Cuttings

VORSPRUNG DURCH TECHNIK For Joy Division's three surviving members, the suicide of Ian Curtis should have marked the end. Then came a new dawn of technology, Ecstasy and redemption. The incredible fall and heroic rise of New Order, by Roy Wilkinson. High in the rolling Cheshire greenery, a familiar bass line sounds out. The location is a farm-cum-studio just outside Macclesfield - a sturdy, stone-built construction sitting close to both the village of Pott Shrigley and Tegg’s Nose Country Park. To admirers of contemporary popular music, the title of the song that’s echoing out over the hillside is even as distinguished as such piquant north-country place names, “love,” goes the song, “love will tear us apart again.”  There are further unmistakable clues to today's music-makers. In the driveway sits a Mitsubishi Shogun 4X4 jeep. The number plate features bold, personalised lettering: H100 KYS. And, as the bass player’s brazenly self-referential registration glints in the mo

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

  Someone takes these dreams away We thought it was artistic exorcism, but was it sheer unrelenting autobiography? Where did such darkness come from and why did we so willingly enter it? Jon Savage disturbs the tomb of Joy Division and sheds new light on their driven and desperate leader. August 27, 1979 Joy Division are headlining a ridiculous festival in a field outside Leigh, halfway between Liverpool and Manchester. The leading independent labels of both cities – Zoo and Factory – are meeting to showcase their talent: A Certain Ratio, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes. To the local police, this is tantamount to an alien invasion: they’ve closed down the town and are searching everyone on entry for drugs. One of my carload is already in custody. In the twilight, Joy Division start their journey. What you get is this: at the back, a lanky drummer who pounds out rhythms at once intricate yet simple. At climatic moments, Stephen Morris