What appears to be a treasure trove of aging tapes recorded by legendary postpunk producer Martin Hannett — including copies of original masters and outtakes by the likes of Joy Division, New Order, The Psychedelic Furs and Magazine — have been “rescued” from a garbage bin and are now being put up for sale by Hannett’s former personal assistant.
Julia Adamson, a onetime member of The Fall who worked for Hannett from 1981 to 1983 before serving as a sound engineer at Manchester’s Strawberry Studios through the remainder of the ’80s, this week posted a photo on Facebook showing nearly 30 tape boxes with the note: “rescued tapes of Martin Hannetts .. anyone interested.” She doesn’t say where the tapes were found.
The boxes, as you can see in higher resolution, contain notes referring to a host of acts Hannett worked with in the late ’70s and ’80s, including the Furs, Magazine, The Durutti Column, The Names, Slaughter & The Dogs, Minny Pops, Yargo, Easterhouse and What? Noise, one of Adamson’s own bands.
Of course, the items of most interest no doubt are the six boxes marked with either “Joy Division” or “New Order” — particularly the one labeled “Joy Division Outtakes.” Adamson suggests that a copy of the original master tapes of Joy Division’s landmark 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures also is among the collection.
The quarter-inch tapes were digitized in 2008, Adamson, who played in The Fall in the late ’90s, notes in the comment thread on Facebook. She writes that she’s had no luck interesting Peter Hook in the tapes: “He’s not a happy bunny. Tried the other band members, too, to no avail, and the record companies.”
She writes:
“I have looked after these tapes for a long time and when I approached the artists (who were my first port of call) I was subjected to accusations and abuse… so I don’t really care anymore. I know they are worth something to a collector… and good luck to them. The quality of Unknown Pleasures far surpasses the mastering from vinyl over the years (they lost the master tapes long ago… these are copy masters… and outtakes… that I assure you are quite splendid).”
Adamsom, who currently runs Invisible Girl Records, acknowledges she’s aware of the legal issues surrounding such tapes — namely that it would be difficult to release any such material without the involvement of the copyright holders and original recording artists. “I’m a music publisher,” she notes, “probably one of the reasons these tapes are in my hands in the first place, they were incalculably valuable and needed to be rescued from a skip.”
She adds:
“The digital copies will be available for all the artists and record companies … the tapes have always belonged to me, as I rescued them. I am keen for a collector to have them (the whole collection ideally) as they are very old and probably deteriorating and should be baked or whatever, nor do I really want to look after them anymore.”
In the lengthy Facebook thread about the tapes, she encourages any interested parties to message her directly about the tapes. She notes: “I reckon it will go viral (not by me).”
WTF?!? Unbelievable!
I would love to hear the Joy Division & New Order tapes!!
Hook is “not a happy bunny” in general, and due to the unsettled NO legal situation and the money being asked for the tapes (which most parties feel is excessive) I’m not surprised that no one has moved on this. Its obvious based on the “baked or whatever” comment that the present owner of the tapes (that’s all she owns..not the material on them) has done little conservation other than pack them around and a perhaps basic digitization. While that is admirable and deserving of reasonable compensation it dosen’t entitle anyone to engage in arrogant withholding of the work of others.
“…due to the unsettled NO legal situation and the money being asked for the tapes…”
“…has done little conservation other than pack them around…”
“…in arrogant withholding of the work of others.”
Says you–what evidence do you have? Please, provide links. Apparently they belonged to Hannett–you disagree? You don’t believe what he did was, work? You read his contract with Factory? Again–provide evidence. You don’t but her story? Please, enlighten us with facts
You’re either a very inside player hiding in your avatar, or scum.
DL’s comment is pretty on the money from what I know. The tapes belonged to the artists and the labels, Martin was employed and paid by them to produce the work, not own it. She is also expecting large sums of money for them too.
“what I know. ”
who are you? how do you know what you know? you’ve read his contract? you worked for Factory? she’s expecting “large sums”… weird how so many commenters–with different names–keep using that, w/out offering any evidence.
This is an absolute disgrace.
These recordings should be archived and properly stored.
It blows me away that Rhino hadn’t secured any of these masters for the JD reissue when “Control” came out but then again, we all know how badly they fucked up with the NO remasters so doesn’t really surprise me at all.
I’d be willing to kickstart a campaign to see these recordings go to 50 Pound Note, the man behind the RECYCLE collection. At least then we’d know that they would be taken care of and released with the utmost care.
And Furs reels too?!?!? Holy shit!
50 Pound Note and Analog Loyalist were given a ‘cease’ order. They can’t post anything by JD/NO at this point or risk litigation.
True. Too many JD fanboys/fangirls on the FB pic’s comments are saying ‘I want it’ or ‘I want to hear it’ without thinking realistically.
This is insane news. I know that I am in the minority with all of the unhealthily obsessed Joy Division and New Order fans out there, but the Psychedelic Furs and Magazine tapes sound much more intriguing to me.
I’m blown away that there isn’t intense, immediate, widespread interest in this! Hannett is single-handedly responsible for one of the most fertile post-punk labs in history. This is most likely extremely vital stuff. I would buy these tracks instantly upon release- I’m sure a couple million other consumers feel the same way.
Only hardcore collectors would want this stuff. I’m a big fan, but I’m not ultra-ultra obsessed with the band as the hardcore collectors
She makes out that the artists and labels don’t care, but what she neglects to mention is that she is expecting large sums of money in return for the tapes and is effectively holding them to ransom.
I start bidding at $100.
Wow, I really hope these recordings don’t vanish into the ether. This could be the only place the original unreleased version of the Furs’ “Dumb Waiters” exists!
She did mention a track called ‘Soap Commercial’ on her comments, so it does sound like it is indeed the Hannett produced session.
There are folks that have been sitting on rare Jimi Hendrix reels, holding out for large sums of money, for decades.
Don’t get yourself too excited.
I’d just like to say that a lot of spin is going on here about the tapes.. they were rescued, and I’m flattered by the amount of feedback I’ve had. I made small progress emailing numerous people / companies associated with the tapes before. The FB photo post has raised awareness and I now have the right contacts to discuss the copyrights with. Thanx
Same shit with Marc Bolan.
This has a certain irony in this as Hannett got screwed (in his opinion) by Factory in his ’82 settlement and Hook and Sumner never really appreciated or understood what Martin was doing. Who actually owns these is maybe more complicated than most, because Factory didn’t have contracts with their bands until very late on and certainly not in Martin’s time there. This wasn’t unlikely to be the case with acts on other labels such as JJC, Furs and so on. Are Hook (and others) annoyed because of the money being asked for their own work? Hook always claimed there wasn’t any spare J.D recordings and dismissed the claim of the dub mixes of ‘Digital’ and ‘Glass’. Whatever happens, I hope they see the light of day.
Yes, thanks, darren.
They should have always ‘seen the light of day’. Unfortunately they ended up in the hands of someone who saw them as a pension.
Please remember she could have always have done gifted them. When pressed on this she is on record as telling the police they had been stolen from her car rather than give them to the rightful owned ( joy division tapes) naughty
Chris Nagle disagrees.
Chris Nagle disagrees with what?
This is hilarious. The tapes are only safety masters and would probably only be stereo anyway. Julia obviously owns the tapes, but not the (copyrighted) content. If I was Julia I would digitize the lot, then make it available for download for free, screw what the bands think.
Whoever put these in the trash is a retard and needs to be fired immediately! Unless maybe it was a media stunt and then I would say, touché, brilliantly done!
I am intrigued by these tapes, their content, the truth behind them and why now? Circa 2008, Interstate released a double cd ‘In The Studio With Martin Hannett’ containing a series of outttakes, warm up sessions for ‘Atmosphere’, ‘Glass’, ‘Dead Souls’ etc. An earlier version of this was also released by Intersate called ‘Joy Division – Martin Hannett’s personal Mixes’. This cd contained outttakes , keyboard doodles, false starts but there are also 10 full tracks, slightly different versions of ‘Autosuggestion, From Safety To Where, Heart & Soul etc.. Peter Hook is on record as slating the 2008 album I mentioned. These have both been available for sometime, the latter is hard to find now, but the other is available on Amazon…….
Maybe there is cash to be had selling on second copy masters, but I suspect everything on the tapes is already available on cd, which may explain why no one is interested! I’m sure if I wanted to start digging, I’d find similar recordings available by the other bands on the tapes too…
I see there is some Durutti Column material, given his current circs it would nice to return that tape to him wouldn’t it?
What this does highlight is that many master tapes and movie reels that people think are safely and securely archived away in vaults, simply aren’t. They’re either lost, tossed into bins or in the hands of people who have ‘rescued’ or liberated them, hence you’ll often find re-issued material is ‘remastered’ from Vinyl pressings and so on. Our musical heritage is far from secure.
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