STUDIO SESSIONS

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1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | Complete list of studio sessions

DATE. STUDIO

Date: Monday 1–Thursday 4 May 1978

Studio: Arrow Studios – Manchester (UK)

TRACKS. NOTES

Failures
Duration: 2.28
Availability on record: –

Ice age
Duration: 2.26
Availability on record: –

Interzone
Duration: 2.09
Availability on record: Heart And Soul

Leaders of men
Duration: 2.20
Availability on record: –

No love lost
Duration: 4.51
Availability on record: –

Novelty
Duration: 3.49
Availability on record: –

Shadowplay
Duration: 4.10
Availability on record: Heart And Soul

The drawback
Duration: 1.44
Availability on record: Heart And Soul

Transmission
Duration: 4.14
Availability on record: –

Walked in line
Duration: 2.40
Availability on record: –

Warsaw
Duration: 2.13
Availability on record: –

DETAILS

Line-up: Ian Curtis | Peter Hook | Stephen Morris | Bernard Sumner

Producers: John Anderson | Robert Auger | Richard Searling

Sound engineer: Robert Auger
Mix: John Anderson

The band paid £35 per hour to record here

NOTES

Richard Searling brought John Anderson into the album project. John Anderson, head of the northern soul label Grapevine Records, had previously produced records in Miami for his partner Bernie Bennick (who set up Swan Records in the 1960's) and was totally involved with soul music. In Joy Division's case, however, he was willing to take a chance by trying a new type of band and, with Richard Searling, agreed that the group had some potential which they would try to develop
Previous to April, all dealing had been directly with Ian Curtis so the promoters met with the entire band and agreed to cut an album which would be paid for by John Anderson and Richard Searling. Rehearsals in late April resulted in at least two new songs being added to Joy Division's set. The promoters gave the band a copy of N.F. Porter's single Keep on keepin' on and told them to take the backing track, add their own lyrics, and see what they came up with – the result being Interzone, a song the band made distinctively their own. The final week of rehearsals also resulted in their writing Transmission
Joy Division went into Arrow Studios in Manchester on Monday 1 May, and spent the first two days working to record Ian Curtis's vocals properly. The eleven tracks were laid down on Wednesday and Thursday, with Robert Auger, who had set up the studio and was the session engineer, basically co-producing the album with the band. Richard Searling (who had booked the session) and John Anderson took little part in the actual recording sessions. On Thursday night (when Terry Mason, the group's manager, was on hand) they signed contracts which were backdated to Monday of that week. The contracts, which became a major object of the band's discontent, were fairly standard. The artists' (recording) contract was copied from that used by RCA in Britain, but the publishing contract was American and only provided 3 to 4% to the band – normal in the USA at that time for unknowns but, because of the punk revolution and the rise of the independent labels, considered very low in Britain. The band had not been comfortable with the meager publishing contract from almost the very start, and about two weeks after the session Bernard Sumner had taken it to Richard Boon, who suggested that Joy Division contact a solicitor he recommended and attempt to break the agreement
During the album's final mix-down on Friday, John Anderson put some synthesizer into it. He believed that the raw sound of punk would not last much longer and he wanted Joy Division to have a more professional and advanced sound than all the other same-sounding punk bands of the time. But when the group heard the mix they were very unhappy – they disliked the synths (though less than a year later they used them on Unknown Pleasures) and, wanting only guitar and drums, asked that the album be remixed. Joy Division believed that if the album were released, it would harm their punk band reputation, so John Anderson and Richard Searling decided to use it instead to set up a record deal with RCA. John Anderson took a tape to Derek Everett, head of RCA A&R with whom he had an exclusive contract, and began to persuade him to go with Joy Division. At the same time he had to work to convince the group that RCA was the only record company they had a chance with

STATISTICS

Number of tracks recorded: 11

Total duration of session: 33.04 minutes

Average track duration: 3.01 minutes