\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA little over a year after Joy Division<\/a> frontman Ian Curtis committed suicide, the remaining members of the band \u2014 who were already touring and recording under the name New Order<\/a> \u2014 released the compilation album Still.<\/em> It\u2019s a collection of studio outtakes and live performances, including Joy Division\u2019s final concert.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe felt that was everything,\u201d Joy Division\/New Order drummer Stephen Morris<\/a> says today, sitting in the office of his home in Rainow, England. \u201cWe were tying up all the loose ends. \u2018Thank you, there won\u2019t be anymore.\u2019 We were naive because that never really happens, does it? There\u2019s always something lurking somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThere was indeed. And in the decades that followed, even though New Order took up much of their time, they still released several Joy Division compilation albums, concert recordings, their BBC Recordings, the John Peel Sessions, and deluxe editions of 1979\u2019s Unknown Pleasures<\/em> and 1980\u2019s Closer.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tBut this wasn\u2019t nearly enough for Joy Division\u2019s rabid fanbase, and there\u2019s been a thriving black market for bootleg concert recordings for decades, even though the sound quality of most of the tapes varies from half-decent to borderline inaudible.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThat\u2019s changing on Sept. 25 with the release of the 14-disc box set Eternal (Live).<\/em> It\u2019s an assemblage of 16 Joy Division concerts, including two that have never been heard anywhere, all of which have received significant sonic upgrades. There are also two DVDs that contain two hours and 30 minutes of concert footage, along with a new edit of the 1982 movie Joy Division \u2013 A Malcolm Whitehead Film.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tTo be clear, many of these live recordings are sourced from fans who snuck cassette recorders into concert halls. Much of the footage is also quite rudimentary. And even though the original cassettes were tracked down and engineers at Abbey Road Studios extracted every bit of possible data, there are limits to what they could have achieved considering the source material.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tStill, this is a dream project for hardcore Joy Division fans. To learn all about it, we chatted with Stephen Morris. The conversation also touched on Joy Division\/New Order\u2019s upcoming induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the \u201cpersonal health matters\u201d<\/a> that are keeping him and his wife, New Order keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, off the band\u2019s upcoming South American tour, and the war with former New Order bassist Peter Hook that\u2019s been raging for well over a decade.<\/p>\n