Siouxsie and the Banshees Newcastle City Hall 12th October 1985
Siouxsie and the Banshees returned to Newcastle City Hall one year after their previous performance in 1985. This time they were previewing songs from the yet-to-be-released 7th studio album Tinderbox, their first to feature new guitarist John Valentine Carruthers. Tinderbox was to reach number 13 in the UK albums chart in 1986. Support for the UK tour was Fur Bible, the excellent dark, pysch, goth band fronted by ex-Gun Cub member Patricia Morrison who would go on to join Sisters of Mercy, and more recently, The Damned. Siouxsie had one UK chart hit in 1985, “Cities in Dust”, which would often close the set during the tour. This was the Banshees biggest and longest UK tour to date, taking them back to many places they hadn’t played in since those very early punkier days.
The tour is probably most remembered for a disaster that took place at the London concert. Towards the end of the concert, while playing Christine, Siouxsie was being her normal swirling goth princess, when she jumped, twisted herself, and fell in agony. She had dislocated her knee, and the concert was abandoned. Siouxsie was rushed to Charing Cross Hospital and her leg was set in a full plaster was applied. Ever the trooper, the show went on and the tour continued a few days later with Siouxsie, complete with cast and perched on a stool. I remember seeing her on TV, on the Whistle Test I think, with the cast singing “Cities In Dust”.
Typical setlist from the 1985 UK tour: Dazzle; Cascade; Pointing Bone; The Sweetest Chill; Cannons; Melt!; Candyman; Bring Me The Head Of Preacher Man; Lands End; Night Shift; 92º; Christine; Pulled To Bits; Switch; Arabian Knights; Painted Bird; Happy House; Cities In Dust
PS just noticed that my ticket lists the support act as being Scientists, rather than Fur Bible. I am pretty sure, however, that it was Fur Bible. But then, my memory is not so good these days and I have been known to be wrong before….
Posts Tagged ‘punk’
31 Aug
Siouxsie and the Banshees Newcastle City Hall 12th October 1985
30 Aug
Siouxsie and the Banshees Newcastle City Hall 18th June 1984
Siouxsie and the Banshees Newcastle City Hall 18th June 1984
The Banshees transformation was complete. They had moved from a quickly assembled, rough, ready, raw punk band who could hardly play their instruments, and debuted with a garbled 20 minute thrash version of “The Lord’s Prayer” to a classic rock band whose repertoire ranged from dark experimental metallic discord, through psychedelia to pure pop classics and amazing hit singles like “Christine” (the strawberry girl, banana split lady 🙂 ), “Arabian Knights”; “Spellbound” and “Israel”. Add to that, by the time of this concert in 1984, a psych-tinged, goth-edged, amazing cover of the Beatles “Dear Prudence”.
Along the way things had changed again on the guitarist front. In 1982 John McGeoch suffered a nervous breakdown due to the stresses of touring and drinking. He collapsed on stage at a concert in Madrid and left the band. McGeogh’s departure left a big void; he was the perfect guitarist for the Banshees crashing, swirling textures. Souxsie paid him tribute when he passed away in 2004: “John McGeoch was my favourite guitarist of all time. He was into sound in an almost abstract way. I loved the fact that I could say, “I want this to sound like a horse falling off a cliff”, and he would know exactly what I meant. He was easily, without a shadow of a doubt, the most creative guitarist the Banshees ever had.”
To fill the void left by McGeoch, old mate Robert Smith returned to the Banshees fold. This lasted for a couple of years, until Smith found the stresses of simultaneously fronting the Cure and being a Banshee just too much. At that point, just after the release of their Hyæna album, ex Clock DVA guitarist John Valentine Carruthers joined the band.
I remember going to this gig wondering how it would work with a new guitarist. Actually it worked well, but a little of the depth and texture was lost.
Support came The Flowerpot Men, a British electronic music group who recorded a version of “Walk on Gilded Splinters”.
Setlist (this is actually the setlist from the previous night’s concert in Edinburgh): Dazzle; Cascade; Running Town; We Hunger; Melt!; Into the Light; Pointing Bone; Red Over White; Switch; Red Light; Christine; Bring Me the Head of the Preacher Man; Painted Bird; Arabian Knights; Spellbound; Monitor
Encore: Dear Prudence; Helter Skelter
“Once upon a time, they might’ve burned Siouxsie Sioux at the stake or thrown her in a lake to see if she’d float with rocks tied to her ankles. Today, she’s signed to a recording contract with the hope that she’ll be the most famous witch since mother-in-law Agnes Moorehead made Elizabeth Montgomery’s husband Dick York so miserable in Bewitched.” (Roy Trakin, Creem, November 1984)
“Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It’s beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?”
(Dear Prudence, Lennon & McCartney, 1968)
29 Aug
Siouxsie and the Banshees Newcastle City Hall 18th August 1981
Siouxsie and the Banshees Newcastle City Hall 18th August 1981
Five months later and the Banshees were back at the City Hall again, this time with a new album “JuJu”. “JuJu” was one of their most successful releases, receiving positive reviews in the music press, and a favourite with fans. Siouxise, interviewed in Sounds magazine at the time: “I rate Aretha Franklin, Nico, really like Yoko Ono’s voice…I have to hark back. Still think Jim Morrison’s got the best ’singing corpse’ voice. I want our gigs, records or whatever – to stand out as an event, to be remembered, talked about – or affect somebody after they’ve heard or seen us…You can’t listen to it as background music…it needs involvement from the listener to work properly, and that involvement sometimes brings out good things in people.” 
1981 was another successful year for the Banshees in terms of singles, with “Spellbound” and “Arabian Knights” both making the UK charts. Siouxsie had transformed from the cold “ice queen of punk” into the “Mother of Goth” and the “The Woman Of A Thousand Costumes” and wild hair.
In concert the band were as impressive and stunning as ever.
I think the support for the City Hall concert may have been Linton Kwesi Johnson?
Setlist: Israel; Halloween; Spellbound; Placebo Effect; Pulled to Bits; Tenant; Night Shift; Sin in My Heart; So Unreal; Voodoo Dolly; Christine; Head Cut; Arabian Knights; Eve White/Eve Black. Encore: Happy House; Monitor
I loved the new material, you could lose yourself in the mad, swirling, trance-like madness of it all. But I also longed to see them play some of the older songs; Metal Postcard, Helter Skelter or Love in a Void; any of them would have made the show just perfect for me.
28 Aug
Siouxsie and the Banshess Newcastle City Hall 3rd March 1981
Siouxsie and the Banshess Newcastle City Hall 3rd March 1981
The Banshees’ released their second album, Join Hands in 1979 and went out on a major UK tour to promote the new album. However, a few dates into the tour drummer Kenny Morris and guitarist John McKay quit the band after an argument. Drummer Budgie was rapidly recruited from The Slits, along with guitarist Robert Smith who was borrowed from tour support band The Cure. I had a ticket for the show at Newcastle Polytechnic but the concert was sadly cancelled as Siouxsie was unwell, and it was another two years before they called at Newcastle again. By the time I saw the Banshees again, at Newcastle City Hall on 3rd March 1981, Smith had returned to the Cure and the late great John McGeoch, from Magazine, had joined on guitar. McGeoch was the perfect choice for the Banshees; he understood how to coax an amazing, innovative noise from his guitar, inventing his own scales and making imaginative use of effects. He has been described as “one of the most influential guitarists of his generation” (Perrone, 2004) and in 1996, he was listed by Mojo in their “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” for his work on the Banshees song “Spellbound”. 
By the time of this gig, the Banshees had released three albums: “The Scream”(1978); “Join Hands” (1979) and “Kaleidoscope” (1980), and had achieved further hit singles with “Happy House” “Christine”, “Spellbound”, and my favourite, the wonderful “Israel”, which was often their opening song. So there was plenty of new material, and the set had changed almost completely since I last saw them in concert. Support came from The Comsat Angels. The Banshees had become a considerable force, transcended the punk genre, and were a major classic rock band, and Siouxsie was elegant, scary, crazy and remained totally engaging. Although I loved the early Banshees, I think that this was their classic period and classic line-up.
Setlist: Israel; Spellbound; Arabian Knights; Christine; Tenant; Halloween; Night Shift; Paradise Place; Switch; But Not Them; Voodoo Dolly
Encore: Eve White/Eve Black; Red Over White; Happy House
27 Aug
Siouxsie and the Banshees Middlesbrough 13th Oct 1977, Durham 15th April 1978 & Newcastle 30th Oct 1978
Siouxsie and the Banshees Middlesbrough 13th Oct 1977, Durham 15th April 1978 & Newcastle 30th Oct 1978
The Banshees stood out from the rest of the punk bands in their style, their attitude, and the mysterious, somewhat discordant, dark noise that they made. There was an air of danger about them, depth, mysteriousness, and Siouxsie herself was stunning, a force of nature, a revelation.
I first saw the Banshees supporting Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers at Middlesbrough Town Hall on 13th October 1977. Marie and I turned up early specifically to see Siouxsie. The venue was far from full, and this was a raw, ramshackle, Banshees; still feeling their way and learning their craft. But you could see that there was something different and special about them. The uniqueness of their music, Siouxsie’s style and arrogance, their image, all shone through the amateurishness. Siouxise was full of edge that night, fearless, and obviously out to shock. She was dressed in a see-through net top, a leather cap and looked just great. She commanded the stage with crazy dancing and goose stepping. The band were very young at the time and looked it; this was the first and best line-up of the Banshees; with Sioux on vocals, Severin on bass, Kenny Morris on drums, and John McKay on guitar, before they released their first landmark album “The Scream”. I can’t be certain what they played that night, but remember being impressed. I am pretty sure they played Metal Postcard, Carcass, T Rex’s 20th Century Boy (Souxsie announced the song “From one Carcass to Another” which I remember clearly as I thought it pretty bad taste at the time, as Bolan had died just a few weeks before), Love in a Void, The Lords Prayer, and Helter Skelter. For me they were the best band of the night and I went on to see them many more times over the next few years.
The next time I saw them was at a packed Durham University Dunelm Ballroom on 15th April 1978. By now the Banshees were a proper band, a major force. The venue was packed, the crowd crazy, the Banshees loud and intense and Siouxsie pure electric magic. The evening was spoilt by trouble and fights. There was a scary edginess in the air. As we left the venue we faced a massive line of skinheads blocking the ramp leading out to the street. “We hate punks!”…mass brawls….the police soon arrived. We ran to the car and made a swift, and lucky, escape.
The Banshees first single Hong Kong Garden was released in August 1978, they were soon in the charts, and then went out on a full UK tour of major concert halls. I saw them at Newcastle City Hall on 30th October 1978. Support was Spizz Oil (did Spizz really wear a helmet and keep hitting himself on the head, or did I dream that?), and the original Human League. The concert was sold out, and the music and the performance were joyous, swirling, challenging and totally engaging. From the first crashing, discordant opening bars of Helter Skelter, through the majestic pop of Hong Kong Garden, to the closing song The Lord’s Prayer, Siouxsie had us all totally captivated. Thinking of the punk bands that I saw live at the time; The Pistols were raw, powerful, important and vital; The Clash were rocky, political, fast, furious and “meant it”, The Jam were sharp, smart, and poppy; and The Damned were simply crazy, madcap, laugh. But the Banshees were different, daring, challenging, uncompromising, and produced sounds that came from somewhere dark, adventurous, rhythmic and yet uplifting. As you might have gathered; I was a big fan.
Based on published setlists, it is likely that the Banshees set at the City Hall was something like this: Helter Skelter; The Staircase (Mystery); Mirage; Metal Postcard (Mittageisen); Jigsaw Feeling; Switch; Hong Kong Garden; Nicotine Stain; Suburban Relapse; Overground; Pure; The Lord’s Prayer. Encore: Love in a Void
“Hong Kong Garden; Tourists swarm to see your face; Confucius has a puzzling grace; Disoriented you enter in; Unleashing scent of wild jasmine.” (Hong Kong Garden, Siouxsie And The Banshees, 1978)
More about the Banshees tomorrow.
7 Aug
The Sex Pistols Brixton Academy London 10th November 2007
Sex Pistols Brixton Academy London 10th November 2007
Support from The Cribs
John Lydon: “It started out as one night at Brixton….We thought maybe 5,000 will want to see us, but it’s turned into a bigger monster than any of us had any concept of.” In fact, the Sex Pistols ended up playing to 60,000 fans during their brief 2007 reunion tour, camping for five nights at Brixton Academy and then adding two massive arena shows in Manchester and Glasgow.
I’ve already blogged on the two occasions which I was lucky enough to see The Sex Pistols in their prime, once in 1976 and once in 1977. I passed on their 1996 “Filty Lucre” and 2002 Golden Jubilee reunion gigs. I figured it was never going to be the same. Well of course, it wasn’t going to be the same, but it could still be bloody great! When I saw that they were reuniting again in 2007 for a few dates at Brixton I relented and bought tickets. The dates were to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of the band’s seminal album Never Mind The Bollocks.
David and I arrived early for the gig, and watched support band The Cribs, who seemed very much out of the punk mould. By the time the Pistols were due on stage, the place was completely ram packed, almost dangerously so. The audience was, as you would expect, largely aging punks; lots of mohican haircuts and studded leather jackets. Before the Pistols came on stage, the hall was filled with the sound of Vera Lynn’s “There’s Always Be An England” which prompted mass singalong (and sadly quite a few right arm salutes). I’m not sure it was the most appropriate song to open the concert with, but it certainly got the crowd going.
The band walked on stage Rotten as wide-eyed as ever. 
They hurling themselves into “Pretty Vacant” and the place went completely bananas. An atmosphere, a band, a crowd, and a punk anthem like no other. There never was, never has been, and never will be anyone who can touch these guys. Rotten was sneering, his snarling vocal as thrilling and powerful as ever. Flanked, as in 1976, by Steve Jones, ever the guitar hero, and Glen Matlock looking ever the cool guy.
All the hits and most of the “Bollocks” album are played; an immense crashing version of “Holidays In The Sun” with Paul Cock slamming the drums, Rotten spitting out the lyrics to The Stooge’s “No Fun”, and a backdrop of our safety-pin-sporting queen is lowered behind them for “God Save The Queen”. Half way through the set David and I make our way towards the back of the hall, its juts too full and too hot down near the front. Then there is the inevitable encore of “Anarchy In The UK”, at which point I swear every single person in the venue is singing at the top of their voice. They return again to play a cover of Jonathan Richman’s “Roadrunner”.
We walked out in the cold London air, stunned; knowing that we had experienced something special. I bought a bootleg programme for £1 (pictured).
Well, of course, no it wasn’t the same. We were older, and so were the Pistols. The crowd was bigger than those they played to in their heyday (when I saw them in 1976 there were 50 to 100 people there, a few hundred in 1977). We knew all the songs this time. But these old guys could still sneer at society, and play some of the best rock’n’roll produced by any band. Amazing. Scary. Stunning.
I have the DVD and play it every now and then to remind myself of that night.
Setlist: Pretty Vacant; Seventeen; No Feelings; New York; Did You No Wrong; Liar; Holidays in the Sun; Submission; (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone; No Fun; Problems; God Save the Queen; E.M.I.
Encore 1: Bodies; Anarchy in the U.K.
Encore 2: Roadrunner (Jonathan Richman cover)
3 Aug
Squeeze and Wreckless Eric Newcastle Mayfair 28th February 1980
Squeeze and Wreckless Eric Newcastle Mayfair 28th February 1980
I’d seen Squeeze supporting Eddie and the Hot Rods, The Tubes, Dr Feelgood, and at Reading, but this was the first time, and only time, I saw them as a headline act. This was the classic Squeeze line-up featuring Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland. Squeeze had just released their third album “Argybargy” and had already made the UK top 20 four times, with their first single “Take Me, I’m Yours” which reached No 19 in 1978, the excellent “Cool for Cats” and “Up the Junction”, both of which reached No. 2 in 1979 and their most recent release at the time, “Another Nail in My Heart”, which made No. 17 in January 1980. Support came from the crazy Wreckless Eric, whose most well-known song is the wonderful “Whole Wide World”. Squeeze were a great live act who produced a clutch of perfect pop songs; my favourite is “Up The Junction” which is just pure class. The setlist for the concert at the Mayfair is likely to have been something like this: Slap and Tickle; Touching Me, Touching You; Slightly Drunk; Pulling Mussels (From the Shell); Hop Skip & Jump; Another Nail in My Heart; Cool for Cats; Messed Around; I Think I’m Go Go; Take Me I’m Yours; If I Didn’t Love You; Misadventure; It’s So Dirty; Goodbye Girl; Up the Junction; There at the Top. Encore: Going Crazy
2 Aug
Patti Smith The Sage Gateshead 23rd May 2007
Patti Smith The Sage Gateshead 23rd May 2007
Patti Smith married Fred “Sonic” Smith, former member of the MC5, in 1980. For most of the 1980s she went into semi-retirement from music, living with her family in Michigan. In 1994 Fred Smith tragically died of a heart attack, and soon afterwards Patti decided to move back to New York. Her friends Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and beat poet Allen Ginsberg reportedly urged her to go back out on the road.
In 2007 Patti Smith was touring the UK and returned to the North East for a concert at The Sage Gateshead. This was almost 30 years since I last saw her live. My friend John and his family were over from the USA at the time and John and his son Matthew came along to the concert with David and me. John and I had tickets in the front row, and we bought a couple of more seats for Matthew and David, who were seated in the circle.
Patti had just released the album “Twelve”, which (as the title suggests) contains twelve tracks, all of which are cover versions, including songs by Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Patti was as crazy and wild as ever, and in a particularly chatty mood. She was quite taken by the Sage concert hall; she told us it reminded her of a “big silver peanut”, and how she had been walking about the riverside, looking at the “big silver peanut”. Patti asked us all to stand up, but a girl down front explained that if we did we might all be “hoyed oot”. It took a little time for others to explain to Patti that “hoyed oot” was Geordie for “thrown out”. Patti’s reaction: “When you want to do something, make everyone do it so they can’t stop you”; several of the audience followed her advice and stood up for the rest of the concert. She was in quite a cheeky mood overall. I went to the gents; when I returned I had to make my way along the front row right in front of Patti; she quipped: “Did you have a good p**s?”. [Morale: don’t sit too close to the front at a Patti Smith concert].
The set consisted of classic 1970s Patti: “Free Money”, “Because the Night”, “Gloria”, and several covers from “Twelve”: “Changing of the Guards” (Dylan), “Are You Experienced?” (Hendrix), “Within You Without You” (Beatles), “White Rabbit” (Jefferson Airplane), “Perfect Day” (Lou Reed), “Gimme Shelter” (Stones), “Soul Kitchen” (Doors), “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (Nirvana) and “Helpless” (Neil Young), all given the Patti Smith treatment.
A great concert by a true artist.
Full setlist: Redondo Beach, Free Money, Changing of the Guards, Are You Experienced?, My Blakean Year, Beneath the Southern Cross, Within You Without You, White Rabbit, Perfect Day, Pissing in a River, Because the Night, Gimme Shelter, Soul Kitchen, Peaceable Kingdom/People Have The Power, Gloria. Encore: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Babelogue/Rock n Roll Nigger, Helpless.
In 2007 the line-up of Patti Smith’s Band was Lenny Kaye, Jay Dee Daugherty, Tony Shanahan and Jackson Smith (Patti’s son).
1 Aug
Patti Smith in 1978 at Reading Festival (27th Aug) & Newcastle City Hall (29th Aug)
Patti Smith in 1978 at Reading Festival (27th Aug) & Newcastle City Hall (29th Aug)
Patti Smith is a force of nature; outspoken, compelling, authentic, passionate, kooky, arty, funny, challenging, cheeky and the craziest rock ‘n’ roll anti-star to arrive on the scene during the late ’70s. She exploded out of the new wave movement, but there was always much more to her than punk rock. Patti wears her rock and pop influences on her sleeve, and her music owes as much to The Who, The Stones and Dylan as it does to the Pistols and The Ramones.
I first saw her live in 1978, twice in three days; on a Sunday night closing the Reading Rock Festival, and then again onTuesday at Newcastle City Hall. Patti had just been in the UK singles charts with “Because the Night” which she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen, and which reached No. 5.
Patti closed the 1978 Reading Festival, headlining the Sunday which also featured Ian Gillan, Tom Robinson and Foreigner. She was amazing and had the whole crowd with her as she stormed, screamed and snarled “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nigger”, tore into “Gloria”, “Because the Night” and sanf great covers of the Byrds’ “So You Want to Be (A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star)” and the Who’s “My Generation”. Stunning.
I have a “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nigger” plectrum which Patti threw into the crowd at Reading. I scrabbled around the ground, in the mud for it, after she threw a handfull into the crowd.
Set list; 27th August 1978, Reading Festival
Rock ‘n’ Roll Nigger, Privilege (Set Me Free), Redondo Beach, Free Money, Ghost Dance, It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World, So You Want to Be (A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star), Ask the Angels, 25th Floor, Because the Night, Gloria, You Light Up My Life, My Generation, Godspeed
I saw Patti two days later concert at Newcastle City Hall and she was equally as electric. Support came from The Pop Group. The set was slightly longer than her Reading performance. The last song was a wonderful performance of the Stones’ “Time is on my Side”. I have a flyer from the City Hall concert, the front (see above) has a picture of Patti saluting, “78 Speed…(?) and “r.e.f.m.” (Radio Ethiopia Field Marshall ?), and some other words I can’t quite make out. The back (see below) includes some egyptian hieroglyphics and a copy of the lyrics of “Ghost Dance” in Patti’s own hand.
“What is it children
That falls from the sky
Ti Yi
Ti Ya
Ti Ye Yi-Yi.
Mana from Heaven
of the most high
food from the father
Ti Ya
Ti Yi”
Set list, 29th August 1978, City Hall, Newcastle
Godspeed, Till Victory, Privilege (Set Me Free), Kimberly, Redondo Beach, Space Monkey, High On Rebellion/25th Floor, It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World, So You Want to Be (A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star), Pumping (My Heart), Because the Night, Radio Ethiopia, Babelogue, Rock ‘n’ Roll Nigger, Gloria, My Generation, Time Is on My Side
8 Jul
Joy Division Newcastle City Hall 4th October 1979 (supporting The Buzzcocks)
Joy Division Newcastle City Hall 4th October 1979 (supporting The Buzzcocks)
I am going to jump out of sequence a little here, as I have just realised that I haven’t written a piece on Joy Division, and in particular of seeing them in concert supporting the Buzzcocks at Newcastle City Hall on 4th October 1979. At the moment I am working on a chapter which discusses the roots of trance music, and I wanted to link that to Joy Division’s music, so writing about them here will help me do so. Anyway here goes.
My recollections of this 1979 concert are, in fact, more of support act Joy Division and of Ian Curtis’ unique, bizarre and compelling performance than of The Buzzcocks. It was generally accepted at the time, that “although Joy Division were the support act on the Buzzcocks tour of Britain, on several nights they completely out-performed the Buzzcocks” ( http://www.joydivisiondata.co.uk/joyd_concerts2.html ). I had seen Joy Division once before at an early gig in Newcastle Guildhall in 1997, when they were known as Warsaw, and I’d heard some of their album played at Middlesbrough Rock Garden. I’d also read reviews of the lp in the music papers which I bought each week; NME proclaiming that “Unknown Pleasures is an English rock masterwork” (Bell, 1979). So I was looking forward to seeing them again, and to experience the intensity of their performance.
Joy Division had just released their debut album “Unknown Pleasures” at the time of this concert, which was part of a nation wide tour as support for The Buzzcocks. The single “Transmission” was played quite a lot at the Rock Garden. This was before “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and the original line-up was, of course, Ian Curtis (lead vocals), Bernard Sumner (guitar, keyboards), Peter Hook (bass) and Stephen Morris (drums). Jon Savage described the music on “Unknown Pleasures” as “a definitive Northern Gothic statement: guilt-ridden, romantic, claustrophobic” (1994). Oksanen (2007) writes of “The revival of the Gothic in late modern culture” and how “the subject feels isolated and alienated and is left with a trance-like dream reality” and that “the works of Joy Division and Diary of Dreams underline personal emptiness, ambivalence and dream states.”
I made a point of arriving at the City Hall early to see the support act, passing on a visit to the City Tavern or the downstairs bar. We had seats right down the front, and watched all of Joy Division’s set. Their music had developed a lot from the basic punk thrash that I saw at the Guildhall a couple of years earlier, and had become a dark, gothic, rhythmic, noise. The musicality of the songs impressed me and set them apart from their punk and new wave contemporaries. But most of all, I was transfixed by Ian Curtis, his blank expression, glaring eyes and crazy, manic epileptic dancing. It was clear that there was something awkward, different yet brilliant about the guy, which came through in his dark lyrics which painted dark images of alienation, his monotonic, snarling vocals and his manic, crazed dancing. The performance was intense, scary, compelling, and unnerving.
I found this great review by Adrian on http://joydivision-neworder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/joy-division-newcastle-4-oct-1979-flac.html which describes the concert much better than I can, so I have reproduced it here:
“Joy Division in concert were simply astonishing. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I was 15 years old and into the post punk type of thing. I’d known for a while that Joy Division were coming to Newcastle and wanted to see them – I’d heard a few things on John Peel and caught the end of a TV appearance on Something Else some time earlier. The Buzzcocks were generally viewed as a pop band by this point, who often had good support bands.
My friends and I got to the City Hall late, and had just got to our seats as the hall lights went down. The stage was very dark I recall, and as they began to play, I wondered when the lights were going to come on properly (they never did!). The first thing that struck me was the power of the drums – I’d never felt such deep bassy drums at a concert, one’s whole body felt the beat. Ian Curtis was at the front of the stage, what seemed like the very edge – he appeared to be on a brink of a cliff. He couldn’t have been more than 25 feet from where I was sitting. The others were just figures in subdued light – maybe it was blue, I cannot recall.
When Ian Curtis started singing, it was loud and even deeper than the drums, and it caught you in the diaphragm – incredible feeling. I don’t think he did “the dance” until a few tracks into the short set, but when he did, staring into the audience, it sent shivers down my spine, and I realised that I was witnessing something extraordinary.
A few of us stood up out of our seats at that point (we had been told to remain seated), and bouncers attacked many of us, including my friend about three rows in front of us – the memory of a bouncer leaping over rows of seated people to attack my friend, while Ian Curtis did his dance above on the stage during “She’s Lost Control”, is something that will stay fixed in my visual memory forever.
Hooky was pretty animated on a few tracks, and I recall a broken bass string hanging down from his guitar – not something you usually saw at concerts. “Colony” also stood out as fantastic and alien-sounding. The set seemed to be over very quickly, and there was a feeling of…well, I suppose it was “shock” more than anything at watching Joy Division perform.
The Buzzcocks seemed to come on almost immediately to play their pop songs. When audience members stood up, unchallenged by the bouncers this time, I just walked out of the hall into the rain – it was October and sleety – down to the bus station. It didn’t seem right watching any other band, especially the poppy Buzzcocks, after what I had just seen.”
A recording of the concert exists; Joy Division performed the following songs: Disorder; Shadowplay; Colony; Day Of The Lords; Glass; Transmission; She’s Lost Control; Atrocity Exhibition.
Bell, M. (1979). Review of Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (Factory). New Musical Express (NME), 14 July 1979
Oksanen, A. (2007). Hollow Spaces of Psyche: Gothic Trance-Formation from Joy Division to Diary of Dreams. In Nostalgia or Perversion? Gothic Rewriting from the Eighteenth Century until the Present Day, van Elferen, I (ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Savage, J. (1994). Joy Division: Someone Take These Dreams Away. Mojo. July 1994.
Vintagerock's Weblog. 