Biography:
With the possible
exception of the Velvet Underground, no band has had a greater impact
on the shape of music in the post-modern era than the Manchester,
UK quartet known as Joy Division.
It is not simply that Joy Division fashioned an ambient, heavy-laden
and emotionally charged sound since echoed by scores of other bands.
It's not that the group itself has spawned an offshootNew Order that
continues to push the outside of the alternative envelope. It's not
even that founder and lead singer Ian Curtis, who took his life fifteen
years ago this May, endures as one of rock's most enigmatic and tragic
figures. It is, rather, that the music of Joy Division was so consistently
ahead of its time that even today it sounds like nothing so much as
a glimpse into the future.
Formed by Ian Curtis in 1977, Joy Division's initial line-up included
Bernard Sumner (aka Bernard Albrecht) on guitar, Peter Hook on bass
and drummer Steven Morris. Spawned in the grimy industrial metropolis
of Manchester, the group made their stage debut in May of that year
at the city's Electric Circus, at the bottom of a bill with two early
punk pioneers, The Buzzcocks and Penetration. Two months later, the
group recorded a four-song demo, titled An Ideal For Living, and released
it in June of 1978 on their own Enigma Records label. The EP, along
with additional live performances, brought them to the attention of
journalist Tony Wilson, who had just formed the Manchester-based indie
label Factory Records. The group subsequently appeared on a Factory
compilation with two original tracks, "Digital" and "Glass."
In June of 1979, Joy Division released their Factory Records debut
album Unknown Pleasures, with recording funded by Wilson's life savings.
In October of that year, two singles, "Atmosphere" and "Transmission,"
were released to widespread underground acclaim, subsequently increasing
demand for the group's live performances, which, in turn, put additional
pressure on Curtis' always-frail health.
April of 1980 saw the release of the above-mentioned "Love Will Tear
Us Apart," a single that unquestionably poised Joy Division for mainstream
success. (The song has subsequently been covered by everyone from
Paul Young to P.J. Proby.) The band completed a second album with
producer Martin Hannett and plans were laid for a U.S. tour.
It was in the early morning hours of May 18th, four days before the
group was to fly to America, that Ian Curtis hanged himself in an
upstairs bedroom of his childhood home. Two month later, "Love Will
Tear Us Apart" had reached the Top 20 on UK charts while Joy Division's
second album, Closer, reached the Top 10. That, it seemed, was that.
Curtis' suicide, brought on by illness and depression, cut short the
career of one of the most promising bands of England's punk and post-punk
eras. Sumner, Hook and Morris would go on to form New Order, a group
that would continue Joy Division's experimental mandate. Yet the power
and presence of the original Joy Division was forever lost with the
death of its creative mainstay, Ian Curtis.
But not quite. In the years that followed, additional Joy Division
material was discovered and released, serving to underscore their
originality and extend their influence even further. In 1981, Still,
a double album of live and studio material was assembled, followed
a year later by the video collection Here Are The Young Men. Such
was the importance of Joy Division to the modern music scene that
in 1988, a full eight years after Curtis' untimely exit, a comprehensive
Joy Division release, Substance, saw the light of day.
Band
Members:
Ian Curtis - Vocals
Bernard
Sumner - Guitars
Peter
Hook - Bass
Stephen Morris - Drums
Albums:
1979 - Unknown Pleasures (Factory)
1980 - Closer (Factory)
1981 - Still (Factory)
1988 - Substance (Factory)
1990 - The Peel Sessions (Strange Fruit)
Links:
The
Old Echoes
Joy Division Shadowplay
Incubation
Dreams
End Here
Joy
Division at ArtistDirect
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