Disney Take The Mickey With Joy Division Inspired T-Shirt

As one of the largest corporations in the world you would think that the people behind Disney's merchandise department would do a little more research before launching a new t-shirt. This week the company have released a new t-shirt design which very closely resembles the album artwork from Joy Divisions 'Unknown Pleasures'.

 The wave pattern of the album artwork has been adapted to feature the silhouette of Disney's biggest star Mickey Mouse. A line on the website originally gave a nod towards the band stating “Inspired by the iconic sleeve of Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures' album, this Waves Mickey Mouse Tee incorporates Mickey's image within the graphic of the pulse of a star. That's appropriate given few stars have made bigger waves than Mickey!” however this has now been removed.

Singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis, led a very depressing life, fighting epilepsy before eventually committing suicide by hanging himself. The band also took their name from a division of the Nazi party, an ironic connection with Walt Disney that won't be lost on Joy Division fans.

Members of Joy Division have spoken out both against and in favour of the t-shirt. Drummer Stephen Morris has said “I was quite angry when I first saw it. No one asked us. They’re trading off the band and our album cover. I don’t like the design at all. It’s horrible.” While bassist Peter Hook is said to be “very flattered” about the use of the bands album artwork.

 While, Peter Hook added: I must admit, over the years I've become used to Mickey Mouse t-shirts, especially where Joy Division are concerned, because it was something that we never bothered with early on in our career and we've never attached much importance to that side of things actually. I'm used to bootleggers.

 Adding: "I spend a lot of my time policing Joy Division bootlegs and normally we ask for a contribution to be made to Ian's charity for Epilesy. So, maybe if we wanted to make Disney feel guilty we could suggest that they did that"

The t-shirt has now sold out online.