After returning from a January European tour, JOY DIVISION played three gigs with KILLING JOKE. The two bands co-headlined the third at the Lyceum, London on this day in 1980. Opening bands were A CERTAIN RATIO and SECTION 25.
Several recordings exist - audience, soundboard and soundcheck. Five songs were released as part of the Heart and Soul boxset, the other songs and recordings are available on various bootlegs.
Complete KILLING JOKE and JOY DIVISION sets available on Youtube (audio).
It was a brilliant venue to play, nice big stage, big payday, full house, streams of sweat running down the walls. Killing Joke followed by Joy Division, my Lord, what a show. We broke the box office record that night, the most tickets ever sold for a Lyceum show, or so the promoter claimed. The fool. That just meant that he had to pay us more didn't it?
EG Records came to that gig. They had been sniffing around Killing Joke for a few months and that night was the final piece in the jigsaw that convinced them to sign the band. We (the management) didn't really want to sign to them to be honest, but we were so broke and Killing Joke got so popular so quickly, we had to do it.
Adam Morris, 1980 Joy Division are supported by Killing Joke for 3 iconic gigs - an eye witness account, Louder Than War, 2019