Month: May 2018

A GUEST SERIES by DAVE GLICKMANN

PART 3

The final part of our series on the Joy Division/New Order transition will tell the story of the, previously mentioned, Western Works session.

As I said in Part 1, I would be stealing quite liberally from the previous work of Analog Loyalist (A.L.); that is even more so the case here. For those interested in exploring A.L.’s work further, let me refer you to two older blogs – New Order Archive and The Power Of Independent Trucking. Regrettably, his work with the Recycle Project no longer resides on the web, though perhaps you might be able to rescue some of it with the Wayback Machine.

A.L., himself, did the mastering of the tracks from the tape reel pictured above, first in 2009, and then again in 2012. Here is his version of the story:

As Joy Division, they were close with Sheffield’s Cabaret Voltaire, having shared several gigs and compilation records with the Cabs. At some point, JD was going to work with the Cabs in the Cabs’ own Western Works Studio in Sheffield, but this opportunity had not yet come to pass at the time of Ian’s death.

Suddenly with no lead singer and a wide-open new beginning, the survivors (now known as New Order) took the Cabs up on their offer and decamped to Western Works on 7 September 1980, just two days after their third gig post-Ian. Safely away from the spotlight, and with no Martin Hannett to impose his will on the session, the band laid down several tracks with the Cabs’ Chris Watson engineering.

These tracks show the band’s emotions – both musical and lyrical – laid out to bare themselves to the world. Hesitant yet brave, restrained yet oddly forward-looking, New Order find themselves seeking the path at this very early stage – a path that would not be truly explored publicly for at least another 12 months – that would lead them out of the Joy Division shadow into completely new realms of song craft.

This material has been circulating amongst New Order fans since the early 1980s but never before heard by the general public in this release-ready quality.

Kind souls, who wish to remain anonymous rescued this material from a 1/4″ reel of tape that was up for auction on eBay, advertised as something else, and it was only in the reel transfer that it was discovered what this reel actually contained. It’s been theorized that if this is not the master reel itself from the studio mixdown sessions, it’s at the very least a direct, professional copy of it.

The reel was advertised as being rescued in a Chorlton charity shop, and was described as containing “unreleased” Joy Division mixes, specifically “She’s Lost Control” and “Atmosphere”. Alas, neither are unreleased mixes – the reel contained test pressing vinyl captures of the FACUS2 “She’s Lost Control” b/w “Atmosphere” 12″ single, and a transfer of the Sordide Sentimental 7″ “Atmosphere”, presumably for comparison sake. Nothing JD on the reel was unreleased, and in fact both were of fairly poor quality for a vinyl transfer to reel. Not listed on the reel, and not mentioned in the auction description, was the New Order material.

So what New Order material was on the reel?

1. Dreams Never End (mix 1)
2. Dreams Never End (mix 2)
3. Homage
4. Ceremony
5. Truth
6. Are You Ready Are You Ready Are You Ready For This?

We’ve already taken a look at Homage and Ceremony in previous installments of this series. A.L. will take you through the rest:

New Order – Dreams Never End (Western Works mix 1)
New Order – Dreams Never End (Western Works mix 2)

First we have two different mixes – but the same base recording – of “Dreams Never End”. The first version is the common version that had already circulated – albeit in much poorer quality – amongst the fans. The second version, however, is a heretofore-unknown alternate mix featuring much louder guitars than the original take – but besides that, it’s identical to the first take. Both takes slower than the version eventually recorded for the debut LP in 1981, this track even more so sounds like bassist (and singer on this track) Peter Hook’s own little memorial to Ian. “A long farewell to your love and soul” indeed.

New Order – Truth (Western Works)

Steve Morris is on lead vocals for this version of “Truth” which, even at this early stage, is remarkably similar to what they’d end up doing with the track when recording it for their debut LP in 1981 (except with Bernard on vocals). I particularly like this version though, it’s much more poignant, fragile and spacious – as it should be – than the released variant.

New Order – Are You Ready Are You Ready Are You Ready For This? (Western Works)

The biggest revelation of the reel: A heretofore-unknown new New Order track, or rather, a collaboration with the Cabs and New Order, featuring none other than NO manager Rob Gretton on lead vocals! What is special about “Are You Ready…” though is that, Rob’s vocals aside, musically it shows the band taking great liberties with the established Joy Division sound – and the early New Order sound – and is very much so a signpost to the musical path the band would further explore starting with fall 1981’s “Everything’s Gone Green”.

Those who have had doubts about New Order’s involvement in the NO/Cabs jam “Are You Ready Are You Ready Are You Ready For This?” – doubt no further. A member of New Order – who was, of course, there at the time, he was in the band! – was the direct, to me, source of this information, not secondhand or third hand.

When the reel was obtained, this track was completely unknown and it was just pure speculation at the time that it was a Cabs/NO jam. I had this New Order member identify it for me – it was he who revealed its title to me – and this same member also confirmed the instrumentation:

Hooky – bass
Bernard – guitar (and “whooping” in the background)
Steve – Simmons drums, and the same Dr Rhythm drum machine used on Truth
Rob Gretton – vocals
various Cabs – sonic alterations

Many of you may already be familiar with this material, but for those of you who are not, I will wait just a minute for you to pick up your jaws off the floor.

DG

A GUEST SERIES by DAVE GLICKMANN

PART 2

Continuing our exploration of the Joy Division/New Order transition, today we ask the question “What is the ultimate transitional track?”

Of course, it is hard to even know how to approach this topic without defining what we mean by this.

* Is it a Joy Division track where we can see the first signs of musical ideas that became the basis for New Order’s sound?

* Or, perhaps a New Order composition that looks back at Joy Division one more time?

* Maybe a song with its feet firmly planted in both the past and the future at the same time?

* Or, that moment where the past was fully shed and the survivors broke through completely into their new identity?

As is the custom in this series, no answers, just music.

Looking Forward

In preparing to write this post, I tried as hard as I could to convince myself that Love Will Tear Us Apart contained hints of what was to come, but, I just couldn’t get there. Sure, the music is much more upbeat and happier than the rest of the Joy Division catalog (the lyrics, not so much). Perhaps it points in a direction that the band might have explored further if Ian hadn’t died. However, at least to me, that direction is not towards the sound that New Order ultimately explored.

On the other hand, there is this little ditty that was buried on the b-side of the free Komakino flexi-disc.

Joy Division – As You Said

Here are the thoughts of 50 Pound Note from The Recycle Project:

To me, As You Said is a clear “eff off” to the deniers who say Joy Division would never have gotten into all that synthy disco bullshit. The signs were there.

Looking Back

Naturally, the two songs we looked at last time,  the Joy Division compositions released as the first New Order single, are candidates for this category. This seems particularly true of In A Lonely Place which strikes me as a Joy Division track through and through. Of course, Part 1 already explored this territory in great detail. So, instead, let’s take a look at something much more obscure.

At the Western Works session (yes, I still promise that we will get to the Western Works story before we are done), Bernard tried out his homage to Ian. At least, that’s how I read lyrics like “This is the only time that I; Thought I had seen the signs; Well, I did… I’ll never know.” It sure sounds like a Joy Division composition to me. Given its raw, emotional content, perhaps it is none too surprising that this song was not pursued further by the band.

New Order – Homage (Western Works)

A.L. was kind enough to transcribe the lyrics while remastering the session in 2012:

This smile the unborn child reaction’s taken, forsaken
These scenes pervaded me in a way that
People seldom see

This is the only time that I thought I had
Seen the signs and I wait, I’ll never know

In this room
The blind pass through
In this room
I think of you
In this room

In this room

Darkness will vanish soon
I awake, always in this room
All days will fall and rise
Helplessly, I watch these figures cry

This sense of needless rejection
Always the sense of reason
Carelessly lead me astray

In this room
The blind pass through
In this room
I think of you
In this room
Father, please don’t forsake me now
In this room
Father, please don’t forsake me now
In this room

People always ask for dreams
Revelation in a dream

A life that is so scared

This is the only time that I
Thought I had seen the signs
Well, I did… I’ll never know

Standing In The Middle

It is hardly a controversial view to suggest that New Order’s debut album, Movement, was a transitional work, standing squarely between Joy Division and the New Order that was to come. It’s clear that they were moving forward, albeit not very far.

Peter Hook’s view of the album is both insightful and entertaining:

We were confused musically … Our songwriting wasn’t coming together. I don’t know how we pulled out of that one. I actually liked Movement, but I know why nobody else likes it. It was good for the first two-and-a-half minutes, then it dipped.

While Movement wasn’t a critical success, I can certainly admit to enjoying it both then and now. Of course, it doesn’t hold a candle to PC&L, but I’m still willing to give it a spin on occasion. In any case, for our purposes today, any song off the album will demonstrate this idea of standing between the past and the future. How about this one?

New Order – ICB

Breaking Through

Although they are, in general, better than the album material, the other two singles from the Movement period – Procession and Everything’s Gone Green – along with the two b-sides, strike me as being cut from largely the same cloth, another small step forward perhaps. So I conclude, rather unoriginally, that New Order’s breakthrough moment came with the next single, Temptation. JC says as much in his November 12th post without saying it at all.

While one of my goals in this series has been to avoid posting tracks that were already shared during the singles review, in this case, it simply is not possible. So, here’s a repeat of the original 12” version. Why that one? Because, as everyone knows, it is the longest and the best!

New Order – Temptation (12” version)

Oh, and just because you asked, I have steel blue (or are they grey) eyes.

DG

A GUEST SERIES by DAVE GLICKMANN

PART 1

As JC has recently completed his review of the New Order singles, I thought it might be an opportune time to go back to the beginning and explore the Joy Division-New Order transition period. Like my previous post on Joy Division, I’ll be stealing liberally from the work of Analog Loyalist (A.L.) from both the wonderful New Order-Joy Division Recycle project, as well as his own The Power of Independent Trucking blog.

“No band ever survives the death of their lead singer”

– Steve Coogan, as Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, in 24 Hour Party People

Of course, many bands have gone through transitions before – members have left or died and been replaced, groups have split and started new bands or gone solo (and then reformed again), bands have renamed themselves (and then reclaimed their original names years later), and on and on. Yet, to my knowledge […and here’s the point where you click on the comment link and explain to me how little I know], the Joy Division-New Order transition seems fairly unique, as suggested by the quote above, and insomuch as the former band gained such cult status and the later one had such critical/commercial success and longevity.

Any number of interesting questions have been raised about the period after Ian Curtis’ death, including:

* Had he not committed suicide, would Joy Division have reached the same level of popularity as New Order eventually achieved?

* Would Joy Division’s sound have evolved along similar lines to New Order?

* Was Barney actually the best choice as the new lead singer?

* … and many more.

In this three part series, I plan to provide answers to none of these questions. I mean, honestly, who can ever really know what happened in an alternative universe they didn’t live in. So instead, we’ll just enjoy the music.

Let’s start in the same place as JC’s series – the Ceremony single – the only two songs for which we have recordings by both bands. As such, there really isn’t any debate that both Ceremony and In A Lonely Place were Joy Division compositions, at least musically. As far as the lyrics go, well, we’ll get to that shortly.

The 1981 compilation album, Still, includes a live version of Ceremony from Joy Division’s last show at Birmingham University on May 2, 1980. Regrettably, the recording engineer failed to capture the vocals in any level of intelligibility for the first 90 seconds of the track.

Joy Division – Ceremony (High Hall, Birmingham 2 May 1980)

There is also an audience bootleg recording of the same song from the sound check prior to the High Hall show which you can find on a ubiquitous internet video site. Not surprisingly, it suffers from all the fidelity issues inherent in the phrase “audience bootleg recording.”

Fast forwarding to 1997, the Heart And Soul box set contained two rehearsal recordings – Ceremony, from a May 14, 1980 session at Graveyard Studios, Prestwich (at least, that’s what the box says. Other sources say the recording is from T.J. Davidson’s studio in Manchester) and a partial recording of In A Lonely Place, from a cassette tape that Peter Hook “found.” The Ceremony recording showed the effects of the surviving band members’ attempts to improve the clarity of Ian’s vocals, as the lyrics were otherwise unavailable to them, while In A Lonely Place, was, of course, incomplete. These tracks represented the end of the Joy Division story regarding these two songs until, some 14 years later, something magical happened.

Here’s A.L.’s telling of the story (with some tasteful editing by me):

1997’s Heart And Soul box set featured two never-released rehearsal recordings (supposedly found on a tape by Peter Hook, whilst rummaging behind his couch or some similar story), those of “Ceremony” and an edited “In A Lonely Place”. Leaping forward 14 years, new sources were located for both Joy Division tracks, essentially from a rehearsal room recording reel-to-reel tape.

“Ceremony” from the reel was the same take as on the box set, but in a bit higher fidelity.

“In A Lonely Place” – as all serious fans know – abruptly ends at roughly 2:30 [on Heart And Soul], or shortly before Ian Curtis would begin singing the third verse. Allegedly this was the only version that existed on Hooky’s tape, so it was what got used. On the reel was more than one take of “In A Lonely Place” – the full, unedited version of the take used on the box set  (which was the last one on the reel, sequentially, and therefore surmised to be the last one they recorded), and the take – the last-but-one on the reel – used by Rhino on [the 2011] Record Store Day 12″. The box set featured a collapsed-to-mono “In A Lonely Place”. “In A Lonely Place” is in full-stereo on the reel, and presented in true stereo on the Record Store Day 12″.

It was discovered that – roughly speaking – the versions on the reel had been (technoweenie talk ahead) “futzed with” by (presumably) the survivors, trying to pull out Ian’s lyrics for their own versions of the songs. The box set featured the futzed-with “Ceremony”. Without getting too detailed, “Ceremony” on the box set is a modified, compromised stereo that’s not true, while on the Record Store Day 12″ it has been restored to real, as captured by rehearsal room microphones, stereo.

A fair amount of work was needed to goose the recordings into quality listening material; mainly EQ and, surprisingly, mid/side decoding due to the supplied source coming to us mid/side encoded. A touch of gentle noise reduction, tasteful limiting, and done.

So, on Record Store Day in 2011, the following Joy Division tracks were released:

Joy Division – Ceremony (rehearsal tape)

Joy Division – In A Lonely Place (RSD 12” take)

Well, sort of. Here’s an important note from A.L.:

These Joy Division recordings are not captured from vinyl, but are the exact sources given to the label for the 12″ release (compressed for Recycle, that is – the label was not provided with lossy AAC/MP3 masters!). We’ve auditioned the actual 12″ and determined that the mastering is very faithful to the source given to the label.

What has yet to be officially released is the complete, unedited, stereo version of In A Lonely Place from Heart And Soul (though, you can listen to it by clicking on the line below….)

Joy Division – In A Lonely Place (“Heart And Soul” full take, stereo)

Moving forward to the New Order period, there is a fascinating version of Ceremony that was recorded on September 7, 1980 at Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works Studio in Sheffield (the story of the Western Works session will be covered in a later part of this series). Less than four months after Ian’s death, this take provides some interesting insight into the evolution of the song’s lyrics, as well as the band’s experiments in choosing a new lead singer.

New Order – Ceremony (Western Works)

Here’s A.L. again:

[This] is drummer Steve Morris’ turn on lead vocals with a very interesting take on “Ceremony”, one of the last two Joy Division tracks written just prior to Ian’s death. Famously having no written lyrics they could use (if Ian wrote them down, they weren’t available to the survivors at the time), New Order had to run the Joy Division rehearsal recording of this track through an equalizer to attempt to pick out Ian’s lyrics. Considering that even with modern audio software it’s nearly impossible to extract Ian’s vocals, or at least make them clearer, it’s impressive what they were able to pull out of it. Steve sings lead on the verses, with Hooky taking over a chorus as well. Interestingly enough, when the time came three weeks later to record this track “officially” in New Jersey’s Eastern Artists Recording Studio with producer Martin Hannett, the lyrics Bernard Sumner sang started off markedly different – which makes one wonder if they were rewritten by New Order.

So finally, we reach the officially released New Order Ceremony single in all of its variants, for which I will refer you to JC’s original post.

Yet even here, there is a bit more to be discovered. Through all the various releases and re-pressings of the original and re-recorded versions of Ceremony, it turns out that two different mixes of the 12” In A Lonely Place were used, one with a loud thunderclap at 0:33 and one without (there are probably other differences as well, but I’ll leave that to someone with more time and better ears). Which one you have, all depends on which version/pressing of the 12” single you purchased at the time. In his post, JC shared the thunderclap version; here’s the other one.

New Order – In A Lonely Place (12” mix without thunderclap)

For the record, the official 7” edit is an early fade of this non-thunderclap mix.

DG