Editor’s Note: We have tweaked our This Show Is Tonight series to reflect the recent phenomenon of live music livestreaming in the age of social distancing.
***
UPDATE May 19, 7:37 a.m. EDT: The stream has been extended for another 24 hours, to continue to raise money for Epilepsy Society. Also, Peter Hook’s son and bandmate, Jack Bates, yesterday live-tweeted the first three-hour broadcast, and there’s a lot of excellent information compiled @Jack_Bass_.
***
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis, the beloved Joy Division frontman who in 1980 took his own life at the age of 23. There are several tributes to the iconic musician all day today (May 18), including Moving Through the Silence, which at 3 p.m. EDT features discussions (Joy Division’s Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, The Killers Brandon Flowers) and performances (Elbow, Kodeline).
But we’re drawn to Peter Hook & The Light’s all-day tribute, So This Is Permanent, a 24-hour salute that repeatedly streams their three-hour May 2015 live performance at Christ Church in Macclesfield, where they perform the entirety of the Joy Division catalogue. It starts today at 7 a.m. EDT, and the stream will raise money for Epilepsy Society, a United Kingdom group that specialize in the disease that infamously afflicted Curtis on stage and off of it.
So This Is Permanent finds Hooky’s band running through the Joy Division catalogue, with a guest appearance by Happy Mondays Rowetta and an introduction from Howard Marks. Back in 2015, the Christ Church show sold out in less than 20 seconds, as only 500 tickets were issued. Video clips of three tracks have been since released, but the entire show has been unseen; a DVD of the broadcast will be released by Live Here Now in June.
“The idea of coming back to Macclesfield, Ian’s hometown and to the church Ian attended as a child as well as in his youth was wonderful,” says Hook this month. “I wanted to do something different, something unique. I love playing our songs and what better opportunity could there be than to play every song Joy Division song ever wrote and recorded. They thought I was mad. I thought I was mad but we pulled it off. We played every song in one go. It was so emotional. I was so proud. I did it for Ian.”
So This Is Permanent will be broadcast across the Joy Division YouTube channel and both Joy Division and The Light’s Facebook pages, remaining online for 24 hours. Hook was set to perform “Joy Division 40: A Celebration” this month, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the postponement of those plans.
Tune in below.
