NO: 30 JUL 1980 Beach Club - Manchester, England
On the 40th anniversary of the show, the band have shared the first minute of audio from this performance, which can be heard here (Facebook link).
Looks like this may have been 30 JUL 80, as the 'Beach Club' shows were every Wednesday night, and 29 JUL 80 would have been Tuesday. Plus, the show markbursa mentions is listed for the 30th, see the following link:
https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/artefact/7775/A_CERTAIN_RATIO_NEW_ORDER_BEACH_CLUB_AT_OOZIT'S_FLYER_1980
From: markbursa
To: faclist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [faclist] Re: Crawling Chaos - The Gas Chair
<< I remember reading (was it in Mark Johnson's book?) that at
New Order's debut gig, Bernard introduced themselves with: "We're
the only surviving members of Crawling Chaos". >>
Johnson's book nearly gets the quote right.
NO (who weren't called New Order at the time) played as late replacements for
the Names, who were billed as support (ACR were headlining).
Barney's quote, as I recall (from a range of two feet and 23 years!) was:
"The Names couldn't make it, so we're playing instead. We're the last
surviving members of Crawling Chaos."
The gig was a benefit for Printed Noise fanzine, which was run by a band
called Action Holidays, fronted by Andrew Wilson, later of the Passage.
Action Holidays played after New Order.
Mark
From: markbursa
To: faclist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [faclist] New Order @ the Beach Club
Jan,
<< I think, upon reading your version of the quote, that Mark Johnson did get
it right. My recollection was incomplete and slightly wrong. >>
Johnson's quote in full refers to "our mates couldn't make it" when what
SBS said was "The Names couldn't make it". Johnson lifted the inaccurate quote
from one of the very few reviews of the gig (from, IIRC, New Music News,
the short-lived paper put out by NME staffers during an IPC strike).
<< So, you were there that night... wow, that must have been something
special. Did you know the band were going to be on? How was the crowd's
reaction? Care to share any thoughts/impressions? >>
Unless you were well plugged in to Factory, you'd have had no idea that
NO (or Joy Division!) were going to play. They weren't billed. I'd recently
got hold of The Graveyard & the Ballroom and fell in love with it, and ACR
had recently played the Factory all-dayer at Blackpool Stanley Park (my
home town). So I decided to go and see them again.
The Beach Club was in a small two-floor club called Oozits in Manchester,
round the back of the Arndale Centre. It took a bit of finding, and as I
didn't know where it was, I got there early. Good move, as it turned out.
The Beach Club format was bands upstairs, and films downstairs. The film
showing that night was Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which fitted the ambience
well. However rather thandiving in to see the film, I thought I'd check out
the venue area - I could hear a band upstairs - turned out to be the end
of ACR's soundcheck.
And this is where my brain started working overtime. At one side of the
stage, there was Donald Johnson at his small, funky drum kit. On the other
side of the stage (such that it was - I don't think there actually was a
stage at all, just an area of floor) sat a much larger, black kiut. All
around were flight cases stencilled with the words JOY DIVISION. Sitting
casually on an amp, there's Bernard. I knew from talking to Tony Wilson
at the Blackpool event that JD were continuing. You don't suppose....
To this day I've never seen Metropolis all the way through. I just got
myself a beer, and waited by the stage.
About half an hour later, with the club half full, we were off. The
stage is small enough to mask the big hole in the middle of the band -
There goes the famous Crawling Chaos quote, and we're off on a 20-minute
trip through a new set of Unknown Pleasures...
Nerves were masked by decibels - vocals scarcely audible. I guess they
played Dreams Never End - Hooky singing over his shoulder, back to the
crowd throughout. Certainly they played Homage, the first of the new songs
to be discarded. And I guess they played Truth, with Barney's Melodica and
Steve at the drums, with slightly wayward reel-to-reel rather than a drum
machine. Five songs at most (Ceremony? Mesh? Guess so - as there was
something that sounded a lot like Warsaw)
By the end of the set, the room is heaving as people abandon the cinema
- they were still coming in as NO departed the stage. "You've just missed
Joy Division.."
Rough and ready, and more than a little bit angry. But you knew it'd be
OK. Six weeks later, they played Blackpool, with a great deal more poise.
To this day I've never seen Metropolis all the way through. I just got
myself a beer, and waited by the stage.
About half an hour later, with the club half full, we were off. The
stage is small enough to mask the big hole in the middle of the band -
There goes the famous Crawling Chaos quote, and we're off on a 20-minute
trip through a new set of Unknown Pleasures...
Nerves were masked by decibels - vocals scarcely audible. I guess they
played Dreams Never End - Hooky singing over his shoulder, back to the
crowd throughout. Certainly they played Homage, the first of the new songs
to be discarded. And I guess they played Truth, with Barney's melodica and
Steve at the drums, with slightly wayward reel-to-reel rather than a drum
machine. Five songs at most (Ceremony? Mesh? Guess so - as there was
something that sounded a lot like Warsaw)
By the end of the set, the room is heaving as people abandon the cinema
- they were still coming in as NO departed the stage. "Youve just missed
Joy Division.."
Rough and ready, and more than a little bit angry. But you knew it'd be
OK. Six weeks later, they played Blackpool, with a great deal more poise.
Heck, you could even hear the vocals...
ACR, by the way, were sublime. First time I'd heard Shack Up.
BTW, I'm still a bit pissed off that the Names didn't show ... never did
get to see them ;-)
Mark
And from TJ:
This is the set I was told years ago, no idea how reliable or accurate
it is though. All instrumental apparently.
Dreams Never End
Ceremony
Homage
Sister Ray
In A Lonely Place
Truth
unknown jam track/cover
I don't even know if the source of this info was at the show, so I
wouldn't hold out too much on it to be honest.
According to Simon Dell, the article also elicited this response: "my memory is A Certain Ratio and the film Metropolis were on first. The Names were replaced by No Names that turned out to be birth of New Order in a dingy room upstairs with difficulties with drum machine/tapes, folk wandering in and out. I think the review is a bit over-egged."
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