(Live): What’s on the Two DVDs?
The forthcoming Joy Division Eternal (Live) box set isn’t just a substantial archive of live audio. Alongside its 14 CDs, the collection includes two DVDs containing more than two and a half hours of live footage, bringing together some of the most important surviving film of Joy Division on stage.
DVD 1: Early Joy Division and Plan K
The first DVD opens with a new 2026 edit of Joy Division – A Malcolm Whitehead Film, incorporating rehearsal material from 1979 and footage from the band’s performance at Bowdon Vale Youth Club in Altrincham on 14 March 1979. The featured songs include She’s Lost Control, Shadowplay and Leaders of Men. (New Order)
I have seen various bits and pieces of this on YouTube over the years and on bootleg VHS videos that you could get at record fairs back in the day. I picked New Order one that had some Joy Division bits and pieces on it - terrible quality - third hand copies. Will be interested to see it in a restored format.
Also included are Joy Division’s celebrated appearances on the BBC television programme Something Else from 15 September 1979, featuring performances of Transmission and She’s Lost Control.
The centrepiece, however, is the band’s Plan K concert in Brussels from 16 October 1979. Described as previously unseen in the announcement for the box set, the performance includes Love Will Tear Us Apart, Disorder, Colony, New Dawn Fades, Transmission, Shadowplay, Atrocity Exhibition and more.
This sounds really interesting and but not sure its worth buying the whole boxset for.
Intriguingly, the Plan K footage is presented with two audio options: the original 1979 audio and a newly reconstructed 2026 version. The latter largely uses live recordings from Les Bains Douches in Paris and the Paradiso in Amsterdam to provide an alternative soundtrack to the surviving film.
DVD 2: Two Nights at Manchester Apollo
The second DVD turns its attention to Manchester’s Apollo Theatre, with footage from Joy Division’s concerts on 27 and 28 October 1979.
The first night features Dead Souls, Wilderness, Colony, Autosuggestion, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Shadowplay, She’s Lost Control and Transmission. The following evening includes The Sound of Music, Day of the Lords, Twenty Four Hours, Disorder, Walked in Line, I Remember Nothing and another performance of Transmission.
A soundcheck from the Apollo Theatre is also included. While portions of the Apollo material appeared on VHS back in 1982, the new box brings together substantially more of the surviving footage. For many collectors, these DVDs could prove every bit as significant as the 14 audio discs.
I had copy of this that I picked up in the early 1990s in 10:15 records in Walcot Street Bath and then sold on Ebay as I could watch it - it wouldn't stop rolling.
Joy Division’s recorded live history is relatively limited, making the opportunity to see extended performances from 1979 particularly valuable. With the unseen Plan K material, expanded Apollo footage and the new Malcolm Whitehead edit, Eternal (Live) offers one of the most extensive collections of Joy Division performance footage assembled for an official release.
