Given the band’s short lifespan, the Joy Division nostalgia machine has churned out no shortage of live material. Never before, though, has so much of it been compiled in one place. Now, as the surviving band members prepare for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, Rhino has assembled Eternal (Live): a box set of 16 complete live albums, spread across 14 CDs, with a couple of DVDs thrown in for good measure. Among the concert recordings are three full concerts being released for the very first time and several more full recordings of shows that have been excerpted, to varying extents, for past releases. Listen to a previously released recording of “Transmission” from 1979 below.
The unreleased recordings span most of the band’s brief career, starting with a performance from March 1, 1979, at the Hope and Anchor in London. The last live album in the set (previously released as part of the compilation Still) is from the band’s final show. It was made at Birmingham’s High Hall on May 2, 1980—16 days before Ian Curtis’ death.
The audio is a fairly even mix of sound desk recordings and fan bootlegs, with some spliced together to get the best audio quality. There are also two radio broadcast recordings, both previously released: one from Paris nightclub Les Bains Douches and the other from Amsterdam’s Paradiso. The pair of DVDs comprise two and a half hours of concert footage, much of it unreleased, and a new edit of Joy Division – A Malcolm Whitehead Film. The full set was mastered at Abbey Road Studios and comes with a 16-page book of notes from Simon Armitage and photography by Anton Corbijn and Kevin Cummins.
