Joy Division - Bowdon Vale Youth/Social Club - 1979

As collectors items go, I guess this really is 'A List' material.

With the passing of Anthony H. Wilson, founder of Factory Records, along with the film of the late Ian Curtis and Joy Division, (with the reissues of all Joy Division material), obtaining something alternative from the band may prove difficult.

That this boot is also a very real part of the post punk and new wave era at grass roots level adds to the attraction.

So why were Joy Division playing a gig at a youth club, to an audience of predominately 10 to 16 year olds?

They were bizarrely playing the youth club because Bob Jefferson, who was promoting the gigs at the venue on Wednesday nights, had bought them out of their first contract, so they could join Factory Records.

He owned Streets Ahead records in Altrincham. They played the gig as a thank you!

I do not know the kind person that cleaned up this sound board recording, however considerable work went into developing a digital version. Here are the notes that came with the recording.

"I've been meaning to clean this up for ages. The original had many, many little drop-outs and an imbalance between the channels. This was probably down to the deteriorating quality of the original tape or dirty tape heads. There were also about 200 digital clicks which have all
been manually removed. This allowed me to normalise the whole show, track by track to allow playback at fairly constant volume. You can now hear snare, hi-hats and symbols without the need for further digital enhancement. There is absolutely no noise/hiss reduction so there is still a slight hiss, predominantly on the right channel".

So in all their early glory here are Joy Division live at Bowdon Vale Social Club, Altrincham, England, on Wednesday 14th March 1979.

Set list:

01 Exercise One
02 She's Lost Control
03 Shadowplay
04 Leaders Of Men
05 Insight
06 Disorder
07 Glass
08 Digital
09 Ice Age
10 Warsaw
11 Transmission
12 I Remember Nothing
13 No Love Lost (incomplete)

Sound quality: Improves after track one, unfortunately the final track is incomplete. It is an incredible gig!

I thought I would go with an actual photo from the gig apologies that it comes with 'proof' across it ( photo by Martin O'Neill).

Reloaded 09/June/2015 download link in comments.