Levi’s Bloaaaahg

What more needs to be said about Ian Curtis? Yes, he was brilliant. Yes, he was a possesive bastard. And yes, he died too young.

From young adolescence on he mentioned to his friends that he wasn’t planning on growing older than twentyfive. Just as his role models, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. He also told them he would be the biggest name in rock and roll music. Funnily enough, he never took the discipline to learn to play an instrument. He sold him self to bands as a singer / songwriter.
Aged 16, he started a band with his youth friend, Tony Nuttal. This didn’t stand long, since both of them really couldn’t play instruments and his friend didn’t share Ian’s vision on the musical industry.
At age 18 he married Deborah. Also, at that age, he told Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morriss that if they were looking for a singer for their band, he was interested. And so, Warsaw, was a fact.
After a couple of gigs they had to change the name, because there already was a London based band called Warsaw Pakt. Curtis always had an interest in European warfare, and especially World War II. So they took up the name Joy Division. Joy Division was a reference to the brothels used by German soldiers, where only Arien women were on display. Their first EP, ‘An Ideal For Living’, depicted a German like soldier with a drum on the sleeve. They immediatley were accused of having racists thoughts and being neo-nazi’s. But given the era, the late punk period, names such as Joy Division were more rule than exception.
After being shown on Granada TV, a local music television show which supported the likes of the Buzzcocks, the Clash, Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols, the band was pretty satisfied. Well, everyone except for Curtis. He was pissed that Tony Wilson, the host, didn’t play their music, but instead just showed the EP. A couple of weeks later, the band was in a pub when Wilson entered. Curtis wrote something on a napkin and handed it over to Wilson.
“Your’e a twat. A bastard, you are!” he told Wilson, who later reveiled the napkin. It wrote:

Joy Division, you cunt!

After seeing them perform, Wilson was convinced. The guys could go and play their song ‘Shadowplay’ live on Granada TV in April 1978. He even tried to convince Rob Gretton, the manager, that Joy Division ought to sign to Factory Records: a Mancunian based record label which provided bands the ultimate freedom. He even told them he would write the contract with his own blood. And so he did.
Joy Division were getting a lot more exposure from then on. This had a serious effect on Curtis. On their way home after a gig in London, Curtis had his first fit. He was now suffering from epilepsy. In order to find out which medication would suit him, the MD prescribed him various ones. The drugs didn’t had the effect they wished they had. Curtis began having fits while performing. His tedious way of dancing might have had something to with that as well.
On a more personal note, his daughter Nathalie was born. Eventhough this family expansion, Curtis still had doubts about his marriage to Deborah. He was always very protective and possesive about her, but it didn’t stop him from having an affair with Belgian reporter Annik Honoré. He also didn’t dare to pick up his own daughter due to his condition.
In May 1980 the great breakthrough came: Joy Division was about to embark upon a tour in the U.S. Everyone was happy. Everyone but Curtis. His relation with Debbie was on the verge of a divorce. In a final attempt to save it, he went home to talk with her. They ended up having a big fight. He told her to go away. “Come back in the morning. I’ll be gone by then.”
He stayed up listening to Iggy Pop’s ‘The Idiot’ and drank a lot of alcohol. He ended up on the floor, after having another fit. In the morning he woke up, suppossedly crying an completeley oblivious. He wrote a note and left it next to the pick-up.

“At this very moment, I wish I were dead. I just can’t cope anymore.”

It was 18 May, 1980. Aged 23, he hung himself in the kitchen for his wife Debbie to find out.

To this day, many speculations have been going on, on why Curtis chose that exact place and timing. Many say, that from his lyrics it was obvious that he was going to kill himself, but that is just plain ridicule. I guess there are a lot of factors, but it’s nothing more than a guess. Four years of Joy Division apparently was enough to change the way rock music sounded in the late seventies. To this day, many bands such as the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Editors, Bloc Party and Interpol are still influenced. The distinctive sound of Joy Division classics, such as ‘Transmission’, ‘She’s Lost Control’ and ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ nowadays still sound ageless. Thank you, Ian.