2007 10 06 "Control" Review Guardian Guide

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/oct/06/popandrock

Tim Jonze discloses the hidden past of the actor who plays Ian Curtis.

This week, Ian Curtis hits movie screens across the UK played by the virtually unknown actor Sam Riley. The film itself is fairly so-so, but there are some great performances, most notably from Samantha Morton (as Deborah Curtis) and Riley, who not only looks the part but gives good celluloid as a man swamped with relationship turmoil, epilepsy and depression. For me, though, believing in his portrayal of Curtis is spoilt by one thing: the last time I saw Sam he was staggering drunk around the Archway Tavern, crashing into concrete pillars with his middle finger sticking out of his fly while his band ploughed through a dumb-rock ditty called Eating's Not Cheating.

Sam was in minor indie band 10,000 Things before landing the lead role in Control, and, believe me, they weren't all that much like Joy Division. They were drunk, they were disorderly and the closest they ever got to artfully soundtracking the syndromes of human despair were songs like, er, Titanium Boxer Shorts ("I need ti-ti-ti-tanium boxer shorts!"). It really wouldn't have blended in too well on Closer ...

"We were completely chaotically organised," admits Sam now. "There was a lot of ale involved."

Chaos and ale, of course, equals thrilling live shows. Sam was a cocky little bugger (as a frontman should be), but he was a charming one, too. Sadly, chaos and ale didn't make for a good album - their debut was an overproduced, overlong mess. The day NME gave it 0/10, Riley could be found propping up the bar in [Leeds scenester-haven] The Faversham, sobbing and muttering "they've killed us". In Sam's own words, he was at rock bottom.

"There was no rentboy activity," he smiles, "but it got pretty bad.I suppose having to serve Ricky Wilson in [Leeds bar] Milos after we'd been dropped ... I mean, I love Ricky but I thought I'd fucked it completely, ruined my one opportunity. I didn't dream it was possible that I'd land a lead part in a black and white movie with Samantha Morton!"

Sam had acted a little before, but such a big role was a bit of a head fuck. The gigs ended up being shot live, in front of a baying mob of hardcore Joy Division fans, some who'd travelled across the world to be there: "I was crapping myself for a lot of reasons. These fans were anxious and rightly so, because these movies are often stinkers."

Luckily, the band won the crowd over by spending breaks playing songs from the JD back catalogue, even when the cameras were off ("We wanted to show that a bunch of thespians could still love the band.").

Since filming Control, Sam's been writing songs again, but only for fun.

"I'd rather be an actor," he states firmly. "I don't really envy my friends who are still in bands, going around playing the same song every night."

And if a major label threw a truck-load of cash at him to reform 10,000 Things tomorrow?

"Yeah, course I would," he grins, with barely a nanosecond's consideration. "I never said I was anything but a contradiction."