JOY DIVISION
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Formed in Manchester in the fall 1976 as Stiff
Kittens with Bernard Dicken on guitars, Peter
Hook on bass and Terry Mason on drums. Ian Curtis,
the singer, probably joined them under the Sex
Pistols/The Clash - gig
(The Anarchy Tour) in Manchester on December 1976. They never
played or recorded anything under this name and Terry Mason
was a lousy drummer, so he decided to become manager instead. Tony
Tabac became the new drummer late in May. They changed name
to Warsaw (after the song 'Warszawa'
from David Bowie's 'Low'
album) before the first gig. Their first gig was at The Electric
Circus in Manchester on May 1977, a couple of days after Tony Tabac
joined them.
Tony Tabac stayed for five weeks and half a dozen gigs. Later,
Warsaw found the new drummer
in Steve Brotherdale. He came just in time to participate
on the recording of 'The Warsaw Demo'
on July 1977. But also Steve Brotherdale left after a short time.
He even tried to persuade Ian Curtis to follow him and join the
group Panik, but Curtis's voice
didn't fit Panik's melodies so Ian stayed with Warsaw. Once again
Warsaw got a new drummer: Steve Morris. But now the line-up
was complete: Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Bernard Dicken
and Steve Brotherdale would later go on as Joy
Division.
In December 1977 they recorded 4 songs that later would be released
as 'An
Ideal For Living' (under the name Joy Division).
In November 1977 the London-group Warsaw
Pakt had released an album 'Needle
Time' so Warsaw decided
to change their name. They didn't want to be mistaken for Warsaw
Pakt. In January 1978 they changed their name: they chose the name
'Joy Division' from a
lurid novel of sado-masochism in German concentration camps during
the Second World War. The novel entitled 'The House
Of Dolls' was written by Karol Cetinsky
and it also contributes a verse to the song 'No
love lost'. By the way, the 'joy
divisions' refers to the line of huts in which the young
deported women were forced to prostitute themselves to nazi officers
on leave.
The first gig as Joy Division
was played at Pip's in Manchester on January 1978. At the 'Stiff
Records test / Chiswick Challenge' at Rafters in Manchester,
April 14, the band met Rob Gretton. Rob liked their performance
very much so he introduced the band to Tony Wilson, already
a well-known presenter on Granada TV in England. Joy
Division soon recorded material for what was expected
to be their debut-album 'Joy Division'.
But John Anderson, one of the producers, put synths on the
final mix. Ian Curtis went crazy, and the album was never
released. Soon after Rob Gretton took over as manager. On
June 9 they played together with several other bands on the opening
of Tony Wilson's club 'The Factory' in Manchester. Peter
Saville designed the poster for the concert, an event that was
named FAC 1.
Soon after Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus started up
the 'Factory' label and in October they signed Joy
Division. Now things started to turn their way. The music
press started to take notice of them. On Sept 20 the band appeared
on Granada TV on the program 'Granada Reports', they performed 'Shadowplay'.
On October 11 they went in Studio and recorded two songs for the
compilation EP 'A
Factory Sample' which sold out its only pressing two months
after its release, in December 1979, giving Factory a net profit
of 87 British Pounds!! On December 27 they played their first concert
in London, at the Hope And Anchor in Islington. About 30
people came to see them, this was also the first concert the band
charged money for entrance (the price was 60p). On February 14,
1979 the band was played on national radio in England, BBC's
John Peel had done a session with the band in January (later
released as the first Peel Session). This certainly gave the
band the publicity they needed, and on March 4 they played support
for The Cure at the Marquee
in London. In April 1979 they recorded 'Unknown
Pleasures' with producer Martin Hannett and the great
sleeve-design was done by Peter Saville, they both continued to
work with Joy Division and New
Order on their later releases. In June 'Unknown Pleasures'
was released, it received good critics in the music press and it
sold nicely, by June 1982: 100 000 copies.
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Their success made them stay on Factory, they played many gigs that
summer and fall: On July 20 the band made a second appearance on Granada
TV, on the program 'What's on?', this time they performed 'She's
lost control'. On August 31 they played at Electric Ballroom
in London. 1200 spectators formed the biggest crowd ever at a Joy
Division concert!! At Scala Cinema, in London, Factory
organized an event they called FAC 9 on September 13. Part
of this event was the showing of two Joy
Division related films: 'Joy Division' and 'No
City Fun'. On September 15 Joy Division
made their first and last major television appearance: 'Something
Else' on BBC 2. Ian Curtis made a great impression on the audience
with his obsessive robotic movements during 'Transmission'
and 'She's lost control'. On October
1979 they were videotaped during their concerts at the Apollo Theatre
in Manchester. This tape was later released on the video 'Here
Are The Young Men'. Joy Division
(and later New Order) often had problems with nazi- rumours
spreading around in the press. But since the band never had a good
relationship with the press they never gave interviews to clear things
up. The reason for the nazi-accusations was partly their controversial
name (but the press never reflected over that the name came from
a novel that describes the horror of nazism), and partly because
of things they'd said and done early in their career, like Bernard
Dicken's design for the 'An Ideal For Living'
record-sleeve, where there's a drawing of a Hitler-Jugend-look-alike
drummer boy, or the version of 'At a later
date' that was recorded for the 'Short
Circuit' compilation where Bernard Dicken shouts 'You
all forget Rudolf Hess'. At that point of time Rudolf Hess,
80 years old, had been imprisoned at the Spandau castle in East Germany
for more than 30 years. You don't have to be a nazi to feel sympathy
for a sick old man that was heavily guarded by some 100 KGB soldiers.
The weird thing was that most other punk-bands used much more direct
nazi symbolism in their relation with the press, and still got away
with it. Though the press never got to interview them about this topic
they could have checked Joy Division's
lyrics. If they had they wouldn't have found a shred of nazi propaganda,
on the contrary! Take for example 'They walked
in line', a clearly against nazism song. In November 1979
Warner Bros America offered the band 1 million dollars for distribution
in America plus participation in a series of videos. But the band
never answered the offer, they neither did when the offer was reproposed
in May 1980 with more favourable terms for the band! On November 26th
they recorded their second Peel Session. One of the songs was
'Love
will tear us apart' which soon became the best known 'not-recorded'
song in Britain. It was played at the John Peel Show December 10th,
but until April 1980 it was only available live at their concerts.
In December and January Joy Division
toured in Europe. Their famous Paradiso-gig was on January 11th 1980
and it was remarkable because of two reasons: it is their most booted
concert and they played 2 consecutive sets, a total of 17 songs lasting
70 minutes (due to missing support). In March 1980 Sordide
Sentimental released a 7inch: 'Licht
Und Blindheit' in 1578 numbered discs with no groove
notations. Producer was of course Martin Hannett, Joy
Division had recorded the 2 songs in England in October
1979. In March they also recorded material for the new album 'Closer'
and for the single 'Love
will tear us apart'. On May, Joy Division
played in Birmingham, and this was going to be their last gig.
Luckily that concert was taped and can be found on side C and D of
the 'Still'
double album. This was the only time they played 'Ceremony'
live. On May 19th Joy Division
were supposed to leave for their American tour, it all looked so bright.
But Ian Curtis couldn't handle the growing success and personal crisis/illness,
so he ended his life committing suicide on the 18th leaving
his wife Deborah Woodruffe and daughter Natalie alone.
Ian Curtis almost became 24 years old, as he was born in July 15 1956.
In the following months 'Closer'
climbed into the BBC top 10 and 'Love will
tear us apart' became a Top10-hit. By June 1982 the album
had sold 250.000 copies. Bernard, Peter and Steve
continued as New Order (but that's
another story)... |
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