st b'cast 10 Dec 79);

1. Sound of Music 3. Colony
2. 24 Hours 4. Love Will Tear Us Apart
Joy Division's second Peel Session, produced by the BBC's Tony
Wilson, followed later in November, with two songs written just before
the Buzzcocks tour: "24 Hours" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart";
"Colony" and "Sound of Music" dating to the summer of that year.
The release of "Transmission" on the heels of the highly-successful
Unknown Pleasures renewed interest in Joy Division by the major
record companies. Possibly encouraged by the belief that the group
had no contractual commitment to Factory, Bob Krasnow, vicepresident of talent for America's Warner Brothers Records (parent of
Britain's WEA), met with Martin Hannett and Peter Saville in late
November or early December. In the posh surroundings of London's
Claridge's Hotel, Krasnow outlined his proposal: Joy Division's
signatures on an American distribution contract and their participation
in a series of videos (Krasnow had done a number with Devo) in return
for a sum remembered by Hannett as $1,000,000.
Hannett had to tell the record executive that there was no way that
Rob Gretton would agree to the idea, which did not fit in with the band's
plans. If Krasnow really wanted to help Joy Division - with no strings
attached - he could provide the band with some manufacturing
capacity from Warners and the group would do the rest. No more was
heard from Warners, however, until the beginning of May 1980 when
Martin Hannett reports being contacted by Dan Loggins, WEA's
international A&R chief and brother of Kenny Loggins. Loggins
repeated the previous $1,000,000 offer but with terms much more
favourable to the band. Hannett set up a meeting for two weeks later in
New York, when Gretton and Loggins could discuss the contract, but
Joy Division never arrived.
Eric's, Liverpool (Saturday, 8 Dec 79): Supported by Section 25, Joy
Division played another two-show Saturday at Eric's.
Then, after a short break during which Joy Division wrote still more
new songs, came the beginning of European touring, which would take
up the end of 1979 and early 1980. NME's retrospective of 1979 (22
Dec 79) gave the band the highest possible assessment: "Joy
Division emerged after three years' dreamy plotting not only as
Manchester's finest but as a stunningly inventive rock unit. Wilfully
independent, their debut LP . . . was one of the most fully realised and
stormy debuts in rock history."
*Les Bains-Douches Club, Paris (Tuesday, 18 Dec 79): Partially
broadcast live on French radio.
On New Years Eve 1979, Joy Division played an invitational party
held by Factory Records in a warehouse space above a shop in
Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens. About 100 attended, and the band
ushered 1980 in with an half-hour set beginning just after midnight.
*Paradiso, Amsterdam (Friday, 11 Jan 80): The Paradiso concert was
interesting for Joy Division fans because the band played two
completely different sets for the price of one. The support band, a local
Dutch group, did not want to play so Joy Division stood in for them.
They did a total of seventeen songs (including two encores) and played
for well over an hour.
The Trojan Horse, The Hague, Holland (Saturday, 12 Jan 80).
Doomroosje, Nijmegen, Holland (Sunday, 13 Jan 80).
King Kong, Antwerp, Belgium (Monday, 14 Jan 80): The group usually

Fig.39: The Rainbow Theatre, London, 9 November 1979

personal, if not professional, standpoint. Though Adam Sweeting,

reviewing the night for NME, rated Joy Division as "OK; and compared
to what was to follow they were inspired", the group were really off
their mettle. Joy Division went on first and Ian himself took note of their
poor playing after "Love Will Tear Us Apart" when he said to the
audience, "You can tell we've not rehearsed for a while". Despite
some concerns to the contrary, Joy Division's set improved
considerably and left the audience in such an exhausted trance that
almost everyone stayed for the other bands.
Paul Slattery, the photographer who accompanied Dave
McCullough to Manchester for the ill-fated 28 Jul 79 interview, spent
about an hour after the set talking with Ian about the band having
another get-together with McCullough. Slattery wanted a second
chance to do a Joy Division photo-session and this was the only way
he could figure to do it. Ian was agreeable to the idea, though what
Peter's or Rob's reaction would have been is not too hard to guess. In
the end, however, McCullough said he had other plans forthe evening
and Slattery could not interest him in doing another interview with the
band.
*The Moonlight Club, London (Thursday, 3 Apr 80) (Fig. 46): On the
second night, the band appeared third on a much better received bill
consisting of Kevin Hewick, Blurt, and A Certain Ratio. In his review in
NME, Mark Ellen freefy admitted his prejudices about Joy Division: "I
don't get along with them too well. Enormously powerful and skilfully
projective as they may be - but compared with the rest of the bill -their
horizons seem uncomfortably contained and they just sound dull and
unchallenging. The tensions between instruments are too measured,
the vocals a howl of morbid introspection, the whole set a tense,
gloomy, subterranean racket. Enough."
Martin Townsend's review, on the other hand, was much more
positive: "The stars surfaced next, school leavers Joy Division. Much
of their immediacy and, I suspect, popularity stems from their ability to
write a good tune. They may be against rock and roll, but they still use
the enemy.. . . Their lead singer... got my sympathy for an audience
that would have cheered if he'd blown his nose while the rest played
milk bottles. This is the difficult period for Joy Division; they can ignore
or encourage their popularity, and disappear both ways."
The Rainbow, London (Friday, 4 Apr 80) (Fig. 47): One of the reasons
the NME gig guide may not have listed Joy Division for the third
"Factory by Moonlight" night was that, through a peculiar set of
circumstances, the group was playing another concert that same night.
Final Solution was putting together the support groups for a Stranglers
gig and that group's management wanted something different as
support. Hugh Cornwell, their lead vocalist, was in Pentonville Prison
for drug possession so Joy Division, probably receiving much more
money than any group has for supporting the Stranglers, was brought
in, along with another Factory group, Section 25.
The band had played two sets in one day before, and no one
believed there would be any problem this time. But there were strobe
lights that night and the stage was extremely bright and hot. Ian
repeatedly had to ask that they take the front spot off him. The strain
began to have its effect and, during the final song at The Rainbow, Ian
had an epileptic seizure and fell violently back into the drum kit. The
audience, not understanding the situation, thought it a great finale for
the show. Twinny and Dave Pils carried Ian off stage, still in
convulsions, and up the stairs where he appeared to recover rapidly.
The Moonlight Club, London (Friday, 4 Apr 80) (Fig. 48): Leaving their

56

DE-FACE
1. Ringo has always said the group would never get back together
again. They would just remain friends.
2. Ringo had toothache. Ahab lost his leg in the fight with the
white whale. Molloy gradually became paralysed from the foot up.
Physical misfortune only corrupts what is corruptible.
3. The condition of man, says Martin Heidegger, is to be there.
To not be there suggests that one is in no condition to sing for
one's supper.
4. We have curious ideas of ourselves. Think of the muddle we get
into when we consider the weather.
5. Right and wrong is an instinct: and, again, indistinctive.
6. We get ideas in our head of what we mean by life. For Ringo,
life was eating beans and seeking cash, and he had a point. And he
farted ferociously. For politicians and rock critics life is there to
be sliced and wrapped; it's as pointless as firing bombs into people
who are neither your enemies nor your friends but there it all
goes. For some, life is here one moment, gone the next, but the
word of The Lord shall last forever. Some don't mind being
drugged in their life, and dragged nowhere in particular. There
are those who believe that life ends at the finger-tips. D. H.
Lawrence decided that nothing was important but life.
7. No things come to nothing.
8. And then there are a lot of stupid people about who are 'dead'
but not dead, the dead man in life.
9. The Noise, supremely, can help you not be the dead man in life.
It shakes the ribbon from your hair. Refreshes you with a bracing
awareness of your own finitude.
10. The grounds of incompletion lies at the heart of The Noise's
undertaking.
11. Ringo, a meaningless mule, rolled over and died. He will be
remembered for a wide passiveness and a long tail. The cause of
death appeared to be a portion of gingerbread stuffed with
darkness.
12. The demiurge is an hermaphrodite.

62

DEATH RATTLE : THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION

"A day shall come when you shall see your high things no more,
and your low things all too near, and you will fear your exaltation
as if it were a phantom. In that day you will cry: All is false." Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus SpakeZarathustra, 1885.
"I never realised the lengths I'd have to go.
All the darkest corners of a sense I didn't know.
Just for one moment, I heard somebody call:
Look beyond the day in hand,
There's nothing there at all." - "24 Hours".
The film starts to become real. Magic Theatre. It is true, I was left
intoxicated by initial exposure, but even though I had received the
information concerning the implantation techniques that the
Insitute had forwarded, a stifling cloud of suspicion continued to
weigh heavily upon the event. If nothing else, many scenes had
been of great beauty, and it was difficult to balance popular
elements with the more elliptical passages. A quicksand of
emotions.
"Real life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies. The
sound film, far surpassing the theatre of illusion, leaves no room
for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience, who are
unable to respond within the structure of the film, yet deviate
from its precise detail without losing the thread of the story; hence
the film forces its victims to equate it directly with reality The
might of industrial society is lodged in men's minds." - Theodore
Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 1944.
The first reaction was to reject this catalogue-subversion, to
abduct my sight. It was all possible - these times had witnessed
much confusion:
Broadsheet- Left wing agitators and propaganda leaflets. "The
outsiders were merely the government representatives". Hear the
news of the Defence Committee, who say there has been no
repeat elsewhere, and let there be no misunderstanding about the
racism involved. What we need is real action on these vital issues.
"We control the streets of London for all citizens'Vamputate the
finger of accusation.
Crowd Scene: "it was only God that saved us".
Official Voice: "a lot has already been done. We must wait for the
inquiry. Everyone MUST support them. It is easy to be a prophet
of doom."
Tension was still high on Monday, and traffic to the area was
being diverted.
But as my senses began to thaw from the immediate effects of
the film, the hesitation began to suggest a balance. Perhaps it was
conceivable that the screenplay intensity had provided a degree of
counter-control against ManLeader extremity, that it was futile to
search for any intermediary stage. In this respect, it had been the
part of the report describing the design of the confusion/hypnosis
technique that intrigued me most. If an individual mind had been
undergoing steady infiltration from the earlier versions of the

film, it was possible that an added dimension to the process might

initiate the inevitability of chaos. Broadcast the scream. Parody
the paradox. At last an attempt to confront the mediocrity.
This was all very well in theory. The real difficulties began, as I
said, when reality was quiet. Turning my attention to the more
stagnant world around me, the kaleidoscope of scenes that had
just confronted me started to assume a mythical distance between
the presence and the occurrance.
Many of the reactions around me had independently agreed
that the group had played a vital role in the film, and that the
power and movement was undeniable. And yet, what was the
point of vaccine if these people had not been advised as to the
intrinsic strains of the disease? Too often, it appeared, the
audience fell subjugate to the spell of the special effects - a
consequence of the concealment of the technical specifications,
some said. Who was the real guiding force? said others.
"That's just the way it goes," whispered a girl as I walked down
the street away from the screen. "This is the space age," added
her neighbour, but all I could see was thin strips of ice around me,
crystal mosaics that snapped fine cut when the warm air human
breath conflicted with the atmospheric anaesthesia.
Where was the distinction - could the graphic response that the
group extracted from their particular subjects transcend the
myths that had already been constructed by operators of the
earlier experiments in trance induction? At once there seemed to
be an appreciable level of risk, danger! - person! responsibility on
the part of the group. The machines were only the cryp tomythical curtain between themselves and the audience! But how
could the film be brought to a close without all sense of reason and
value dissolving like spirit-blended imperial gunpowder?
SacrificeX.
This brings the narrative to the heart of the film, for the group's
inverted split-level experiment was dogged throughout the
showings of the early film by sinister references and implications
evocative of the time of ManLeader prototype. This ManLeader
had demonstrated far more effectively than any other at 20:4&5
time that after years spent constructing the film our ManWerk
species was hopelessly vulnerable to psychic attack.
The colour black. Motorise noise. Turn fear to
encouragement. Live by day while mass awaits in selforchestrated penitentiary by night. This ManLeader was able to
characterise both the myth and the final realities within the
confines of himself and the film, simply because he had been the
first to reverse the original, the age of the wheel.
How could anything ever be taken at face-value again after the
poisonous remedies sold wholesale price? Could ManWerk ever
be allowed exercise one in any respect again, after it had been
shown that the mind could actually be seduced to believe that past
episodes were the glory days? Make words and everyday language
total chimera, turn dreams into meaningless sub-objectivity, and
nightmares into morning skies. And even nullify ancient
expressions such as "anti-christ" by having the demoninsurgence to ape and tormur spiritual free-will without a decent

67

burial. Backward kamikaze. REdivine mysterious orifice of death.

So that time might be saved in awkward and ill-advised
requests to the Institute for more personal categories of
information,* it may be worthy to illustrate strange precedent that
has been recalled from the early films the group made, these
having the aforementioned historical suggestion factor.** One
item concerned an individual characteristic of ManLeader, about
which little acknowledgement is made today, known only as RH.
* for all this section of the narration has been pieced together
from fragments of research collected independently around
the same time as the Institution's report came to light.
** unclear whether the use of these historical items in the early
film was a precondition of the group's introduction to
implantation techniques.
RH was involuntarily separated from ManLeader at a critical

"With death so near, mother must have felt like someone on the
brink of freedom, ready to start life again And I too felt ready
to start life again. It was as if this great rush of anger had washed
me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky... I
laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe." Albert Camus, The Outsider, 1946.
"Someday we will die in your dreams.
How I wish we were here with you now." - "In A Lonely Place".
"What I wanted was to die among strangers, untroubled, beneath
a cloudless sky What I wanted was some natural spontaneous
suicide. I wanted a death like that of a fox, not yet well versed in
cunning, that walks carelessly along a mountain path and is shot
by a hunter because of its own stupidity." - YukioMishima,
Confessions of a Mask, 1949.

stage of Dl whilst ManLeader's main component tested limitefficiency in psychic attack. Before accuracy had been developed,
doubts were chanced. Probable fusion would have been made
with my region had the ideals been agreed upon at the time.
However, the two guiding forces were at different poles.
The RH projection curiously arrived in my region soon after,
supposedly to finalise the ideal-agreement. And yet RH had
grown to be a random and possibly independently-controlled
characteristic of ManLeader. ManWerk of the time might have
said, "Did he fly or was he pushed?" But despite what the films in
20:4&5 suggested, there was evidently a great amount of
confusion surrounding the flight.
My region still employed primitive methods of internment
then, and RH was not granted any immediate opportunity to
justify his dislocation before walled by the authorities. After
20:4&5 years, no concession was made towards appraisal of RH
motive. "Let complicity rot while the inquisitor of time allows
characteristics of film to be shifted." If RH's ManLeader was able
to bring death to life, let the films that the regions are preparing
without the group's involvement not bring life to death - it seems
the burden might burst. For the great paradox that has survived
the years of Broken Icon is that to guarantee FUTURE,
ManLeader must struggle as We.
Transfer attention back to the contents of the film I am
document! Was RH the bridge between psychic ManLeader
extremity and inevitable D-Solution; the vacuum inherited from
defeating the psychic attack, only then to live with it forever; or
had their early film been showing how the YoungMen were now
vulnerable to the final extreme, even though it is still kept to
factor-possible? The psychic attack they used to glorify at the TV
'movie' films just before the group had been given the time to
submit the counter-technique might have become real, since
YoungMen started to assume ManLeader prototype extremities.
The suddenly-illuminated truth was that unless the film itself
contained two levels within the same frame, the psychotic would
be unleashed to factor-end even more swiftly, and at the very
hands of the group's risk-prevention.
A vital component of any living stereo image death.

In March 1981, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was voted the No. 1 single
for 1980 by the music staff of Rolling Stone magazine in the United
States. On 10 Mar, New Order went into Strawberry Studios for three
days of sessions, which culminated in mix-downs of "Procession" and
"Everything's Gone Green" taking place on Thursday, 12 Mar 81.
*The Boys Club, Bedford (Saturday, 21 Mar 81): I.C.1 opened,
followed by Section 25.
\Jenkinson's Bar, Brighton (Sunday, 22 Mar 81): An unknown
reviewer, attempting to come to grips with this concert supported by
Section 25, thought he saw the shape of things to come: "I've just
witnessed what I think is an eerie look at the future.... No one danced,
no feet tapped, no one shouted or screamed. The audience, reflected
dimly in ice blue spotlights, stood immobile in frozen, rapt attention.
The group are called New Order. Their music and the effect it has on
their audience seem like something out of a George Orwell novel...
Their sound is electronic, ethereal, and doomy. The sort of music the
lost young generation of the 'eighties really wants. Just watch - and
listen."
'Trinity Hall, Bristol (Friday, 27 Mar 81): This concert, supported by
Tunnelvision and unofficially released on an LP entitled The Dream,
proved that Bernard was quite capable of putting a heckler in his place.
When someone in the audience shouted out "dross", Bernard said,
"You've got blonde hair!", a comment the heckler was unlikely to see
the significance of.
'Rock City, Nottingham (Wednesday, 8 Apr 81): During this gig at
Rock City, supported by Minny Pops, Bernard forgot the lyrics of "In A
Lonely Place". He was singing along in the usual way, then he got to
one passage and all that came from his mouth was a rather daft noise
for the rest of the line. Finally, Peter came in and started singing to save
him.
'Cedar Club, Birmingham (Friday, 10 Apr 81) (Fig. 70): Supported by
Minny Pops.
New Order now embarked on a three-date, mini-tour of Scotland:
'St. Andrew's University, Stirling (Friday, 17 Apr 81): Supported by
Foreign Press.
'Victoria Hotel, Aberdeen (Saturday, 18 Apr 81): Supported by
Foreign Press.
'Valentino's, Edinburgh (Sunday, 19 Apr 81): Supported by The
Visitors.
'Atmosphere (Romeo & Juliet's), Sheffield (Wednesday, 22 Apr 81):
New Order, supported by Tunnelvision, was reviewed by City Fun (Vol.
2, No. 15): "Half the audience appeared to be in a trance which isn't
uncommon at New Order gigs. Did you see the shadow of a ghost at
the back of the stage? The opening number was moody and moving, "I
wish you could be here with us today". It was sad really, best to get it
out of the way. On into the set, the music was a progression of what's
been in the past. Lighter rather than darker. ... The vocals were too
quiet when Bernard Albrecht sang, the lyrics got lost. Peter Hook sang
on one song; his voice was like an Australian with a plum in the gob,
unusual and unintentionally comical, could be great if he works at it.
... Supported by hordes of technicians and surrounded by hordes of
myths, the occasion of New Order playing almost overshadows what
they play. ... They got and played no encore. A fitting end to the
evening."

8o

Fig.92: The Blue Note, Derby, 3 March 1982

because you've been here as long as we have" - Bernard).

"New Order dispel all the doubts raised by the other groups, provide
almost everything that was lacking, create the missing elements, air
and fire instead of just earth. With similar ingredients to many of the
other groups, they blend the traditional and modern so that everything
has a voice, and the whole has an irresistible movement. They're the
only group in the whole day to really draw in an entire audience, in a
triumphant affirmation of the real possibilities of music" (Penny Kiley,
Melody Maker, 18 Sep 82). "Albrecht and Co. moved and played with
flair and zest and even relish: watching New Order demonstrating
these qualities was the one moment of gaping disbelief I might
treasure from Futurama Four" (Amrik Rai, NME, 18 Sep 82).
At the risk of seeming repetitive, a third excellent review came from a
rather unexpected source. Although Sounds (18 Sep 82) could hardly
be expected to suppress their sarcasm completely (they captioned the
photo of Peter with "New Order: a traditional Deep Purple-style
encoring band"), Karen Swayne concluded that the "Biggest shock of
the day was that they did an encore, an insidious echo beat with
startling effects from Gillian's keyboards, showing their supreme
ability to use sound, not just create it."
Maybe the Nazi hysteria is finally over for New Order. If the fact that
the press failed to mention Bernard's provocative "Bundeswehr"
(West German Army) shirt at Deeside is any indication, the sad spectre
should be at rest.
"First Ever Festival of Independent Rock 'N' Roll", Sporting, Athens,
Greece (Sunday, 19 Sep 82): Supported by the Greek group Forward
Music Quintet, New Order played Athens in a basketball "stadium".
This was the third night of a sold-out festival staged by Petros
Moustakas to promote independent rock groups, with The Birthday
Party and The Fall playing Friday and Saturday nights. The band arrived
in Athens on Friday, in time to see The Birthday Party's set and, after a
couple of days sightseeing, returned to Britain the following Tuesday.
After rehearsals in September, New Order began recording their
second album on 22 Oct 82 at Britannia Row Studios, Islington, where
they booked a three week session with the band producing.
Fortunately, they also had an option on another week to 18 Nov and
used it as well. A number of new songs were recorded (including
"Murder" [to be released in the future as a Factory Benelux single],
"Only the Lonely," and "Blue Monday") and one of the new songs
was originally planned for release around Christmas. Another single is
also scheduled (but not to be recorded until 1983) with production by
Arthur Baker, a funk producer from New York who was responsible for
the Rockers Revenge hit single "Walking on Sunshine". The band
recorded until 14 Nov, when their gear had to be packed up, and mixed
down atotal of five songs during the remainder of theirtime at Britannia
Row.
New Order, 1981 -1982 (12"; FEP 313 in Canada/FACTUS 8 in US;
rel.Nov82):
1. Everything's Gone Green 1. Temptation (12" version)
2. Procession 2. Hurt (extended)
3. Mesh
This 12", issued primarily for the Americas, features songs previously
released on FAC 53, FBNL 8, and FAC 63. Its primary allures, in
addition to having these songs on one vinyl, are the improved sound
quality of "Procession" over its original 7" release, an extended
version of "Hurt", and the Saville sleeve (Fig. 102). Saville aimed to
combine the atmosphere of the "Temptation" and "Everything's Gone
Green" sleeves with a semi-Constructivist poster/painting. Each of

109

the releases is represented in the painting's design elements: the

turquoise of "Everything's Gone Green', pink for "Temptation" and
"Hurt", the plain canvas section for "Mesh", and the series of smaller
designs for "Procession".
New Order departed England on 20 Nov 82 for a month-long 10date tour down under to Australia, and then on to New Zealand.
Although the band preferred to keep the tour typically low-key,
publicity heralded the arrival of one of Australia's number one bands.
Articles in the Australian music press preceded their visit, and the
Hacienda video of "Death Rattle" was broadcast twice - on 22
November and again on the "Rock Around the World" programme late
on the night of the 26th. By an eerie coincidence, Herzog's Stroscek
was also broadcast the week of New Order's arrival.
Palais Theatre, Melbourne (Thursday, 25 Nov 82).
Seaview Ballroom, Melbourne (Saturday, 27 Nov 82).
Capitol Theatre, Sydney (Monday, 29 Nov 82).
Mainstreet, Auckland, New Zealand (Friday, 3 Dec 82).
Mainstreet, Auckland, New Zealand (Saturday, 4 Dec 82).
Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand (Monday, 6 Dec 82).
Hillsborough Hotel, Christchurch, N.Z. (Wednesday, 8 Dec 82).
Selinas Hotel, Sydney (Friday, 10 Dec 82).
Manly Vale Hotel, Sydney (Saturday, 11 Dec 82).
Old Melbourne Hotel, Perth (Tuesday, 14 Dec 82).
New Order returned to England on 16 December, just in time to
spend Christmas with their families. The tour "Down Under" had gone
well and, although they hadn't been overly enthusiastic about touring
immediately after spending a month in the studio, they all had excellent
tans to show for their efforts.
Hacienda Christmas Flexi (FAC 51B; rec. Nov-Dec 81;
rel.24Dec82):
1. Rocking Carol
2. Freude schoener Gotterfunken (Song of Joy)
These songs, given away as a flexi to those spending Christmas Eve
1982 at The Hacienda (4400 copies were produced), were recorded
for Tony Wilson. Wilson used snatches of the songs on "Granada
Reports" the previous Christmas Eve as the musical backing to a video
showing, among other holiday sights, turkeys sacrificing their lives as a
bequest to the nation.
The end of 1982 brought the usual flurry of polls, and New Order/
Joy Division placed even higher than in previous years. John Peel,
swearing that this would be the last of his Festive Fifty listeners'
surveys, released the 1982 ballots and twelve of the band's songs
were part of the fifty all-time favourites (up from seven in 1980, and ten
in 1981). From New Order came "Ceremony" (6), "Temptation" (18),
and "Everything's Gone Green" (30), while Joy Division provided
"Atmosphere" (2), "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (3), "New Dawn Fades"
(4), "Decades" (7), "Dead Souls" (12), "24 Hours" (23),
"Transmission" (26), "Isolation" (38), "She's Lost Control" (41), and
"The Eternal" (48). As a departure from his normal plan, Peel also held
a ballot for the fifty best releases of 1982, the result being that
"Temptation" was named No. 1 (with twice as many votes as Robert
Wyatt's "Shipbuilding" which came in second) and "Hurt" No. 17.
NME (25 Dec 82) polled its writers, who placed "Temptation" as the
No. 18 single of the year.
New Order had planned to travel to New York City for a couple of
New Year's dates at Danceteria (and to record the single with Arthur
Baker), but because of last-minute scheduling difficulties decided that
completing the new album had a higher priority and came to London to

Fig.94: L'Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium, 15 April 1982

however, was delayed due to the production complexity of Peter

Saville's computer floppy disc sleeve, which in the end was
considered by the band to be a bit obvious (though to no one but
themselves). The single made chart history for a number of reasons,
not the least of which was its spectacular rise, fall and rebirth. It peaked
at No. 12 on 18 April and then made a gradual decline to No. 82 at the
end of August. But, though it received British airplay "less
conspicuous . . . than any major hit in recent years" (Alan Jones,
Record Mirror), "Blue Monday" was the summer song of thousands
who flocked to Europe for their holidays and bought it on their return.
By the end of September it was again at No. 12 and finally peaked at
No. 9 on 15 October 1983 - with an unprecedented sale of almost a
half million copies.
'The Ace, Brixton (Friday, 11 Mar 83): Supported by The Stockholm
Monsters.
'Tolworth Recreation Centre, Kingston-Upon-Thames (Saturday, 12
March 83): Again supported by The Stockholm Monsters, New Order
were in high spirits at Kingston Polytechnic's Rag Ball. There were a
number of mischievious episodes that evening, one being the nownotorious "scooter jape". In the midst of the gig a student made the
seemingly-irrelevant announcement from the stage that scooter
SMG643Y should be moved because it was "causing an obstruction".
When the owner (your "hapless" writer) dashed out to investigate, he
found his scooter happy and content resting on the raised lift-gate of
one of New Order's massive lorries. A serious problem, however,
came in mid-concert when a very concerned Bernard had to ask the
audience to move back when a number of people were hurt against the
barrier. Luckily, there were no major injuries. After Bernard announced
"You see, we've only come back out because the door's jammed and
we can't get out" New Order launched into an encore of "Everything's
Gone Green". Later that night a semi-drunken water fight in the
dressing room resulted in some very wet participants and rather
creative publicity for the band when Peter told an ever-changing, but
vaguely-similar story to every journalist who would listen.
'The State, Liverpool (Wednesdy, 23 Mar 83): With James.
'The State, Liverpool (Thursday, 24 Mar 83): With James in support,
New Order played this last-minute gig to accommodate fans who
bought tickets for Wednesday but were excluded due to a last-minute
fire safety decision. During the gig one spectator was horrified at first
when Bernard grabbed his camera only to take a photo of the fan and
return it to him.
'Coasters, Edinburgh, Scotland (Monday, 11 Apr 83): The start of a
Scottish tour organised and supported by The Wake.
'Assembly Hall, Edinburgh (Tuesday, 12 Apr 83).
'St. Andrews Univ., Stirling, Scotland (Wednesday, 13 Apr 83).
'Tiffanys, Glasgow, Scotland (Thursday, 14 Apr 83).
'Orient Cinema, Ayr, Scotland (Friday, 15 Apr 83).
'Savoy, Cork, Ireland (22 Apr 83).
Galway University, Ireland (Saturday, 23 Apr 83).
* Rose Hill Hotel, Kilkenny, Ireland (Sunday 24 Apr 83).
'Francis Xavier Hall, Dublin, Ireland (Tuesday, 26 Apr 83).

"3

'Town Hall, Bournemouth (Friday, 2 Dec 83): New Order left the
55,000-watt amp and massive audience at Brixton behind them and
played to 1000 in this sleepy coastal town, a gig much more their
preference.
An Ideal for Living (book; written 22 Apr 82-12 Jan 84; pub. 12 Mar 84):
An unauthorised excursion (Fig. 103).

IN A LONELY PLACE : THE ETERNAL

"Precisely why I've been interested in the individual is anti
fascist. And it's always accused of being fascist, and I always think
that the mass is what is fascist- mass movements and mass systems
of thought.... Individuality is about self-discipline and selfreliance and is therefore a far safer philosophy than anything else.
Because an individual has no need or desire to go out and do
damage to others." - Genesis P. Orridge, Research Magazine (No.
4-5), 1982.
"The coming age was revealing itself in the first great human
figures of a new type. Just as. . . the world has continually to
renew itself, the old order perishing with its gods... so must man
now, apparently, turn back in order to attain a higher stage." Hermann Rauschning, quoted in King, Satan and Swastika, 1976.
"And though it hurts me
To treat you this way,
Betrayed by words
I've never heard
Too hard to say." - "Temptation".
"Because men have huddled together in fear, destruction
threatens them. Because free speech has been debauched to fell
purpose, free men distrust it. Men, forces of disintegration, but
possessed of glib tongues, have played bell-weather to the
multitude. Priests of purpose, whose counsel was inspired by the
Eternal, have been thrust aside. ... Better were it for the
immortal man to follow his purpose to death and mortal oblivion,
than to lose his force to the bell-weather." -Mary K, The Seven
Purposes (1918), quoted in Stewart Edward White, The Unobstructed
Universe: An Unparalleled Detailed Report of LifeAfter Death, 1940.
I cannot recall whether there actually was an end to the film. I
seem to remember that the lights went on suddenly, only to be
followed by conflicting reports concerning the vocalist's suicide. I
am sure now that there was a period of intermission; colours
turned to shadows as members of the audience were violently
transported to real life.
"Which is which? What is what? The doubt of the (un)expected
prevails" - Chris Burkham, Sounds, 9Feb 81.
As you said - this period of intermission was the opportunity to

Fig. 96: Le Palace, Paris, 17 April 1982 (overleaf)

apply the machine layer to the suggestion conception. The

immediate facility for this deviance from the corporate strategy in
terms of rapid exposure was the manner in which the directors of
the serialised films highlighted the necrophiliac legacy of the

115

fracture. The reason I find myself describing what can only have
been a few episodes is because the machines in this, and it seems
in unrelated films, might give us the opportunity to reconcile
towards animated peace. Need for inbetweeners -where few
ManWerk are necessary, and where We can learn to have times of
Leaderless independ.
The machines provide the group film with its additional
dimension, and the vocalist's suicide afforded the audience the
ability to visualise some kind of reality. Not pure, but then with
less artificial colour. In a world of dinosaur-stereo picture, the

be employed in a given instance. The first of these is telepathic

significance of passover was so enriching that one serial-film

narrator became amongst the few directly confronting the

Would this diversion of concentration on the audience's part

experience. The instinctive self-vulnerability promoted by the

group took hold of this other film, and its viewers were instructed
in the need for concentration when trying to reassemble the
confusion. We learnt that this had not been one of the massproduced films, that its tragedy had not been lost... it was now
the time to watch and pay attention, whether or not the drug was
used. Movement vs. Monument. Not the compromise between
loss and renaissance, but an overwhelming colour of grey.
Stripped naked by the still of Death, can we emulate a child-like
versatility of spirit? Take control of machine while foetus? We are
children who can perfect a demystification of Death, but once the
remains have held sanctuary for too long in our souls, the still
encourages a darkness.
And even if the marooned players in the group film have
decided to trade with unofficial psychic forces, it is unreasonable
to expect that the weight of audience concentration has not
tempted them to detach - by trying to exorcise personal
dislocation during individual screenings of the machine-treated
film.
Whatever the greater extent of actual death impression, it was
inevitable that such quintessence of the unknown would
challenge psychic capability factor. Before the vocalist's suicide,
the music of the spheres in-version dark wave conveyed a
headstrong intensity - it had now mastered the potentials of an
ethereal approach. We have lived through more than death; we
have the ability to dictate the standards of extremity. However,
there was a need to invert freedom of speech in order to illustrate
the control of ideas. The intermission was FACT, and, besides,
the group has left a montage of edited detail, for which
clarification facilities no longer exist. The chicken had to stop
somewhere. Sources close to the group have inferred that the
episode known as "Isolation" might have exemplified that
corporate inversion was at too advanced a stage at the time.
Distance. When I last saw the group machine film, a vague
psychic upset occurred when the line "the drawback will tell you
all you need to know" appeared on the final credits. I had not seen
such a message before, and I am sure that many of the audience
missed it in their post-mechanical dislocation. At this stage I was
forced to consult an old testament I had religiously safeguarded
from the days of Broken Icon. In any case, the EFT was non
functional in such circumstances.
"There are three factors in psychic attack, any or all of which may

suggestion. The second is the reinforcement of the suggestion by

the invocation of certain invisible agencies. The third is the
employment of some physical substance as apointdappui, point of
contact, or magnetic link. The force employed may be used as a
direct current, transmitted by the mental concentration of the
operator, or it may be reserved in a kind of psychic storage battery,
which may be either an artificial elemental or a talisman." -Dion
Fortune, Psychic Self-Defense-A Study in Occult Pathology and
Criminality.
complete the cast? Dissolve the psychic force? Or would it perfect
the confusion? An important factor in considering these
questions is that the episodes of non-group film that accompanied
the application of the machine layer were less frantic, yet more
sinister. ManWerk confusion had been appeased by a token
outer-region attack, this having the effect of drawing attention to
the capabilities of ManLeader concept.
This switch in social environment factor had already been
intercepted by group machine film. Sub-machine control had
understood that a perversion of the RH projection was possible
with the use of a different corporate title. The intermission was
thus followed by the introduction of another historicalsuggestion technique.
During the 20:4&5 years, ManLeader prototype had
unleashed a form of psychic attack known to We as Selective
Euthenasia Solution, a system that was also to pervade to eastern
regions. (Before the years of Broken Icon, there was a slogan used
by early machine exponents that declared "We are Japanese -we
live in the West".) Consequently, the machine layer was able to
extend the RH suggestion factor described earlier so that the
range of counter control could even confuse the Institute. The
montage of detail could now be extended - indeed, on the last
machine film, the ordrewas clothed in one of the shirts favoured
by ManLeader prototype. We reach a time where the obvious
becomes the most obscure. But, as a member of the audience, it
seems best to recommend any viewers of this narration not to
allow these details to pass without notice, to find heart film.
Not futile, but as in death, there is no ultimate conclusion. Nor
am I able to fully endorse the potential success of the machine
film in controlling ManLeader extremities. But then again, I was
never asked to trust, and have little hope that there can be time.
Machines do not possess such a capability. Do We?
" 'Half your work is done. It remains to do the other half now.'
'What other half?'
'To raise up your dead, who perhaps have not died after all.'"
-FyodorDostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 1880.
"Just passing through, but the break must be made.
Should we move on or stay safely away." - "From Safety to
Where ... ?"
"These men were the so called golden race, subjects of Cronus,
who lived without cares or labour. . . never growing old, dancing,

117

An Ideal For Living (4-song EP; rec. Dec 77; 7", Enigma PSS139, rel.
Jun 78; 12", Anon 1, rel. Oct 78).
Earcom 2: Contradiction (2 songs; FAST 9B; rec. Apr 79; rel. 1979).
Licht und Blindheit (2-song 7"; Sordide Sentimental SS 33003; rec.
Oct-Nov79; rel. Mar 80).
"Prime 5.8.6." (rec. Feb-Mar82; debut 21 May 82; rel., in part, Dec 82
on Touch 1).

III. UNOFFICIAL RELEASES

The Warsaw Demo, Pennine Sound, Manchester (4 songs; rec. 18 Jul
11).
Joy Division (11 -song unreleased LP; rec. 3-4 May 78).
Piccadilly Radio (Manchester) Session (5 songs; rec. 4 Jun 79; b'cast
date unknown).
"Transmission" Session, Central Sound, Manchester (4 songs; rec.
mid-Jul79).
The New Order Demo, Western Works Studios, Sheffield (4 songs;
rec. Jul 80).

IV. BROADCASTS
"Granada Reports" (Granada TV; b'cast 20 Sep 78):
1. Shadowplay (live).
First John Peel Session (4 songs; rec. 31 Jan 79; 1st b'cast 14 Feb
79).
"What's On" (GranadaTV; b'cast 20 Jul 79):
1. She's Lost Control (live).
"Something Else" (BBC-2 TV; b'cast 15 Sep 79):
1. Transmission 2. She's Lost Control.
Second John Peel Session (4 songs; rec. 26 Nov 79; 1 st b'cast 10 Sep
79).
Third John Peel Session (4 songs; rec. 26 Jan 81; 1 st b'cast 16 Feb
81).
"Celebration" (Granada TV; rec. 23 Apr 81; b'cast 18 Jun 81):
Played two sets (per union rules)
1. Truth 7. Death Rattle 4. Procession
2. Procession (2 takes) 5. Senses
3. Ceremony 1. Little Dead 6. Little Dead
4. Tiny Tim 2. Dreams Never End 7. Ceremony
5.
Truth
(3
takes)
-.
Digital
6. I.C.B. 3. The Him

123

PHOTOGRAPHERS
Peter
To n y

Anderson-UK
Barratt-

Santo

UK

Bastone-

Figs.

Figs.
UK

67,

Figs.

46,48,

60

84,

86

85,

44,

81,91

Philippe Carly- Belgium Figs. 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 76, 77
Anton

Corbijn-UK

Figs.

49,

50,

51

Kevin Cummins- UK Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,15,16, 26, 31, 32, 66

Robert
Jill
Dec

Ellis-UK

Figs.

Furmanovsky-UK
Hickey-

Eric

UK

Figs.

Figs.

70,

R.Jacobs-Holland

M.Johnson-UK
Bryn

47

29,

75,

Figs,

30

82,
93,

Fig.

Jones-UK

Michael

33,

Korbik-W.

83
94
98

Fig.
Germany

92
Fig.

43

Jean-Claude Lagreze - France Figs. 74, 96

Alain

de

la

Francisco

Mata-

UK

Figs.

Mellina-UK

Chris

Fig.

Mills-UK

To n y M o t t r a m - U K

27,

Fig.

28
64
39

Fig.

72

Harry Papadopoulos- UK Figs. 68, 69, 71, 73

Mark

Rusher-UK

Fig.

97

Paul Slattery- UK Figs. 23, 24, 25, 38, 89, 90

Pennie

Smith-UK

Marc

Tilli-Holland

Fig.
Figs.

22
61,62

E t i e n n e To r d o i r - B e l g i u m F i g s . 7 8 , 7 9 , 9 5 , 9 9 , 1 0 0
Alison
Jos

Turner-UK
van

Malcolm

Vliet-Holland
Whitehead-UK

Fig.
Fig.
Fig.

101
63
18

!25