Search - Joy Division :: Preston 28 February 1980

Serious fans only

ifutureman | NJ | 08/13/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I can't figure out the reviewers that give this one 5 stars. I am a huge Joy Division fan and have been since I discovered them in high school in 1985. But that doesn't mean that I think everything they ever did was perfect. I've heard a lot of live recordings of this band and quite frankly, some of them just suck. These guys were not especially talented musicians, and many live recordings are marred by either Peter Hook or Bernard Sumner hitting bum notes or chords (glaring example: the version "New Dawn Fades" on Still), or Ian Curtis' voice, which on the best of days was intense and full of character, but also prone to off-pitch moments.



The best live material available is on the Les Baines Douches collection. That one deserves five stars. This is a nice document of a single show late in the band's career, and as such has some historical value; but the sound is so-so and the equipment problems did not help this fragile band's performance.



Ian mumbles "some slight problems" after the third song; that's an understatement. Later, he barks "I think everything's falling apart!" That's a bit more accurate.



I am one of those guys who loves to make mixes and compilations. I tend to try and get everything available by a band and create the ultimate mix of live and studio material ... there's not one song on this album that I would call a "definitive version." Either the sound quality or the actual performance quality keeps all of this stuff from being truly great.



Again, as my title suggests, a serious Joy Division fan should pick this up. But this would certainly NOT be recommended as an introduction to the band."

Really 3 1/2 stars - For major JD fans only!

Coleen | Down in the alley | 07/10/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The best live Joy Division CD to get is Les Bains Douches. That one is excellent! This one is just average. The sound quality is good (not great), but the band are not very cohesive at this Preston gig. The sound is also much better on Les Bains Douches. But if Joy Division is one of your all-time favorite bands, you will want this as a fairly well-recorded historical document. But don't pay a high price for it! You will feel ripped off. It's worth the price of an average domestic CD on sale or a used CD, not full price or an import price. If you do not have Les Bains Douches yet, find it and buy it now!!"

Not many like this

Gleet | Oak Park, Il | 12/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First: I don't understand these complaints about sound quality...bootlegs have had crappy sound quality ever since they started...and if you have a regular stereo, or receiver, that allows you to change the ambience or treble and bass, I think you can salvage almost any recording (of course, some are just crap, but I've made Iggy Pop and The Stooges releases from Bomp Records sound bearable, which ain't easy)...Now, for this one, Joy Division, probably the last great rock band...to cut this short, since it is absolutely mindless, and counterproductive to write about music, I will say that this album, as a live album, mind you, goes right next to the best live document of a rock performance...Who Live At Leeds....thats how good I feel this is...And I think we can safely say that all that thin whiny whiteboy music of the nineties, all that grunge, and angst, is just D-level rip-offs of Joy Division...I've stopped listening to Radiohead (although I have not abandoned them) and Tool (Compare the vocals, you'll understand) because I realized they were obsolete for about 10, 15 years before they got on TV...Well, I'm not going to tell you what you already know (90's sucked/not getting better) I will tell you to be a consumer and buy this CD...along with Heart And Soul, the boxed set (even though the talk of "everything" J.D. ever recorded is not exactly what this boxed set is)...Great music to appreciate (cause it ain't coming back)...what more to say?"