Rhino's 'Eternal (Live)' Compiles 16 Joy Division
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- Rhino is assembling Eternal (Live), a box set of 16 complete Joy Division live albums spread across 14 CDs and two DVDs, with three full concert recordings released for the first time.
- Joy Division's unreleased material in the set spans from a March 1, 1979 show at London's Hope and Anchor to the band's final gig at Birmingham's High Hall on May 2, 1980 — 16 days before Ian Curtis' death.
- The audio is a mix of sound desk recordings and fan bootlegs, some spliced together for better quality, and includes two previously released radio broadcasts from Paris's Les Bains Douches and Amsterdam's Paradiso.
- The DVDs offer two and a half hours of concert footage, much of it previously unreleased, plus a new edit of Joy Division – A Malcolm Whitehead Film.
- The package was mastered at Abbey Road Studios and includes a 16-page book with notes from poet Simon Armitage and photography by Anton Corbijn and Kevin Cummins.
- The release is timed to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction of Joy Division's surviving members, consolidating scattered archival material into a single career-spanning set for the first time.
Why it matters: A band that existed for barely two years is now getting 16 full live albums in one set, with three shows never before heard — a level of archival consolidation usually reserved for acts with far longer careers. Collectors and completists gain the closest thing yet to a definitive Joy Division concert document, while the timing with the Rock Hall induction maximizes the audience for both events.
