Table Of Content

Joy Division - Written & Compiled by Mike West is published by Babylon Books, Thornlea East, Holme House Road, Todmorden, Lanes., OL14 8LD, England. Contents copyright c 1984. All rights reserved. Photography by Kevin Cummins. ISBN: 0 907188 21 4. CONTENTS 1. JOY DIVISION 1977-1980: BAND, MYTH AND MAGIC Page 4 2. FROM MACCLESFIELD VIA WARSAW ... TO WHERE? ORIGINS 1977 8 3. NOT A CONCEPT; AN ENIGMA: THE IDEAL FOR JOY DIVISION - 1978 15 4. "THIS BAND IS BUSY DOING THE GROUNDWORK FOR THE MUSIC OF THE EIGHTIES" - MICK MIDDLES, SOUNDS, 1980 18 5. LIFE AFTER A DEATH - 1980 26 6. THE NEW ORDER: BEYOND 1980 34 7. JOY DIVISION LIVE GUIDE 38 8. EQUIPMENT FILE 41 9. DISCOGRAPHY 42 10. VINYL COLLECTORS CHECKLIST 50 11. ODDS&ENDS 52 12. JOY DIVISION LEFTOVERS 53 i) Studio Recordings ii) The John Peel Sessions iii) Bootlegs 13. FILMS & VIDEOS 55 14. INDEX OF SONG TITLES 5~ 15. THE ST AT IS TICS 58 a) On Record b) The John Peel 'Festive 50' c) Music Paper Polls 1. JOY DIVISION 1977-1980: BAND, MYTH AND MAGIC 4 Although they survived merely five months into the decade, the shadow cast over the music of the Eighties by Joy Division is unlikely to have faded by 1990. The tragic death of singer Ian Curtis in May 1980 co incided with the release of what was generally agreed would be their artistic and commercial breakthrough second album (Closer) and, as with so many of rock's graveyard of youthful and unfulfilled casualties, it has become difficult to separate the acclaim justly earned on the merits of some brilliant music from the excesses of the inevitable death cult that subsequently surrounded the name of Joy Division. The myth and nonsense that has accumulated about what was a very private death, and anything but a Romantic artistic martyrdom, has distorted the critical perspective on Joy Division and come close to obscuring the fact that, behind the unsolicited hyperbole, the compara tively small recorded legacy of Joy Division's short life remains remarkable and memorable. It not only stands as classic and unique rock, but will undoubted ly play its part in defining the very nature of rock music in the Eighties. Perhaps the most destructive effect of the Joy Division cult has been the creation of the myth that the haunting melancholic baritone, obscurist lyrics and marvellous timing of Ian Curtis were the only significant ingredients of Joy Division's greatness. It is a myth that unjustly belittles the importance of the roles played by Bernard Albrecht, Peter Hook, Steve Morris and producer Martin Hannett in evolving their beautiful moods, melodies and deceptively danceable rhythms. Joy Division died with Ian Curtis on May 18th 1980 but in a real sense the band does live on - in the music of New Order, the band formed by the remain ing members of Joy Division. The history of Joy Division is, therefore, paradoxically a story both with and without an end. 5 Ian Curtis - Lea Festival, August '79 6 Stephen Morris 7 2. FROM MACCLESFIEW VIA WARSAW ... TO WHERE? 8 ORIGINS -1977 The aggressive 'Never Mind the Bollocks' rock of the other Pistols followers spitting venom in back bed Sex Pistols now seems to have very little connection rooms all over Britain. With a target set somewhere with Joy Division music like 'Atmosphere' or 'New between the musical accomplishment of 'London's Dawn Fades', but like so many bands, Joy Division Burning' and the urbane sophistication of Iggy Pop may well never have existed if the Sex Pistols had not they played hard and obnoxious and - no doubt to turned the British rock scene around from its collision the relief of neighbours - without a drummer as no course with Middle of the Road respectability in the one was yet willing to join them in that capacity. summer of 1976, first with live performances of Uke everyone else of their age they had listened almost total spontaneity and carefree enthusiasm, and to Bowie in their teens, and when their band became then with a series of singles which took rock out of serious enough to need a name it was to Bowie's most the concert halls and back onto the streets. recent album, 'Low', that they turned for inspiration: Ian Curtis, Bernard Dicken, Peter Hook and Steve the Germanic instrumental 'Warszawa' seemed to Morris were all twenty in 1976 and working in either provide just the right combination of the familiar and dull or dead-end jobs. Ian Curtis pushed trucks in a the exotic once amended to plain 'Warsaw' for local cotton mill and Bernard Dicken pushed a pen in an punk consumption. office. At twenty they were old enough, after four In keeping with the style of 1977, in which bands years of work, to feel themselves to be in a rut but delayed for a minimum length of time between pick still young enough not to have dreams and ambition ing up their chosen instruments for the first time and worn out of them by the daily grind. The Pistols making their performing debut, Warsaw played their revolution, which was almost immediately taken up first public performance just five months after form by local Manchester bands like The Buzzcocks, ation on May 29th at Manchester punk mecca The Slaughter & The Dogs and The Drones, inspired Electric Circus. They were bottom of the bill which Curtis, Dicken and Hook, along with so many others, also included local heroes the Buzzcocks, who still to buy instruments and form a band as a means of relied on the sparks produced across the twin termin expressing themselves. A year earlier such an idea als of Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley at this stage, would have seemed absurd - only Real Musicians and Penetration. It was a performance of archetypal who had 'paid their dues' in bands since childhood punk cockyness and aggression, made all the more had ariy right to get up on a rock stage - but the convincing by the fact that the original trio's months Pistols had cut through the mystique of the '70s rock searching for a fourth member to play drums had musicians' art and served as a reminder that three only come to fruition on the eve of their public chords and a lot of cheek were basically all that any debut, with the completion of the line-up by Ian one ever needed to rock and roll. Curtis' old Macclesfield school friend Steve Morris. At first it was just three friends who met at gigs Despite the rawness and rough edges - to be (Bernard and Peter had been at school together in expected in such a new-born band - there was Manchester) learning guitars and trying to play and already evidence that Warsaw might prove to be a write punk music in the evenings and at weekends. rough diamond and that within the fashionable limit Even by the time the three began to take on roles - ations of the punk format inherited from the Pistols Ian Curtis as the singer and-occasional guitarist, the band had something of their own to contribute. Bernard Dicken as the guitarist and Peter Hook as the It was a debut that created a lot of interest and gave bassist - and call themselves a band early in 1977 Warsaw the incentive they needed to continue. Pete there was still little to distinguish them from any Shelley of the Buzzcocks was interested enough in 9