Cuttings

CRIES & WHISPERS a retrospective on the vinyl pain and pleasure of joy division and new order Richard Cook returns to the spirit world of Joy Division, explores the new order of their successors and concludes . . .there is no conclusion. Photos by Anton Corbijn A BALANCE has been struck between two sides over this series of records: between the view of Joy Division/New Order as merchants of doom and singers in the sepulchre that is now ‘traditional’, and the protesting counter-argument that this is music that confronts that despondency and is finally exhilarating, almost ecstatic. New Order are good, ordinary blokes/ New Order mope and moan. Joy Division elevated tragedy to glory/Joy Division wallowed in a futile sadness. This is a complex story. I will not recap history too well-known, just make some observations. The records aren’t dealt with in a strict chronology, but in the order which they best make sense. Listened to at a stretch, the achievement unscrolls into a profound an

Touched by the hand of God Joy Division and New Order, album by album, by Andrew Male  Unknown Pleasures AUGUST 1979 Joy Division's debut, recorded in April 1979 at Stockport's famed Strawberry Studios, retained the nervy, paranoid energy of punk but thanks to Hooky's subterranean bass, Bernard's febrile guitar and Stephen Morris's relentless echoing drums ended up some place entirely 'other'. What with Martin Hannett's effects-dappled production - glass smashing, metal doors creaking - and Curtis's stark narratives, the whole thing now sounds like the soundtrack to some dystopic J.G. Ballard drama about existential crisis and uncertain provenance in an NCP car park. Closer JULY 1980 From the futuristic tribal clamour of Atrocity Exhibition to the wintery advance of Decades, Closer throbs and hums with a steady threat. Curtis's lyrics progress from grim prediction to ultimate resignation. Encased in the hard pack-ice of Martin Hannett

Love will tear us apart, again Andy Beckett on a raw, surprising account of the classic post-punk band Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division by Peter Hook 336pp, Simon & Schuster, £20 Of all the great doomed rock bands, with their mayfly lives and drawn-out, highly profitable after-lives, few have a legend as potent and precisely defined as Joy Division. They played their first concert in January 1978 and their last in May 1980. In that time they released two albums and a few other songs: a pop music close to unique in its icy, addictive bleakness. They wore stark, photogenic clothes and haunted the hollowed-out cities of a decaying northern England. Their singer, Ian Curtis, was so intense onstage that he had epileptic fits. The day before a pivotal first tour of the United States, he hanged himself. He was 23. This solemn version of the Joy Division story has endured for decades, periodically reinforced by authoritative accounts such as Touching From a Distance , a claustrophob

The Eternal Ian Curtis was "all things to all men". Even the people closest to him couldn't agree about him. Interviews by Richard Boon, former manager of the Buzzcocks. Kurt Cobain (In July 1993) I stayed away from Joy Division, because I’d heard a few of their songs and I knew that I would really like them. The stories that I’d heard about the band, I knew that’s the band to listen to out of all of them. I’m just waiting. I’ve always felt there’s that element of gothic in Nirvana. Bono The holy voice of Ian Curtis... They were an original of the species that later became goth. Never mind. Courtney Love When you hear a great song it touches your life. It affects you, it’s like a scent, it reminds you of something. You fuck to it, you feel blue to it, you feel great to it. It’s like Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control — that song meant so much to me when I was younger. Malcolm Whitehead Video director (The Birthday Party, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, etc) I filmed them in re

JILL FURMANOVSKY JOY DIVISION, 1979 It was the first and only time I photographed Joy Division. I was shooting for one of the music press, and after the gig I went into the dressing room and took a few snaps. Nobody took any notice of me. It wasn’t like there was a bodyguard at the door. The band at that time were doing quite well, but they weren’t selling out stadiums or anything. It was probably a gig of less than 1,000 people. Ian Curtis was quite a cheerful fellow, not gloomy at all. They were just starting out and they were having a good time. It’s not posed. I’m a fairly discreet person. I’d say, "Do you mind if I take a few snaps?” I never spoke to Ian. I’m a photojournalist at heart. They do their thing, I do my thing. When I started shooting, I was only 18 and a nubile young lady. I used to wear baggy black clothes as a disguise. I was trying really hard to be a professional photographer in a fairly male-dominated industry and I didn’t want to be mistaken for a groupie.

Torn apart Joy Division and the death of Ian Curtis Joy Division were the most crucial of all the post-punk bands. But, on the eve of their first US tour, lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide. Within a year, they regrouped as New Order to become one of the key acts of the Eighties. Now, two decades on from their live debut, Joy Division release a definitive box set, and original members Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner talk about the rise and demise of Manchester's greatest export before Oasis. By Dave Simpson Futurama, Queens Hall, Leeds, September 1979. "The world's first science fiction music festival" - in an oversized tramshed reeking of beer and glue. But the future hasn't arrived yet, so people mill around, waiting for it to happen. Suddenly, a besuited 30-ish-year-old who, it turns out, is Granada Television presenter and fledgling record company boss Tony Wilson, emerges onstage to announce "The awesome Joy Division". The awesome who? A b