Sunday, December 27, 2020

Warsaw - Warsaw (1978)

I think most people know that before they were Joy Division the band were called Warsaw, and recorded four songs at Pennine Sound Studios in December 1977 for their debut EP, released as 'An Ideal For Living' in 1978. What people might not know is that the band recorded a whole demo album for RCA Records the same year, at Arrow Studios in Manchester, which comprised eleven songs from their then-current repertoire. However, the band were disappointed with the label's post-production work and the deal fell through, with the album subsequently being scrapped. These sessions circulated on bootlegs for years, generally bearing the 'Warsaw' title, until the tracks were eventually licensed for a commercial release in 1994, appearing alongside 'As You Said' from the 1980 'Komakino' single, and including the band's first recorded music, the five 'Warsaw Demo' tracks from 1977, once again recorded at Pennine Sound Studios in Manchester. It came with frankly disappointing artwork for such an iconic band, so for this post I've extracted the 11 album tracks and housed them in something a bit more stylish, and then made the five 1977 recordings into a companion EP entitled 'Inside The Line'. I've omitted 'As You Said' as this was recorded some years after the other tracks, and is easily available on numerous other compilations.  



Track listing - 'Warsaw'

01 The Drawback
02 Leaders Of Men
03 Walked In Line
04 Failures
05 Novelty
06 No Love Lost
07 Transmission
08 Living In The Ice Age
09 Interzone
10 Warsaw
11 Shadowplay





Track listing - 'Inside The Line'

01 Inside The Line
02 Gutz
03 At A Later Date
04 The Kill
05 You're No Good For Me

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