» Listings for 2023

1. 2023 Albums Thing 210 - Killing Joke “Night Time”

   Posted on 9:05am Tuesday 7th Nov 2023

   I first saw Killing Joke in 1990, in Chicago. I was on tour with The Wonder Stuff and we were to begin our jaunt around the States at The Cabaret Metro, up on North Clark Street near Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs and as featured in the Blues Brothers) on 30th September. We were in town on the 29th and Killing Joke were playing at the same venue that night. So we all trooped off to see the show. I don’t recall much about the gig other than at one point fake Dollar bills rained down on us from the ceiling. We found out later they were filming the video for the single “Money Is Not Our God”. Turns out it was quite a marker in my gig going history as Killing Joke are one of only 3 acts (other than bands I’ve worked for which don’t really count) that I have seen live as many times or more than The Jam! The others being Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Rammstein !!

   I’d known about Killing Joke since the early ‘80’s. Their single “Follow The Leader” was a big tune in the Post-Punk/Futurist clubs me and Deb were wont to hand out in. Then in 1985 EG Records cleaned them up, dressed them up, had some soft focus promo shots taken, made some shiny videos and managed to get a bona fide hit single outta them, “Love Like Blood” reaching #16 in the UK charts and I’m sure I remember seeing them on Top Of The Pops, incredible. It’s a fabulous single built for the dancefloor at the time but retaining one of Geordie Walker’s monster riffs. Can we just take a moment to appreciate Geordie Walker. The man drives Killing Joke with those behemoth riffs, in much the same way Tony Iommi did for Black Sabbath, and no-one else sounds anything like him. He is also, when playing live, swaying around wielding his signature gold top 1952 Gibson ES-295 the very definition of the phrase “cool as fuck”.

   Talking of riffs one other on here is known to many of us in one form or another. I always had in mind that “Eighties” was as big a hit as “Love Like Blood” but on looking up the numbers it appears it only reached #60. It must have made an impression over in Seattle however as sometime later on Nirvana lifted “Eighties” signature guitar motif and retitled it “Come As You Are”…chancers.

   There was another single released from from “Night Time”, the very, very wonderful “Kings And Queens”, not as well known as the other two but it actually reached a higher chart position than the better known “Eighties”, #58. It’s built on another huge, stuttering Geordie Walker riff and you should take it in by clicking the link below.

   “Night Time” was a very cleanly produced record (by Rolling Stones producer Chris Kimsey), very obviously aimed at getting the band a higher profile, and it worked, it gave Killing Joke a brief moment in the “pop star” sunshine. The essence of Killing Joke is very much still here it’s just been given a wax and polish and a shampoo and set to clean it up for a more genteel audience. Have no fear, they soon returned to their extremities, dirt and other repressed emotions as we will discover.

   Kings And Queens - https://youtu.be/ruWPc_9AqPM?si=M7nxeKxiKiGrAZeA

2. 2023 Albums Thing 209 - Joy Division “Still”

   Posted on 8:30am Saturday 4th Nov 2023

   Like the other Joy Division albums, I didn’t buy this on release as my brother had them. I finally bought the re-issued version last year, in a burgundy sleeve, pressed on clear vinyl. It is, I have to say, a beauty.

   “Still” is a posthumous release (both band and singer had met their end), a compilation of previously released rarities and unreleased tracks plus a recording of the bands final gig at Birmingham University on 2nd May 1980. The gig recording is more of historical significance than any musical highlight.

   Of the all the tracks the real gem for me is “Dead Souls”. Originally released on a French only single, “Licht und Blindheit" (an original copy of which will cost you in excess of £1500 these days making “Still” quite the bargain !) alongside “Atmosphere”, two of my very favourite Joy Division songs. When my son came back from the Reading Festival in 2007 he was raving about a song Nine Inch Nails had played. He couldn’t remember what it was called but remembered Trent Reznor kept repeating “They keep calling me, Keep on calling me”. I played him “Dead Souls” and asked if that was it…earned some serious cool Dad points that day.

   Dead Souls - https://youtu.be/GdNENpd39G4?si=SSwTLxp6uTarD2x9

3. 2023 Albums Thing 208 - Joy Division “Closer”

   Posted on 9:05am Friday 3rd Nov 2023

   What might have been, we’ll never really know. In the early hours of 18th May 1980 Joy Division singer Ian Curtis took his own life. They were to imminently embark on their first US tour, something they had all reportedly been excited about, and “Closer” was to be released in July. 

   Martin Hannett is again in the Producer’s chair but this time the sound is a lot more refined and uniform than the patchy “Unknown Pleasures”. Again Peter Hook was unhappy with the production “I was like, head in hands, oh fucking hell, it's happening again. Unknown Pleasures number two…I was so annoyed with him (Hannett) and went in and gave him a piece of my mind but he just turned around and told me to fuck off”. Considering Hooky’s disappointment at their first album sounding like Pink Floyd it’s ironic that “Closer” was recorded at the studio Floyd built, Britannia Row in London.

   You can almost divide the songs on “Closer” into two parts, those written before the recording session started which are more guitar based ("Atrocity Exhibition", "Passover", "Colony", "A Means To An End" and "Twenty Four Hours”) all of which had been played live during the later part of 1979. Then there are those songs written in early 1980 as the album sessions approached, all of which feature greater use of synthesizers ("Isolation", "Heart and Soul", "The Eternal" and "Decades”).

   “Atrocity Exhibition” is constructed around Stephen Morris’ rolling and repetitive drum pattern. It’s unnerving, presenting a feeling of horror and sadness. It was significantly influenced by J.J Ballard’s 1970 novel “The Atrocity Exhibition” about which Ballard has said “I was terribly wounded by my wife's death…To some extent The Atrocity Exhibition is an attempt to explain all the terrible violence that I saw around me in the early sixties”. Ian Curtis wrote these feelings into the lyrics and Bernard Sumners screeching guitar effects, buried way back in the mix, add to the feeling of something terrible approaching.

   “You'll see the horrors of a faraway place, Meet the architects of law face to face

   See mass murder on a scale you've never seen, And all the ones who try hard to succeed”

   Like all Curtis’ lyrics, cryptic but beautifully poetic. The song is stark and metronomic with the repeated refrain (you can’t really call it a chorus) of “This is the way, step inside, This is the way, step inside” adding to the bleakness pictured in the verses.

   “Isolation” falls into the category of songs that have done away with guitars in favour of Bernard Sumner playing synthesiser. It’s a relentless dancefloor pounder in the style of “She’s Lost Control” driven along by Morris’ synthetic drumming and Hooky’s Bass. Curtis’ words express disappointment in himself

   “Mother, I tried, please believe me, I’m doing the best that I can

   I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through, I’m ashamed of the person I am

   Isolation…”

   But in the very next verse he intones 

   “But if you could just see the beauty, These things I could never describe

   These pleasure's a wayward distraction, This is my one lucky prize”

   It’s a perplexing song, I’ve seen it fill many a dancefloor yet the writer himself seems confused in the lyrics, ashamed yet seeing the beauty in some things.

   The start of side 2 presents you with two of Joy Division’s greatest songs. “Heart And Soul” continues in “Isolations” vein. The drums are more natural now but just as driving, the Bass now feels like it may be synthesized. Curtis sounds like he’s singing from deep within a cave, his voice swathed in reverb, like he’s hiding from something. Sumner cuts through this (again I can only describe it as) claustrophobia with bright shimmering guitar chords

   “Existence, well, what does it matter? I exist on the best terms I can

   The past is now part of my future, The present is well out of hand

   Heart and soul, One will burn”

   Next, “Twenty Four Hours” begins quite gently on a strummed Bass guitar and then suddenly explodes into a furious rush. Curtis opening verse hinting at the problems in his relationships that were affecting him so greatly

   “So this is permanent, love's shattered pride

   What once was innocence, turned on its side

   A cloud hangs over me, marks every move

   Deep in the memory, what once was love”

   “Closer” is superb, no question. Let’s also note that some of Joy Division’s greatest songs don’t appear on either of their albums (“Transmission”, “Dead Souls”, “Atmosphere” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart”) and yet both their albums still are regarded as classics. “Closer” is in no way an easy listen, it’s utterly intense and demands you pay close attention from the very start. Curtis lyrics hint at some of the reasons he decided to exit this life and are every bit as poetic and personal as those of Linton Kwesi Johnson, just in a different genre. Peter Hook has said they never really asked Ian what his lyrics meant or were about but on reading them after his death he found the explanations to Ian’s difficulties were all there. “Closer” is a beautiful yet heartbreaking monument to Joy Division’s lasting power and influence…what might have been ?

   Twenty Four Hours - https://youtu.be/F9ourSxX8ao?si=UwYVPG75SupnXEGZ