As expected after Unknown Pleasures' 40th Anniversary "red ruby" reissue last year, Closer is now getting the 180g "crystal clear" vinyl treatment to mark its own 40th.

Transmish, Atmosphere and LWTUA are also getting 12" single reissues (for the first time in their cases, I think?)

It would have been nice to see both JD albums get the same "Definitive Edition" as Movement rather than a straight-ahead reissue, but I guess Heart and Soul covered off that material some time ago so we can just listen to that.

Pre-order here: https://store.neworder.com/uk/joy-division/closer-40th-anniversary-vinyl-bundle.html

What is interesting is that, according to the website track listing, the LWTUA 12" doesn't include the 'Pennine' version.

It does.

Pretty feeble, but yeah, after Heart and Souled Out and Brown Owl there can't be much to put out - except maybe the 7.77 demo, but that's shit.

What year was Transmission previously reissued? I didn't know that.I remember Love Will Tear Us Apart being reissued in autumn 1983.Well at least i think it was a reissue, i remember it re-entering the UK chart around that time or getting a lot of radio play and was the first time i became aware of the song.I guess if it was a reissue it was Factory pushing it again after the success of Blue Monday that year.


I remember Atmosphere being reissued in 1988, think it had a different sleeve though i didn't buy it as i already had the 1980 12" with She's Lost Control b side (i hadn't bought it in 1980, i first became aware of it in 1984 which was when i bought it).Seem to recall there was a bit of a hoohah about the then new Anton Corbijn 1988 vid for the song


Edit: Discogs states if I’ve understood correctly that Transmission had a UK reissue in 1984.

Edited by user 13 May 2020 15:27:27(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

LWTUA was certainly in the charts in late 1983. It reached number 19 in the week ending 19/11/83.

I was recently listening to an audio interview with Hooky from the same period (the one on the bootleg 12" picture disc) and he addresses the 're-release' of LWTUA.

He said in this (very prickly) interview that it was not 're-released'.
He goes on to explain that, at that point, none of JD's singles had ever gone out of print. He stated that 'Scott' at 'Rough Trade' (who was distributing some Factory releases) occasionally 'did them a favour' and issued press releases, which made it seem that certain records has been re-released. This is what happened in this case.

So, presumably, Rough Trade issued a press release about LWTUA and this pushed sales of the record up.

Listening to Hooky, although he appreciated that 'Scott' was 'doing them a favour', he was obviously annoyed that Rough Trade had issued this "shitty press release" (without telling the band / Factory, apparently). He was obviously irked that people might've thought they were trying to cash in on Ian's death, or that they were playing the 'promotion game'. Again, this is also a good example of New Order's unconventional method of 'selling themselves' in the 80s.


What's always puzzled me about the Joy Division 12"s is that, in the case of 'Transmission' and 'LWYUA', there's no difference in the contents between the 7" and the 12". I know that 12"s are better quality, but would the average punter have known that? What incentive was there for people to buy the 12"s at the time, when the (presumably) cheaper 7" with the same tracks was available?

Incidentally, just bought the LP / 12" bundle from the New Order Store. £44.75 including postage. Not too bad. I'm guessing Amazon may be the slightly cheaper option once these are listed on that site.

Off this topic, but I always wondered the same years later with 'World In Motion'. Why didn't Stephen Hague make a nice extended twelve inch mix - or at the very least they could have moved the tracks from the second remix 12" onto the main 12" to make it the only 12" release.

Kind of similar to 'True Faith', which had identical versions of '1963' on 7" and main 12", but with just an extra minute and a half of 'True Faith' on the 12" compared to the single edit.

Edited by user 14 May 2020 03:21:12(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

This makes sense. I don't ever remember NOT seeing the LWTUA and Atmosphere 12"s in the racks from the time I got into JD/NO (circa 1985/86) through to the mid 90s when records were starting to be trounced by CD sales

You only have to take a look at the discogs pages for these records to see how many pressing variations there have been over the years. It's actually quite hard to figure out the year of some pressings for that reason

Doesn't look like this Closer re-press is getting the rounded inner/matte textured sleeve treatment. That's a shame. There is not enough here to tempt me to buy again after getting the 2015 180gm black vinyl pressing (which still seems widely available?)

All three 12"s were 'retrospective' releases at the time. I guess LWTUA was the only one planned as a new release before the end.

It seems likely the original intention with re-recording SLC in March 1980 was for a US release with this new 'disco' version on the A side. My guess is that events meant that the original release idea became something else by the time it eventually came out (in December I think). Though they had SLC as the A side in the US, but with Atmosphere over here.

Transmission 12" was also put out around December.

Edited by user 15 May 2020 04:08:44(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Funny, i always think of Atmosphere when i see that cover with the snowy field and the trees.Just checked my 12" and Atmosphere is the A side on mine.A side and B side marked clearly on the disc's labels.

The interviewer is just terrible.
I know Hooky is in a completely cantankerous mood, but the interviewer is awful. Every time he mentions anything to Hooky that Hooky disagrees with, the interviewer then backs down and ends up agreeing with him. He just completely lets Hooky steamroll him.

I wonder who the interviewer was and whether he improved his technique.

The 7” and the 12” are the same interview; just different bits of it.

I'm surprised the marketeers haven't reissued the flexi-disc on 7" vinyl as it's directly linked to 'Closer' and could have been something different for collectors, even though I'm not one.

Re JD 'Still' was good but could have been even better and sequenced chronologically if they removed the pointless Sister Ray live on the studio side.

Yeah, that happened to me too with the second Ruined CD. I genuinely thought the player was buggered and on repeat.
I was still a completist and had a complete backlog that only contsined remixes of they had both the full vocal and radically different backing music. The entire 94 to 95 period only yielded four that qualified: TF Perfecto, 1963 95 and Vanilli vocal, BM Andrea. I'm amazed the band emerged with their credibility intact.