Knockouts from the past…

7 October 2019

Band: Joy Division
Song: Transmission / B-side: ‘Novelty‘
Released: 7 October 1979 – 40 years ago today
Note 1: It was originally recorded in 1978 for the aborted self-titled
album, re-recorded the following year at a faster tempo and released
by label Factory as the band’s debut single
Note 2: Famous music journalist Greil Marcus said about the song: “It’s
a dramatization of the realization that the act of listening to the radio is a
suicidal gesture. It will kill your mind. It will rob your soul.”
Note 3: Bassist Peter Hook remembers the following: “We were doing a soundcheck
at the Mayflower (club in Manchester) and we played ‘Transmission’. People had been
moving around, and they all stopped to listen. I realized that was our first great song.”

“Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio”

Here’s the legendary live‘Transmission’ performance
on BBC’s youth television program Something Else
on 15th September 1979…

And here’s the original version…

JOY DIVISION: Facebook