Thursday, January 31, 2019

Left to Blind Destruction


Joy Division : Transmission ( Peel Session)


On January 31, 1979 Joy Division recorded four songs for John Peel's show. They were broadcast on February 14, 1979. Thee songs were "Exercise One", the band's future debut single "Transmission",  and two forthcoming Unknown Pleasures tracks "Insight" and "She's Lost Control". 

Peel had first played Joy Division in March of 1978 but he wasn't as wild about them as he was about other bands. "I didn’t at the time think that Joy Division were a band that I was going to prefer above any other," he told author John Walters. "They were just one of a whole handful of bands whose work I was quite enjoying at that time."


The band grew on him. Peel would play Joy Division 34 times in 1979 . In 2000 he would declare the single, "Atmosphere", the #1 all time song among his Festive Fifty, ahead of the song he was best known for championing,  The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks". 


1 comment:

  1. Remember hearing the Peel Session "Transmission" and being blown away. "Dance, dance, dance to the radio!" I was an old fart of 27, but I thought it was FAB.

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