Watch Joy Division perform at Plan K in 1979
Who says you need perfect audio quality to convey talent? This particularly scuzzy footage of Joy Division performing at Plan K in Brussells back in 1979 might not be the best in terms of fidelity, but it captures the Manchester group’s intensity like nothing else.
When Joy Division arrived in Belgium, their album Unknown Pleasures was just a few months old. One of the points of contention during the recording process at Stockport’s Strawberry Studios was producer Martin Hannett’s alteration of the band’s live sound. This footage serves as a reminder of just how massive the group sounded in a live setting. Peter Hook’s bass, for example, sits surprisingly high in the mix, gelling with Bernard Sumner’s lead guitar to create a wall of sound.
Of course, Hannett’s innovations were all to the benefit of Joy Division and their label, Factory Records. The success of Unknown Pleasures transformed Tony Wilson’s fledgeling indie enterprise into a proper business and lent Factory serious cultural cache. It also earned Joy Division a devoted new fanbase, the members of which quickly developed a reputation for trench coat-clad moodiness.
After quitting their jobs and completing a tour supporting The Buzzcocks, Joy Divison embarked on a European tour, at which point Curtis’ health began to decline. In the final months of the tour, he experienced two grand mal seizures. By 1980, the band had settled into recording their second album, Closer, but Curtis’ condition was still not improving. In fact, a combination of long hours and lack of sleep made his seizures almost totally uncontrollable.
In this footage, Joy Divison can be heard performing a cut of the brilliantly groovy ‘Wilderness’, a piece of minimalistic garage rock turned stark and forbidding. Ian Curtis’ talents as a frontman are on clear display here. He is somehow threatening, impenetrable and vulnerable all in one go – a flailing ball of emotional complexity set to explode at any moment.
Make sure you check out Curtis and co. in action if you haven’t already.
