Joy Division

by Gill Ripley

More Joy Division

Ian Curtis- vocals

Peter Hook- bass

Stephen Morris- vocals

Bernard Sumner- guitars

Joy Division only released two albums but they led the way out of punk rock and careered head first into the days of Madchester.

They were inspired by the Lesser Free Trade Hall that hosted The Sex Pistols and The Buzzcock’s debut appearance. The boys bought guitars and decided to be a band. Pubs in darkest Salford were used as rehearsal studios and they nearly ended up being called ‘The Stiff Kittens’. Poor chaps. It was changed to ‘Warsaw’, only to find that London- based group Warsaw Pakt had released an album. In 1978 they finally became Joy Division.

Quickly, rumours spread due to the origin of their name (a novel about concentration camps) that they had dealings with Nazi’s. They played their first Factory gig at the Russell Club in Manchester. From this, their single ‘Transmission’ was released. The critics raved, but the sales were low.

On November 26th Joy Division recorded their Second Peel Session. One of the songs was Love Will Tear Us Apart which soon became the best known unrecorded song in Britain. Their success soared and at one point, they were playing 4 gigs in 3 nights. Naturally, this took its toll on the band members. Ian suffered an epileptic fit on stage and then continued to take a drugs overdose.

On May 18th 1980, two days before Joy Division were due to leave for America, and two months before his 24th birthday, Ian Curtis committed suicide. Whether the reason was the break up of his marriage, tour worries or the medication for his epilepsy, is still unknown.

Almost four years after they started out, the remaining members performed at Manchester’s Beach Club as New Order. A compilation CD of Joy Division was released in 1995 alongside the re release of ‘Love Will Tear us Apart’. A collection of their main recordings called ‘Heart and Soul’ was released in 1997. They are among the artists portrayed in UK film ’24 hour Party People’ that celebrates a time of free love, ‘mad fer it’ music and the ingestion of way too many narcotics.