At the time, Curtis' relationship with his wife Deborah (the couple married in 1975 as teenagers) was collapsing. Contributing factors were his deteriorating ill health, her being mostly excluded from his life with the band, as well as his relationship with a young Belgian woman, Annik Honoré, whom Curtis met on European tour in late 1979.

Ian Curtis's suicide

On May 18, 1980, the evening before Joy Division were to embark on their first American tour, Curtis returned to his home and convinced his wife, Deborah, to spend the evening at her parents' house. Curtis watched the Werner Herzog film Stroszek on television, then listened to the Iggy Pop album The Idiot and wrote a letter to his estranged wife. He then hanged himself in the kitchen. Deborah found him the following morning.

The exact reasons for his suicide have never fully been explained. However there are two factors which are thought to have affected his state of mind strongly. The first was his epilepsy, he was suffering worsening seizures and the band regularly had to cancel concerts to allow him sufficient time to recover. And indeed he made a suicide attempt several months before his actual death, overdosing on the medicine prescribed to control his epilepsy. The second factor affecting him was his marriage break down. He had engaged in an extra marital affair and his wife Deborah had filed for divorce..

The end of Joy Division

In the summer of 1980, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" hit number 13 on the British singles chart, their biggest commercial success to date. In July 1980, Closer was finally released to overwhelmingly positive reviews; it also charted, peaking at number 6 on the British album chart. Sales of Unknown Pleasures were also robust. In June 1980, Hook, Morris and Sumner entered Graveyard Studios with fellow Factory act Kevin Hewick for a session, produced by Martin Hannett. The track was called 'Haystack'. It was not released as a single by Factory, but was later released on a Kevin Hewick compilation. Factory Records head Tony Wilson reportedly suggested to the band that Hewick replace Curtis as vocalist in the group.

The members of Joy Division had made a pact that, should any member leave the group the remaining members would abandon the name "Joy Division" and all material associated with it. The remaining members held true to this commitment, and Joy Division was officially disbanded. The band was reborn as a three piece called New Order, later recruiting Morris' girlfriend Gillian Gilbert to round out the group on keyboards. Initially, the band was mum as to whether the name referred to the 'new order' of the band, or if it was a reference to Nazi Germany as was the name Joy Division. Alternating between guitar-drum-bass and electronic styles, the band's music reached and inspired a variety of listeners. New Order is often cited as one of the leading synthpop and dance music groups of their era, yet their use of traditional rock instruments such as guitars and live drums has reached a level of influence comparable with their landmark electronic works.

Legacy

The band, and especially Ian Curtis, has been an inspiration for a number of bands and musicians that include U2, The Smashing Pumpkins, Manic Street Preachers, Interpol, Trent Reznor (who, as Nine Inch Nails, covered "Dead Souls" for the soundtrack of the movie The Crow), Robert Smith of The Cure, and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante. The continuing importance of Joy Division was shown at the turn of the millennium when John Peel asked his listeners to vote for the all-time Festive 50. At number one was the haunting "Atmosphere," while "Love Will Tear Us Apart" sat at number three. Three more songs from the band sat on the list. The ending solo from "New Dawn Fades," as performed by Moby, was featured in the 1995 film Heat as Al Pacino chases down Robert De Niro. In 1999, a New Jersey band named Thursday recorded a song called "Ian Curtis" that included Joy Division song titles, such as Isolation, Heart & Soul and Twenty Four Hours, as lyrics. In 2005, Joy Division were inducted along with New Order into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

Much of the history of Joy Division was portrayed in the 2002 MGM/United Artists released film 24 Hour Party People which presented a somewhat fictionalized account of the rise and fall of the Factory Records, with whom both Joy Division and New Order were signed.

In 2007 a new film Control, directed by Anton Corbijn was released. The film depicts Curtis' life and uses the Deborah Curtis biography as a basis, although the plot has been broadened to cover areas of Ian's life that Deborah was not privy. Other people close to Ian were consulted for the film, including Tony Wilson, and of course the band, who scored the film using the Joy Division name. Control had its international premiere on the first night of Director's Fortnight at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (May 17, 2007; the twenty-seventh anniversary of Ian Curtis' final night alive). Curtis is played by 24 Hour Party People star Sam Riley, who played Mark E. Smith, while his wife Deborah is portrayed by Samantha Morton, and Alexandria Maria Lara plays Annik Honoré. The members of New Order attended the premiere. In 2007 the Belgian indie magazine Side-Line published an interview online with Annik Honoré originally made in 2005 in which she tells for the first time about her view on the upcoming film.

Lyrics

The band were described in the press at the time as "doom laden". This was due in part to the often dark lyrics written by Ian Curtis. Death, sadness, anger, bitterness or loss were recurrent themes. For example the 1979 song "Shadowplay" includes the line "In the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more".

Equipment

Joy Division often experimented with different sounds, especially once in collaboration with Martin Hannett. Within the band, it is said that Sumner was the driving force behind new instrumental ideas and usage. He, for instance, instigated the use of synthesizers in Joy Division's music. Ironically the band had been unhappy with the 1978 scrapped RCA album recordings because the producer had used synthesizers. Synthesizers were used the latter part of the band's career, featuring prominently in songs such as "Isolation," "Decades" and "The Eternal" from the Closer album as well as "Atmosphere" and "Something Must Break." Interestingly, an outtake from the Closer sessions, "As You Said" (sometimes called "Incubation 2") subsequently released on the FAC28 flexi-disk and on the CD box set Heart And Soul, is entirely electronic in its sound, and is one of only two Joy Division songs that doesn't include any vocals (the other track being "Incubation", which features dual guitar work from Curtis and Sumner).

Synthesizers at the time, were notoriously prone to overheating, and going out of tune - Joy Division's ARP String Machine and Powertran Transcendent were no exceptions, as the synthesizer on the live version of "Decades" featured on "Still" testifies. Another problem with using a synthesizer live was that Sumner, the group's lead guitarist, was not able to play both synthesizer and guitar at the same time. For this reason, Ian Curtis took over basic guitar duties on some live tracks - "I Remember Nothing," "Heart and Soul," "Atmosphere," "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Incubation" all featured Curtis playing the electric guitar live, although it is unlikely that Curtis played guitar on studio recordings (though remains a possibility, with no official word ever coming from the band). The increasing use of the synthesizer towards the latter part of Joy Division's existence supports a possible theory that Joy Division may well have taken the electronic based direction that New Order were to take had Curtis not died. In a 2005 Q magazine article, the members of New Order claimed this was the case, and that if Curtis had still been alive they would have charted the same path, French disco diversions and all. Footage exists of Curtis playing Sumner's Shergold Custom Masquerader and also VOX Phantom VI Special guitar (often mistakenly attributed as being a Teardrop, Guitar Organ or ordinary Phantom), which were apparently cheap at the time. Although a competent but not a skilled guitarist, Curtis' playing enhanced the band's sound at live gigs. Sumner, as previously mentioned, was the group's lead guitarist and used two or more different models with Joy Division; the mentioned Shergold Custom Masquerader and a Gibson SG Standard were two he is definitely known to have used. During the Warsaw days Sumner used a cheap SG copy, later upgrading to a genuine Gibson after Unknown Pleasures had started to sell.

Peter Hook chose to play his bass guitar more like a lead guitar on many tracks. Hook started to use a Shergold Marathon six stringed bass guitar on the Closer album, which allowed for a scale of higher notes to be played. He continued to use the Marathon with New Order, as well as a conventional Yamaha BB1200 four-stringed bass. His original bass, a Hondo Rickenbacker copy, was damaged after an altercation during a gig in Manchester in September 1979 (NB: some reports state that this bass was destroyed during this altercation, but the bass survived enough at least to be used on the band's January 1980 European Tour). Hook also performed backing vocals for the group and was the 'other voice' on the song "Interzone." On the tracks "Atrocity Exhibition" and "Sound of Music," Hook and Sumner swapped instruments so that Hook was playing electric guitar and Sumner bass guitar. The melodica was another instrument used by Joy Division during a select few recording sessions: briefly on "Decades" and quite predominantly on "In a Lonely Place," which only exists as a rehearsal recording (this recording can be heard in the "Heart and Soul" box set). New Order used the melodica a number of times and were said to have "inherited" it from Curtis, who purchased one after hearing it used by dub-reggae artist Augustus Pablo.

Morris used an extensive drum kit to allow a great range of rolls, rhythm shifts and beats. Morris was an active drummer, especially on tracks such as "She's Lost Control" and "Transmission" where the insistent beat fueled Curtis' gyrations. Morris also used Simmonds and Synare electronic drumpads and a BOSS DR-55 drum machine on some songs ("Insight," "She's Lost Control," "Isolation," "Decades") in combination with conventional drums to broaden the tonal palette.

Live performances

The usual scene at a Joy Division gig was Curtis in the middle at the front, with Sumner to his right and Hook to left, and Morris and his drum kit behind him. After experimenting with strobe lighting, later the band played under white lights, without variations in their low light levels, due to Curtis's epilepsy. Curtis usually held onto the microphone stand for most of a song, only leaving it to dance. When Curtis danced, it was with a unique style that involved rotating his arms very quickly back and forth in front of him as though fighting with a large wheel or attempting to swim. He sometimes walked off stage after he had finished his vocals, leaving the rest of the band to finish the song without him. Also, Curtis very rarely spoke to the audience at gigs apart from the occasional "thank you" at the end of a song. At the Preston Warehouse gig in 1980, Curtis was unusually talkative (in order to keep the audience informed of the equipment failure the band suffered partway through the set). This gig has since been issued on a CD which culminates in a particularly intense version of "She's Lost Control" despite the equipment failures.

Accusations of neo-Nazism

The band's name, along with Sumner reverting to his father's surname Albrecht, and the imagery used on early releases, garnered the band criticism for their perceived insensitivity. Accusations of neo-Nazism, a charge the group denied, dogged them for the remainder of the band's career. These accusations resurfaced after Joy Division ended and reformed as New Order, a name sometimes interpreted as a reference to Adolf Hitler's speeches promising "the new order of the Third Reich". The band later stated they got the name from a newspaper article on the new society the Khmer Rouge had envisaged for Cambodia and that a variety of other names had been considered, some more frivilous than others. Gillian Gilbert said in a television interview she simply considered it to mean the new order within the band as they moved on from Joy Division.

Several references exist within Joy Division lyrics about Rudolf Hess. In an early song, Warsaw, Hess's POW number is used as an intro and again in the chorus. On a later live album, the band's guitarist Bernard Sumner can be heard saying, "You all forgot Rudolf Hess", before the song At A Later Date.

Members

Members

• Ian Curtis – lead vocals, guitar
• Bernard Sumner – guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Peter Hook – bass guitar, vocals
• Stephen Morris – drums, percussion

Other members

• Terry Mason – drums (mid-1976 to May 1977)
• Tony Tabac – drums (May to June 1977)
• Steve Brotherdale – drums (June to August 1977)

Discography

Albums

• Unknown Pleasures (1979)
• Closer (1980)

Compilations

• Still (1981) - collection of rare recordings along with their final concert performance
• The Peel Sessions (LP, Strange Fruit SFRLP 211, 1986, 1987) - the band's two Peel Sessions combined on one album
• Substance (1988) - singles compilation
• Warsaw (1994) - very early recordings
• Permanent (London 828624, 1995) - compilation; reached #16 on the UK album charts
• Heart & Soul (1997) - 4 CD set of complete works
• The Complete BBC Recordings (CD, Strange Fruit SFRSCD094, 2000) - contains the two Peel Sessions, Something Else appearance and an interview

Live albums

• Preston Warehouse (Factory FACD 2.60) - recorded February 28, 1980
• Les Bains Douches (Factory FACD 2.61) - recorded December 18, 1979
• Fractured (Factory FACD 2.61z) - box set combining Preston Warehouse and Les Bains Douches in special packaging
• Re - Fractured (2004, limited release) - box set combining Preston Warehouse and Les Bains Douches, together with a third disc containing recordings from a concert in Amsterdam, and a poster and t-shirt sporting the word 'Refractured', all contained in a special box

Singles and EPs

• An Ideal for Living (UK, Enigma PSS139, 1978)
• "Transmission" (UK, Factory FAC 13, 1979)
• Licht und Blindheit (France, SS33002, 1980)
• "Komakino" (UK, Factory FAC 28, 1980)
• "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (UK, Factory FAC 23, 1980)
• "Atmosphere/She's Lost Control" (UK/US, Factory FACUS 2, 1980)
• The First Peel Session (UK, Strange Fruit SFPS013, 1986)
• The Second Peel Session (UK, Strange Fruit SFPS033, 1987)
• "Atmosphere" (UK, Factory FAC 213, 1988)
• "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (UK, London UK YOJ 1, 1995)

Video

• Here Are All The Young Men (UK, Factory FACT 37, 1982)
• Joy Division: Under Review Region 2 DVD only available Oct.31 2006

Compilation appearances

• Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus (10" LP, Virgin VCL 5003, June 1978) — "At a Later Date"
• A Factory Sample (2×7", Factory FAC 2, January 1979) — "Digital," "Glass"
• Earcom 2: Contradiction (12"EP, Fast Product FAST 9B, October 1979) — "Autosuggestion," "From Safety to Where...?"
• Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the '80s Underground (Rhino, 2004)

There are also a tremendous number of bootleg recordings, both live and studio.

Notes

Sources

• Curtis, Deborah. Touching from a distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division. London: Faber, 1995 (2nd ed. 2001, 3rd ed. 2005). ISBN 0-571-17445-0
• Middles, Mick. From Joy Division to New Order: The Factory Story. London: Virgin, 1996.
• Middles, Mick, and Lindsay Reade . "Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis" London. Omnibus Press, 2006. ISBN 1-84449-826-3
• Ott, Chris. Unknown Pleasures. (33⅓ series) New York: Continuum, 2004. ISBN 0-8264-1549-0
• The Joy Division Central Web Site

External links

• Joy Division Central – Independent Joy Division site.
• New Order Online Semi-official website.