Thanks for posting Ceremony which is the last song written by Joy Division & the first song recorded by New Order. The first time I heard the song was New Order playing it live at a club in Boston called the Underground. It was supposed to be Joy Division's first American tour. Ian Curtis died on the eve of that tour but Bernard Sumner held the band together.
My ticket for the show actually said "Joy Division" on the face & I remember the doorman was offering refunds to ticket holders who had come to see Joy Division with Ian Curtis. A few folks took the refunds but I'm glad I didn't. It is still the most memorable rock show I ever attended. No one who came to the show even knew of Ian Curtis' death because it wasn't reported in the American press. In May of 1980 the band was completely unknown in America even to most of the music press. I bought Unknown Pleasures as an UK import album because Joy Division wasn't even signed to an American label.
The Underground was basically an old laundromat with a capacity for only about 100 people. There was no dressing room & the band was congregating at the bar before the show. Bernard was telling the story of how the band had nearly all of it's equipment stolen the previous evening in New York. He said they showed up in Boston having to rent or borrow all of their equipment for the show. I felt sorry for the band, having to face the loss of all of their equipment even as they were still grieving the loss of their singer.
As things stood at the time of that Boston gig, the band's future as New Order was uncertain. Sumner said the band members were only committed to completing the original Joy Division tour itinerary & upon returning to England, they would decide the longterm future of New Order as a band. I'm glad they decided to carry on.
At that Boston gig, less than a month after Curtis' suicide, New Order played a basic set list of Joy Division songs from Unknown Pleasures & Closer. The sole exception was Ceremony a song that the band was just completing when Curtis died. A few months after their American tour, New Order released Ceremony as their debut single.
Bernard did a great job of singing all of Curtis' vocals. The Underground didn't have a stage and the performers were all at floor level and I was standing face to face with Sumner about 4 feet from the band during the entire show. To the handful of people that attended the show, it was something they would talk about for a long, long time afterwards. It's 31 years later and I still remember the show like it was last night.
__________________
There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
|