As my last flight approached Sydney I had 40 minutes to kill.  NOt long enough to watch a film, or even an episode of a TV programme on the in-flight system.  I chose instead to listen to music and settled on a best of collection of Joy Division tracks.  I like Joy Division and own a couple of albums at home but I wouldn’t say that they made it onto a list of my top 20 bands.  I made the choice, as much as anything, on the back of watching a BBC 3 series on Indie music, which described how Martin Hannett, their producer, had played a pivotal role in developing their distinctive sound.  Listening to this collection I was struck by the relatively crude sound, typical of an Indie label in the ’80s.  How good would they have sounded with today’s production values, or even the budget that at the time the major labels were able to dedicate to mainstream bands?  I think the answer is bloody brilliant but we’ll never know.

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