Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

Because We Can: New Order–Ceremony Live in NYC 1981

February 12th, 2009 · 1 Comment

This is New Order performing Ceremony at the Ukranian National Home in the East Village on Nov. 19, 1981 on their first tour after Ian Curtis killed himself on May 16, 1980. It is poignant watching Bernard Sumner sing this song (you can almost see the trepidation on his face as he takes the mike) which was written by Ian and performed live by Joy Division twice, including their last live appearance ever. It indicates the brilliant direction in which Joy Division was heading when Ian died. “Oh I’ll bring them down, no mercy shown/Heaven knows it’s got to be this time/Avenues all lined with trees/Picture me and then we’ll start watching/Watching forever.” When New Order recorded the song, Bernard had to run Ian’s lyrics from very poor recordings of those perfomrances through an equalizer to try to get them all. We had tickets to this show and for some reason couldn’t make it and gave them to a friend, who ended up being cussed out by John Lydon of PIL at the bar.

Tags: Because We Can

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