WARSAW - THE IDEAL BEGINNING (7") PSS 138 Enigma 1981
Released April 1981. Also released as 12" (see below).
Source: studio "The Warsaw Demos" July 18
1977
Inside the line Gutz At a later date
Issued in a fold-out sleeve, similar to the original official An Ideal For Living 7" EP
The back features the hand written sleeve to the first demo tape that Terry Mason, then the band's manager, duplicated and sent out to venues hoping to secure a gig. When the venues all said they sounded absolutely terrible Hooky had a listen and discovered that Terry had copied the tapes over the air with two cassette recorders side by side and he'd inadvertently included the theme to Coronation Street and his mother calling out that his dinner was ready.
So, is it a bootleg?
According to Neil Woodvine's privately published 1992 "book" (a stapled together computer print-out) entitled Joy Division:
"In May 1981 a most interesting item surfaced. An EP, or more accurately, a pair of EP's, titled 'THE IDEAL BEGINNING' featuring four unheard tracks, At a Later Date, Gutz, The Kill and Inside The Line. Released in excellent quality stereo, at first whether this was a bootleg or an officially sanctioned release was unclear. A little detective work revealed the source to be Manchester's Chaos Cassettes who claimed that it was not so much a bootleg as 'An underground collectors edition'. John West, the man responsible for Chaos releases said "We only had 2000 pressed so that it would remain collectable. It was done with the approval of the group's management. They did it just the same as they did the Sordide Sentimental deal last year. They did it just to show people what early Joy Division were like". Enclosed in a sleeve designed after An Ideal For Living the EP's were issued on May 18th 1981, exactly one year after Ian's death. A bootleg in all but name, royalties of a fashion were paid to the band."
THE IDEAL BEGINNING (12") Anon A/B Anonymous Records 1981
Released 18 May 1981. Black and white cover.
Source: studio
Gutz At a later date The kill
From "The Warsaw Demos" July 18 1977 which was never officially
released.
Joy Division are famous for changing their song-titles, and THIS version
of "The kill" is a totally different song than "The kill" off "Still"!
It appears there were two pressings with slightly different labels:
1. "MADE IN Gt. BRITAIN" printed along the bottom
2. "MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN" on the far right-hand side, next to "45 rpm"
and "Stereo".
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A few copies of this came with a four page photocopied insert featuring a Factory discography and a letter from Steve Morris circa 1978. The letter was probably originally part of the An Ideal For Living 7" EP music press promo pack. Apparently Joy Division were so impatient they sent it out to various music papers before they even got the folder covers back from the printers.
Scan 1 Scan 2 Scan 3
