"good evening, we're joy division"        Jon Savage        London/Bethesda May & June 1994 August 27, 1979 Joy Division are headlining a ridicu- lous festival in a field outside Leigh, halfway between Liverpool and Manchester. The leading independent labels of both cities – Zoo and Factory – are meeting to showcase their talent: A Certain Ratio, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Echo 8 The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes. To the local police, this is tantamount to an alien invasion: they’ve closed down the town and are searching everyone on entry for drugs. One of my carload is already in custody.    In the twilight, Joy Division start their journey. What you get is this: at the back, a Ianky drummer who pounds out rhythms at once intricate yet simple. At climatic moments, Stephen Morris attacks a syndrum for those ‘pou pou’ noises that you’re starting to hear on disco records like Ring my bell. On the left, a slight person with the face of a debauched choirboy and the clothes of a polite young man – Bernard Dicken as he is then called – hunches over a guitar which is issuing rhythmic, often distorted blocks of noise. The sound scythes through the air.    On the right is the bearded bass player with his dyed blond thatch, engineer boots and double – breasted jacket: bent at the knees, he swings his instrument round like an offensive weapon. Peter Hook's basslines are prominent in the mix: Joy Division use them to carry the melody as so much else is texture. In the centre stands the singer: very pale, sometimes sweaty, tall, dressed in different shades of