Joy Division – Transmission (1979)
Joy Division released Transmission on Factory Records in October 1979 on 7″, and re-released it as a 12″ single with a different sleeve in December 1980. This is a live version taken from the BBC series Something Else recorded on September 15, 1979. Joy Division also performed She’s Lost Control during the same appearance, which was their third and final TV performance before Ian Curtis’s death.
In February 2015, BBC4 showed a new documentary on the band’s rise to fame and examined Joy Division’s influence on the Manchester music scene, including rare and unseen footage of the band.
Joy Division was an English post-punk/rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band consisted of Ian Curtis (vocals), Bernard Sumner (guitar), Peter Hook (bass), and Stephen Morris (drums).
In 1980, Ian Curtis committed suicide. The remaining members continued as New Order, adding the girlfriend of Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, to the band on keyboards, and with Bernard Summer taking on the vocal role.
Lyrics
Radio, live transmission.
Radio, live transmission.
Listen to the silence, let it ring on.
Eyes, dark grey lenses frightened of the sun.
We would have a fine time living in the night,
Left to blind destruction,
Waiting for our sight.
And we would go on as though nothing was wrong.
And hide from these days we remained all alone.
Staying in the same place, just staying out the time.
Touching from a distance,
Further all the time.
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio.
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio…
Well I could call out when the going gets tough.
The things that we’ve learnt are no longer enough.
No language, just sound, that’s all we need know,
To synchronise love to the beat of the show.
And we could dance.
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio.
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio…
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