This is a presentation about the rock/punk band Joy Division. Here is included its history and additional information about this band.

2. Members
Early 1978: Failures of the Modern Man
Ian Curtis (1956- 1980)
Late 1978: A Factory Sample
Bernard Sumner
Early 1979: Unknown Pleasures
Peter Hook
Late 1979: Something Else
Stephen Morris
Origins
Early 1980: Love Will Tear Us Apart
Afterwards: The Eternal
Early 1977: Warsaw Concerto
Late 1977: An Ideal for Living
JOY DIVISION SINGER DEAD
THE OBITUARY PAGE
May 18th, 1980 IAN CURTIS ended his life, aged 23.
THE AUTOGRAPH OF IAN
Joy Division Album Discography
Musical Style
Unknown Pleasures and Closer

3. Joy Division was an English rock band formed in
1976.
The band evolved from their initial punk rock
influences to develop a style that pioneered the
post-punk movement of the late 1970s.

4. Members
Stephen Morris
Bernard
Sumner
There were four band members, Ian,
Bernard, Peter, and Stephen.
Peter Hook
Ian Curtis

5. Ian Curtis (1956- 1980)
He was an English musician, Singer, and
songwriter.
Curtis, who suffered from epilepsy and
depression, committed suicide on May 18,
1980., on the Eve of Joy Division’s first
North American tour, resulting in the bands
dissolution.
Curtis was known for his baritone voice,
dance style, and songwriting filled with
imagery
desolation,
emptiness
and
alienation.
His life and death have been dramatized in
various films.

6. Bernard Sumner
English
singer,
songwriter,
keyboardist, and producer.
guitarist,
He is the founding member and lead vocalist
and guitarist of the band New Order.
Sumner is also known for being a founding
member of the bands of Joy Division and Bad
Lieutenant.
He played the guitar and keyboards in the
band Joy Division.

7. Peter Hook
English
bass
player, musician, singer, DJ, nightclub
owner, recorded company boss and author.
He is currently lead vocalist and bassist for
Peter Hook and the Light.
Hook was a co-founder of the seminal postpunk band Joy Division along with Bernard
Sumner in the mid-1970s.
Following the death of Ian Curtis, the band
reformed as the modern rock band, New
Order, and Hook played bass with them until
his departure in 2007.

8. Stephen Morris
He is a musician best known for his work with
rock band, New Order and, previously, Joy
Division. He also drummed in The Other
Two, a band made up of Morris and his
wife, Gillian Gilbert. Morris also performed live
with the New Order spin-off band, Bad
Lieutenant.
He is known for his machine-like drumming
that seamlessly wove with New Order's and
Joy Division's drum machine sounds.
He was ranked No. 5 on Stylus magazine's 50
Greatest Rock Drummers of All Time.

9. This story begins on July 20th 1976, when
the Sex Pistols played at the Lesser Free
Trade Hall in Manchester, supported by
local bands Slaughter and the Dogs and
the Buzzcocks (making their debut).
According to legend, this gig inspired Joy
Division to buy guitars and form a band.
Although the truth may be less
dramatic, there is no doubt the event did
stimulate the Manchester music scene in
general and the future members of Joy
Division in particular.

10. During this period they used to rehearse at the Black Swan pub in Salford, among other venues.
Although they now had a full complement, they were not ready for public performances. Neither did
they have a name. The name Stiff Kittens was proposed by Richard Boon (the idea is also credited
to Pete Shelley) but this was never adopted by the band.
The band were due to appear at Manchester's Electric Circus on May 29th 1977 on a bill which
included the Buzzcocks. Their first performance earned them a mention (not entirely favorable) in
the national music magazines.

11. In December 1977 they recorded four songs that later would be released on an EP as An Ideal For
Living. This was very much a home-brewed affair, with the band members and their friends stuffing
the records into their sleeves. The design (by Bernard) featured Germanic imagery which helped to
fuel unjustified speculation about the band's politics.

12. In January 1978 the band became Joy Division. In November 1977 the London-based group
Warsaw Pakt had released an album, so Warsaw decided to change their name to avoid being
confused with another band.
The first gig as Joy Division was played at Pips Disco in Manchester on January 25th 1978. It was
not an auspicious start as fighting broke out in the crowd. Rioting became a feature of many later
gigs, usually because the audience did not get to hear as much of Joy Division as they wanted.
Partly due to the name, Joy Division often
had problems with Nazi accusations
spreading around in the press. These both
puzzled and angered the band, and they
did not wish to dignify them with a reply.
Far from containing Nazi propaganda, their
lyrics preach quite the contrary message.

13. In the summer of 1978 Joy Division were members of the Manchester Musicians Collective, which
held court at the Band on the Wall.
Tony Wilson arranged for the band to appear on Granada TV on September 20th. They
performed Shadowplay on the magazine program Granada Reports.
On October 11th they went into the Cargo Studios in Rochdale to record two songs for the compilation
EP A Factory Sample.
On December 27th Joy Division played their first concert in London, at the Hope And Anchor in
Islington. Only 30 people paid to get in, although the price was only 60 pence! This gig was disastrous
in other ways: Bernard was struggling with a bad attack of flu, and Ian had a violent fit when the band
were travelling home after the gig.

14. In January 1979 a picture of Ian Curtis adorned
the front page of the New Musical Express.
This minor triumph was coupled with major
tragedy, as Ian was diagnosed as epileptic. His
experiences with epilepsy inspired him to write
She's Lost Control.
In
April
1979
the
album
Unknown
Pleasures was recorded at Strawberry Studios,
Stockport with Martin Hannett as producer.
Unknown Pleasures was released in June.

15. On July 20th the band made a second appearance on Granada TV, on the program What's On. They
played She's Lost Control. On July 28th Joy Division performed brilliantly at the Stuff the Superstars
festival at the Mayflower Club in Manchester.
In August 31st they played at the Electric Ballroom in London in front of 1,200 spectators, the biggest
crowd ever at a Joy Division concert.
In October and November Joy Division
supported the Buzzcocks in a 24-venue UK
tour.
On November 26th Joy Division recorded
their Second Peel Session. One of the songs
was Love Will Tear Us Apart which soon
became the best known unrecorded song in
Britain.

16. On May 18th 1980, two days before Joy Division were due to leave for America, and two months
before his 24th birthday, Ian Curtis committed suicide.
He returned to his home in Macclesfield, then persuaded Deborah to stay the night at her parents'
house. After watching Stroszek (a film by Werner Herzog), and listening to Iggy Pop, Ian hanged
himself in the kitchen, to be found by Deborah when she returned the next day.
Many reasons have been advanced for Ian's suicide: depression caused by his epilepsy or by the
drugs he was taking to control it, the break-up of his marriage, worries about the American tour, or
a morbid desire to emulate those of his heroes who had died young. People who were with him
shortly before his death give conflicting accounts of his state of mind. It appears that Ian had a
secretive nature, concealing his feelings from others (he even managed to conceal his epilepsy
until he actually had a fit), so the true reason for his death will remain obsure.
.

17. n the months following Ian's death, Closer was released and climbed into the top ten album
chart. By June 1982 the album had sold 250,000 copies. Love Will Tear Us Apart reached
number 13 in the singles chart. In September 1980 Factory released Atmosphere as a
single (after releasing it in the US as the B-side of She's Lost Control).
In 1981 saw the release of the double
album Still, which included a variety of
unreleased studio material (with some of
the tracks over-dubbed by the surviving
members of the band) and the live
recording of Joy Division's last concert.
The album title is thought to be a
reference to bootlegging.
Despite their artistic success, the band did
not become rich during Ian's lifetime, and
Deborah Curtis had to work to pay the
household bills.

18. Ian Curtis, vocalist with Joy Division, was found dead in Manchester Street on Sunday
morning. He is believed to have committed suicide. Curtis has recently been involved with
heavy recordings schedules a new album, a new single, and a free single and would have
been embarking on a short American tour with Joy Division in the near future.

19. It was Monday, the 19th of May, and John Peel has just
appeared on the national Radio 1 airwaves. I was thinking
to myself, "wouldn't it be nice if he played the new JOY
DIVISION
single,
"Love
will
tear
us
apart".
(Originally, intended for release the previous Friday, but it
was
a
trifle
late.)
A few seconds later, the shock news came onto the air.
"Bad news lads", monotoned Peel solemnly. "Ian Curtis, of
Joy Division, has just died." I didn't know whether to feel
sad, angry, cheated or what Joy Division had been my
favorite for the previous year; their brand of
bleak, gothic, experimental yet directioned
rock had
carved a place for them into the hearts and record
collections of a multitude, including my own.

20. The driving force behind Joy Division's dark vision, he hanged himself in his Macclesfield home as
the band rested between a European and American tour. Iggy Pop's 'The Idiot' was found on his
turntable alongside a note which read "at this very moment, I wish I were dead. I just can't cope
anymore".
Since Curtis' death there have a number of Joy Division
releases, including 1988's 'Substance' and 1999's
'Preston Warehouse 28 February 1980' In 1998, a box set,
containing both previously recorded and live material, was
released.

21. The autographs of Ian Curtis and Peter Hook of Joy Division. These
were obtained by a local guy at an early concert at The Royal
Standard, Bradford, West Yorkshire on 10 September 1978 when they
were practically unknown outside of Manchester at that time.

22. Joy Division were an extremely important
band in the stylistic development of
popular music, following the initial punk
rock explosion of 1977. In the wake of this
explosion, Joy Division, though the band
were only active for a total of four
years, pioneered a unique style that had
not been witnessed before, nor to an
extent, has been wholly replicated since.
This essay will first analyse the individual
aspects of Joy Division's style that
contributed
to
their
overall
uniqueness, and how those individual
aspects were employed and adapted by
later bands and artists.

23. Joy Division's two "proper" albums were Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Both excellent and both quite
different as the Joy Division sound evolved considerably between the two.
Unknown Pleasures was stark and minimalist while Closer was more poignant being recorded in the
final months of Ian's life. These two albums are essential for anyone new to Joy Division.

24. Released 20 July 1979
38:21 minutes
Producer: Martin Hannett
1 Disorder
6
She's Lost
Control
2 Day Of The Lords
7
Shadowplay
3 Candidate
8
Wilderness
4 Insight
9
Interzone
5 New Dawn Fades
10
I Remember
Nothing

25. Released 18 July 1980
43:59 minutes
Producer: Martin Hannett
Engineer: Martin Hannett
Photography: Bernard Pierre Wolfe
1
Atrocity
Exhibition
6
Heart & Soul
2
Isolation
7
Twenty Four
Hours
3
Passover
8
The Eternal
4
Colony
9
Decades
5
A Means To
An End

26. Joy Division singer Ian Curtis has the dubious distinction of being a momentous rock performer revered for
the wrong reason.
Joy Division’s music was good enough to stand the test of time without becoming embalmed in a tragic
melodrama. But when Curtis committed suicide in 1980 at age 23, he instantly overshadowed his band’s
considerable musical accomplishments and skewed them for posterity.
Curtis has become the unwitting godfather of the Goth-rock movement, and he’s mythologized as the
quintessential rock martyr, the guy who sang about the black hole of existence and then authenticated his
lyrics by hanging himself from the rafters in his kitchen a day before the British band was to begin its first
North American tour.
“No language, just sound, that’s all we need to know,” Curtis/Riley declares while the band turns the song’s
insistent rhythm into a blur.

27. Alone again in the house, Ian listened to Iggy Pop and wrote a long letter to his estranged wife. In
the early hours of Sunday morning he hanged himself in the kitchen using the rope from a clothes
airer. His body was found by Deborah when she returned later the same day.
Many theories have been advanced to explain Ian's suicide, but none of these can be proved.
With the benefit of hindsight, some warnings of the eventual outcome can be found in Ian's
behavior and in some of his writing. Unfortunately Ian had a secretive nature, and was good at
concealing his feelings from others. He even managed to conceal his epilepsy until he actually had
a fit. He certainly managed to conceal any suicidal tendencies from those around him, so the true
reason for his death will remain obscure. Perhaps it is better not to speculate and to let Ian Curtis
rest in peace.

28. The film expands on Deborah's Touching
From A Distance book, which was a personal
account of her life with Ian Curtis, to give a
fuller account of the man and his life. To
achieve
this,
writer
Matt
Greenhalgh
interviewed all the relevant people including
Annik Honore. Ian Curtis's was in a
relationship with Annik at the time of his
death and she has previously declined to
discuss the matter with the media simply
saying
it
was
"too
painful".
Directed by lifelong Joy Division fan Anton
Corbijn the film is in black and white to
reflect the atmosphere of Joy Division and
the mood of the era. Anton is keen to point
out that the film is about Ian Curtis - not Joy
Division.

29. Joy Division - Curtis, guitarist Bernard
Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer
Stephen Morris - formed on the
Manchester music scene in the late
1970s.
They released first album Unknown
Pleasures in 1979, with follow-up Closer
being released after Curtis's death.
Their most famous single, Love Will Tear
Us Apart, only reached number 13 a
month after Curtis died yet it was among
five finalists in the Brit Awards poll this
year to find the best British song of the
past 25 years.

31. Joy Division Central
Joy Division: A tribute to Ian Curtis 1956 - 1980