| Joy Division | |
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Joy Division in 1979. Left to right: Stephen Morris, Peter Hook, Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Warsaw |
| Origin | Salford, Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | Post-punk |
| Years active | 1976–1980 |
| Labels | Factory |
| Associated acts | New Order |
| Past members | |
| Ian Curtis Peter Hook Stephen Morris Bernard Sumner |
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Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis (vocals and occasional guitar), Bernard Sumner (guitar and keyboards),[1] Peter Hook (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Stephen Morris (drums and percussion).
Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences to develop a sound and style that pioneered the post-punk movement of the late 1970s. According to music critic Jon Savage, the band "were not punk but were directly inspired by its energy".[2] Their self-released 1978 debut EP, An Ideal for Living, caught the attention of the Manchester television personality Tony Wilson. Joy Division's debut album, Unknown Pleasures, was released in 1979 on Wilson's independent record label, Factory Records, and drew critical acclaim from the British press. Despite the band's growing success, vocalist Ian Curtis was beset with depression and personal difficulties, including a dissolving marriage and his diagnosis of epilepsy. Curtis found it increasingly difficult to perform at live concerts, and often had seizures during performances.
On the eve of the band's first American tour in May 1980, Curtis, overwhelmed with depression, committed suicide. Joy Division's posthumously released second album, Closer (1980), and the single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" became the band's highest charting releases. After the death of Curtis, the remaining members continued as New Order, achieving critical and commercial success.
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On 20 July 1976, Sumner and Hook (who had been friends since the age of eleven) separately attended the second Sex Pistols show at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. The following day Hook borrowed £35 from his mother to buy his first bass guitar.[3] Sumner later said that he felt that the Pistols "destroyed the myth of being a pop star, of a musician being some kind of god that you had to worship".[4] Inspired by the performance, Sumner and Hook formed a band with their friend Terry Mason, who had also attended the show. Sumner bought a guitar, and Mason a drum kit. They invited schoolfriend Martin Gresty to join as vocalist, but he turned them down after getting a job at a local factory.[5] An advertisement was placed in the Virgin Records store in Manchester for a vocalist. Ian Curtis, who knew the three from meeting at earlier gigs, responded and was hired without audition.[4] According to Sumner, "I knew he was all right to get on with and that's what we based the whole group on. If we liked someone, they were in."[6]
Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon and frontman Pete Shelley have both been credited with suggesting the band call themselves the Stiff Kittens, and they were billed under this name for their first public performance, but the band instead chose the name Warsaw shortly before the gig, in reference to the song "Warszawa" by David Bowie.[7][8][9] Warsaw played their first gig on 29 May 1977, supporting the Buzzcocks, Penetration, and John Cooper Clarke at the Electric Circus.[9] The band received national exposure due to reviews of the gig in the NME by Paul Morley and in Sounds by Ian Wood.[10][11] Tony Tabac played drums that night after joining the band two days earlier.[9][12] Mason was soon made the band's manager and Tabac was replaced on drums in June 1977 by Steve Brotherdale, who also played in the punk band Panik.[13] During his tenure with Warsaw, Brotherdale tried to get Curtis to leave the band and join Panik and even got Curtis to audition for the band.[14][15] In July 1977, Warsaw recorded a set of five demo tracks at Pennine Sound Studios, Oldham.[16] Uneasy with Brotherdale's aggressive personality, the band fired him soon after the demo sessions. Driving home from the studio, they pulled over and asked Brotherdale to check on a flat tyre; when he got out of the car, they sped off.[17]
In August 1977, the band placed an advertisement in a music shop window seeking a replacement drummer. Stephen Morris, who had attended the same school as Curtis, was the sole respondent. Deborah Curtis, Ian's wife, stated that Morris "fitted perfectly" with the other men, and that with his addition Warsaw became a "complete 'family'".[18] In order to avoid confusion with the London punk band Warsaw Pakt, the band renamed themselves Joy Division in early 1978, borrowing their new name from the prostitution wing of a Nazi concentration camp mentioned in the 1955 novel The House of Dolls.[15][19] In December, the group recorded what became their debut EP, An Ideal for Living at Pennine Sound Studio and played their final gig as Warsaw on New Year's Eve at The Swinging Apple in Liverpool.[20] Billed as Warsaw to ensure an audience, the band played their first gig as Joy Division on 25 January 1978 at Pip's Disco in Manchester.[21]
Joy Division were approached by RCA Records to record a cover of Nolan "N.F." Porter's "Keep On Keepin' On" and were afforded recording time at a professional Manchester studio in return. Joy Division spent late March and April 1978 writing and rehearsing material.[22] During the Stiff/Chiswick Challenge concert at Manchester's Rafters Club on 14 April, the group caught the attention of Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton. Curtis berated Wilson for not putting the group on his defunct Granada Television show So It Goes; Wilson responded that Joy Division would be the next band he would showcase on TV.[23] Gretton, the venue's resident DJ, was so impressed by the band's performance that he convinced them to take him on as their manager.[3] Gretton, whose "dogged determination" would later be credited for much of the band's public success, contributed the business skills that Joy Division lacked to provide them with a better foundation for creativity.[24][25] Joy Division spent the first week of May 1978 recording at Manchester's Arrow Studios. The band were unhappy with the Grapevine Records head John Anderson's insistence on adding synthesiser into the mix to soften the sound, and asked to be dropped from the contract that they had recently signed with RCA.[26][27]
Joy Division made their recorded debut in June 1978 when the band self-released An Ideal for Living, and two weeks later a track of theirs, "At a Later Date", was featured on the compilation album Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus (which had been recorded live in October 1977).[28][29][30] In the Melody Maker review of the EP, Chris Brazier said that it "has the familiar rough-hewn nature of home-produced records but they're no mere drone-vendors—there are a lot of good ideas here, and they could be a very interesting band by now, seven months on".[31] The packaging of An Ideal for Living—which featured a drawing of a Hitler Youth member on the cover—coupled with the nature of the band's name, fuelled speculation about their political affiliations.[32] While Hook and Sumner later admitted to being intrigued by fascism at the time, Morris insisted that the group's obsession with Nazi imagery came from a desire to keep memories of the sacrifices of their parents and grandparents during World War II alive. He argued that accusations of neo-Nazi sympathies merely provoked the band "to keep on doing it, because that's the kind of people we are".[19]
In September 1978, Joy Division made their television performance debut on the local news show Granada Reports, hosted by Tony Wilson.[33] Later in the month, Joy Division contributed two tracks recorded with producer Martin Hannett to the compilation double-7" EP A Factory Sample, the first release by Tony Wilson's record label, Factory Records. Joy Division soon joined Factory's roster, after buying themselves out of the deal with RCA.[34][35] Rob Gretton was made a partner in the label to represent the interests of the band.[36] On 27 December, Ian Curtis suffered his first recognisable epileptic episode. During the ride home after a show at the Hope and Anchor pub in London, Curtis had a seizure and was taken to a hospital.[37] In spite of his illness, Joy Division's career continued to progress. Curtis appeared on the front cover of the 13 January 1979 issue of the NME due to the persistence of music journalist Paul Morley; that same month the band recorded their first radio session for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel. According to Deborah Curtis, "Sandwiched in between these two important landmarks was the realization that Ian's illness was something we would have to learn to accommodate."[38]
In April 1979, the band began recording their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, at Strawberry Studios in Stockport. Producer Martin Hannett contributed significantly to the final sound. The band initially disliked the "spacious, atmospheric sound" of the album, which did not reflect their more aggressive live sound. Hook said in 2006, "It definitely didn't turn out sounding the way I wanted it ... But now I can see that Martin did a good job on it ... There's no two ways about it, Martin Hannett created the Joy Division sound."[39] The album cover was designed by Peter Saville, who would go on to provide artwork for future Joy Division releases. Unknown Pleasures was released in June and sold through its initial pressing of 10,000 copies. Tony Wilson said that the relative success of the album turned the indie label into a true business and a "revolutionary force" that operated outside of the major record label system.[36] Reviewing the album for Melody Maker, writer Jon Savage called Unknown Pleasures an "opaque manifesto" and declared "[leaving] the twentieth century is difficult; most people prefer to go back and nostalgize, Oh boy. Joy Division at least set a course in the present with contrails for the future—perhaps you can't ask for much more. Indeed, Unknown Pleasures may very well be one of the best, white, English, debut LPs of the year".[40]
Joy Division performed on Granada TV again in July 1979, and made their only nationwide TV appearance in September on BBC2's Something Else. They supported the Buzzcocks in a 24-venue UK tour that began that October, which allowed the band to quit their regular jobs.[4] The non-album single "Transmission" was released in November. Joy Division's burgeoning success drew a devoted following nicknamed the "Cult With No Name", who were stereotyped as "intense young men dressed in gray overcoats".[41]
In January 1980, Joy Division set out on a European tour. While the tour was difficult, Curtis only experienced two grand mal seizures in the two months preceding the tour's final date.[42] With Martin Hannett again producing, the band recorded their second album, Closer, in March at London's Britannia Row Studios.[43] March also saw the release of the Licht und Blindheit single (featuring the songs "Dead Souls" and "Atmosphere") on the small French label Sordide Sentimental.[44]
Lack of sleep and long hours destabilised Curtis's epilepsy and his seizures became almost uncontrollable.[45] Curtis would often have seizures during shows, which left him feeling ashamed and depressed. While the band was concerned about their singer, audience members on occasion thought his behaviour was part of the show.[46] On 7 April, Curtis attempted suicide by overdosing on phenobarbitone.[4] The next evening, Joy Division was set to play a gig at the Derby Hall in Bury. With Curtis recovering, it was decided that the band would play a combined set with Alan Hempstall of Crispy Ambulance and Simon Topping of A Certain Ratio filling in on vocals for the first few songs. Curtis came onstage to perform for part of the set. When Topping came back out to finish the set for Curtis, some in the audience started throwing bottles at the stage. Gretton leapt into the crowd and a riot ensued.[36] Several April gigs were cancelled due to the continuing ill health of Curtis, but the band filmed a promotional video for the forthcoming "Love Will Tear Us Apart" single that month.[47] The band played what would be their final show at the University of Birmingham's High Hall on 2 May.[48]
Joy Division were due to begin their first American tour in May 1980. While Curtis had expressed a desire to take time off to visit a few acquaintances, he feigned excitement about the tour around the band because he did not want to disappoint his band mates or Factory Records.[49] At the time, Curtis's relationship with his wife, Deborah Curtis (the couple married in 1975 as teenagers), was collapsing. Contributing factors were his ill health, her being mostly excluded from his life with the band, and his relationship with a young Belgian woman named Annik Honoré whom he had met on a European tour. The evening before Joy Division were to embark on the American tour, Curtis returned to his home in Macclesfield in order to talk to his estranged wife. He asked her to drop the divorce suit she had filed; later, he told her to leave him alone in the house until he caught his train to Manchester the next morning.[50] Early on the morning of 18 May 1980, Curtis hanged himself in his kitchen; Deborah Curtis discovered his body when she returned around midday.[51] Tony Wilson said in 2005, "I think all of us made the mistake of not thinking his suicide was going to happen ... We all completely underestimated the danger. We didn't take it seriously. That's how stupid we were."[43]
Curtis's suicide "made for instant myth", in the words of music critic Simon Reynolds.[52] Jon Savage wrote in his obituary for Curtis in Melody Maker, "Now no one will remember what his work with Joy Division was like when he was alive; it will be perceived as tragic rather than courageous."[53] In June 1980, the posthumous single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was released, which hit number thirteen on the UK Singles Chart.[54] In July 1980, Closer finally came out, peaking at number six on the UK Albums Chart.[4] NME reviewer Charles Shaar Murray wrote, "Closer is as magnificent a memorial (for 'Joy Division' as much as for Ian Curtis) as any post-Presley popular musician could have."[55]
The members of Joy Division had made a pact long before Curtis's death that, should any member leave, the remaining members would change the name of the group.[48] Eventually renaming themselves New Order, the band was reborn as a three-piece with Sumner assuming vocal duties; the group later recruited Morris's girlfriend Gillian Gilbert to round out the line-up as keyboardist and second guitarist. New Order's first single, the 1981 release "Ceremony", featured the last two songs written with Ian Curtis.[56] While the group struggled in its early years to escape the shadow of Joy Division, New Order eventually went on to much greater commercial success than their predecessor band.[57]
Further Joy Division material has been released since the band's demise. Still, a compilation of live tracks and rare recordings, was issued in 1981. Factory put out the Substance compilation in 1988, which included several out-of-print singles.[58] Another compilation, Permanent, was released in 1995 by London Records, which had acquired the Joy Division catalogue after Factory Records went bankrupt in 1992. A comprehensive box set, Heart and Soul, came out in 1997. The compilation album The Best of Joy Division was released in 2008.
Joy Division took time to develop their sound. As Warsaw, the band played "fairly undistinguished punk-inflected hard-rock". Critic Simon Reynolds asserted that "Joy Division's originality really became apparent as the songs got slower." The group's music took on a "sparse" quality; in Reynolds's description, "Peter Hook's bass carried the melody, Bernard Sumner's guitar left gaps rather than filling up the group's sound with dense riffage, and Steve Morris's drums seemed to circle the rim of a crater."[59] Sumner described the band's characteristic sound in 1994: "It came out naturally: I'm more rhythm and chords, and Hooky was melody. He used to play high lead bass because I liked my guitar to sound distorted, and the amplifier I had would only work when it was at full volume. When Hooky played low, he couldn't hear himself. Steve has his own style which is different to other drummers. To me, a drummer in the band is the clock, but Steve wouldn't be the clock, because he's passive: he would follow the rhythm of the band, which gave us our own edge."[4] Over time, Ian Curtis began to sing in a low, baritone voice, which often drew comparisons to Jim Morrison of The Doors (one of Curtis's favourite bands).[60]
Sumner acted as the unofficial musical director of the band, a role that he carried over into New Order.[61] While Sumner was the group's primary guitarist, Curtis played the instrument on a few recorded songs and during a few shows. Curtis hated playing guitar, but the band insisted he do so. Sumner said, "He played in quite a bizarre way and that to us was interesting, because no one else would play like Ian."[62] During the recording sessions for Closer, Sumner began using self-built synthesisers and Hook used a six-string bass for more melody.[63]
Producer Martin Hannett "dedicated himself to capturing and intensifying Joy Division's eerie spatiality". Hannett believed punk rock was sonically conservative because of its refusal to utilise studio technology to create sonic space.[60] The producer instead aimed to create a more expansive sound on the group's records. Hannett said, "[Joy Division] were a gift to a producer, because they didn't have a clue. They didn't argue."[4] Hannett demanded clean and clear "sound separation" not only for individual instruments, but even for individual pieces of Morris's drumkit. Morris recalled, "Typically on tracks he considered to be potential singles, he'd get me to play each drum on its own to avoid any bleed-through of sound."[64]
Ian Curtis was the group's sole lyricist. Curtis would write frantically when the mood took him; he would then listen to the band's music (which was often arranged by Sumner) and used the lyrics that were most appropriate.[65] Words and images such as "coldness, pressure, darkness, crisis, failure, collapse, loss of control" recur in his songs.[59] In 1979, NME journalist Paul Rambali wrote, "The themes of Joy Division's music are sorrowful, painful, and sometimes deeply sad."[66] Musicologist Robert Palmer wrote in Musician that the writings of William S. Burroughs and J. G. Ballard were "obvious influences" to Curtis, and Morris also remembered the singer reading T. S. Eliot.[67]
The band refused to explain their lyrics to the press or print the words on lyrics sheets.[66] Curtis told the fanzine Printed Noise, "We haven't got a message really; the lyrics are open to interpretation. They're multidimensional. You can read into them what you like."[62] The other band members later admitted they paid little attention to what Curtis was writing.[61] In a 1987 interview with Option, Morris commented: "We just thought the songs were sort of sympathetic and more uplifting than depressing. But everyone's got their own opinion."[68] Deborah Curtis recalled that only with the release of Closer did many who were close to the singer realise "[h]is intentions and feelings were all there within the lyrics."[69] The surviving members of the band in retrospect regret not seeing warning signs in Curtis's lyrics. "This sounds awful but it was only after Ian died that we sat down and listened to the lyrics," Morris said in 2007. "You'd find yourself thinking, 'Oh my God, I missed this one.' Because I'd look at Ian's lyrics and think how clever he was putting himself in the position of someone else. I never believed he was writing about himself. Looking back, how could I have been so bleedin' stupid? Of course he was writing about himself. But I didn't go in and grab him and ask, 'What's up?' I have to live with that."[61]
In contrast to the sound of their studio recordings, Joy Division typically played loudly and aggressively during live performances. The band were unhappy with Hannett's mixing of Unknown Pleasures, which reduced the abrasiveness of their sound. According to Sumner, "the music was loud and heavy, and we felt that Martin had toned it down, especially with the guitars."[4] In concert, the group interacted little with the crowd; Paul Morley wrote, "[D]uring a Joy Division set, outside of the songs, you'll be lucky to hear more than two or three words. Hello and goodbye. No introductions, no promotion."[70] While singing, Curtis would often perform what was referred to as his "'dead fly' dance", where the singer's arms would "start flying in [a] semicircular, hypnotic curve".[4] Simon Reynolds noted that Curtis's dancing style was reminiscent of an epileptic fit, and that he was dancing in the manner for some months before he was diagnosed with epilepsy.[41] Live performances became problematic for Joy Division, due to Curtis's condition. Sumner later said, "We didn't have flashing lights, but sometimes a particular drum beat would do something to him. He'd go off in a trance for a bit, then he'd lose it and have a[n epileptic] fit. We'd have to stop the show and carry him off to the dressing-room where he'd cry his eyes out because this appalling thing had just happened to him."[71]
Despite their short career and cult status, Joy Division have exerted a wide-reaching influence. John Bush of Allmusic argues that Joy Division "became the first band in the post-punk movement by ... emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s."[72]
The band's dark and gloomy sound, which Martin Hannett described in 1979 as "dancing music with Gothic overtones", presaged the gothic rock genre. While the term "gothic" originally described a "doomy atmosphere" in music of the late 1970s, the term was soon applied to specific bands like Bauhaus that followed in Joy Division's wake.[73] Standard musical fixtures of early gothic rock bands included "high-pitched post-Joy Division basslines usurp[ing] the melodic role" and "vocals that were either near operatic and Teutonic or deep, droning alloys of Jim Morrison and Ian Curtis."[74] Joy Division has influenced bands ranging from contemporaries U2 and The Cure to post-punk revival artists such as Interpol, Bloc Party and Editors.[75] U2 frontman Bono stated that his group loved Joy Division.[76] The singer said in the band's 2006 autobiography U2 by U2, "It would be harder to find a darker place in music than Joy Division. Their name, their lyrics and their singer were as big a black cloud as you could find in the sky. And yet I sensed the pursuit of God, or light, or reason ... a reason to be. With Joy Division, you felt from this singer, beauty was truth and truth was beauty, and theirs was a search for both."[77] Artists including electronica performer Moby and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante have described their appreciation for Joy Division's music and the influence it has had on their own material.[78][79] In 2005, Joy Division were inducted along with New Order into the UK Music Hall of Fame.[80]
Two biopics have been released that dramatise Joy Division on film. 24 Hour Party People (2002) presented a somewhat fictionalised account of the rise and fall of Factory Records, in which the members of Joy Division served as supporting characters. Tony Wilson said of the film, "It's all true, it's all not true. It's not a fucking documentary", insisting that whenever possible during the production of the film, he favoured the "myth" over the truth.[81] The 2007 film Control, directed by Anton Corbijn, is a biography of Ian Curtis (portrayed by Sam Riley) that uses Deborah Curtis's biography of her late husband, Touching from a Distance (1995), as its basis.[82] Control had its international premiere on the opening night of Director's Fortnight at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, where it was critically well-received.[83] That year Grant Gee directed the band documentary Joy Division.[84]
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