Joy Division: Classic Or Dud?

maybe he can finally get round to doing that version of Louie Louie

maybe he can finally get round to doing that version of Louie Louie

― zappi, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 9:13 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hahahahahaha!!!

So it seems like some extracts from Peter Hook's Joy Division book have been published in the NME, including a hilarious anecdote about Ian pissing in an ashtray in a hotel room in Brussels (and getting caught and shouted at in French by a caretaker). There's also another anecdote about Rob Gretton, Peter Hook, Steve Morris and several others bursting into a hotel room to find Ian and Bernard in seperate beds with a naked girl for company each, and reacting to this by throwing lit fireworks around the room. Bernard was pissed off, Ian allegedly found it hilarious, and the two naked girls were terrified. "Hardly the erotic feast they might have been hoping for", I quote.

don't know where else to post this, but this is peter hook in NYT magazine today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/magazine/we-were-joy-division.html

It all started with the Sex Pistols. I saw them twice in 1976 — two gigs weeks apart at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester — Bernard Sumner (our guitarist) and I went together with a couple of friends to the first gig, and at the second gig I bumped into Ian Curtis, who would become our lead singer. They were only on for half an hour, but when they finished, we filed out quietly with our minds blown, absolutely utterly speechless, and it just sort of dawned on me then — that was it. On the way home that night we decided to form a band — Joy Division. The name was Ian’s idea.

By 1979, we hadn’t yet even made an album, but because we were being so productive, talk turned to making one. To be perfectly frank, we weren’t that fussy about whom we made it with. But in the meantime Martin Rushent invited us down to the studio to record some demos, just to see if we were going to jell. He’d produced the Buzzcocks and the Stranglers by this point, so we were very excited by the prospect.

When we got there, we saw that Rushent had a brand-new Jaguar XJS — and as it happened I’d been reading this article about how something like 9 out of 10 Jag owners don’t lock the boot of their car. So I thought, I wonder if that’s true. . . . Tried his boot and, lo and behold, it was unlocked. Inside, it was full of what I’m sure were stolen car radios; you could tell they were stolen by the way the wires were dangling off from where they’d been ripped out. Me and Terry, our roadie, were looking at each other, thinking, Martin’s got a boot full of stolen car radios. And then, Wonder if he’d miss a couple. . . .

All day, whenever there was a break in the recording, we’d be daring one another to go back in his boot and nick one each for our cars — because they were proper high-end stereos — but I was going: “Oh, no, we can’t, because he might be our record company. We can’t nick cassette players off our record company.” We didn’t take any. God knows what he was doing with them, though. We never asked him.

It was a really nice studio, and he worked well with Ian on the vocals, did a few overdubs and stuff, nothing wild, very low key. The tracks were “Glass,” “Transmission,” “Ice Age,” “Insight” and “Digital.” Rushent was a nice guy; we got on well.

That was the thing about Joy Division, though: writing the songs was dead easy because the group was really balanced. We had a great guitarist, a great drummer, a great bass player and a great singer. Ian would listen to us jamming and then direct the song until it was . . . a song. He stood there like a conductor and picked out the best bits. Which was why, when he killed himself a year later, it made everything so difficult. It was like driving a great car that had only three wheels. The loss of Ian opened up a hole in us, and we had to learn to write in a different way. We were so tight, as a group, we didn’t even use a tape recorder half the time. Didn’t need one.

Back then we didn’t know rules or theory. We had our ear, Ian, who listened and picked out the melodies. Then at some point his lyrics would appear. He always had these scraps of paper that he’d written things down on, and he’d go through his plastic bag. “Oh, I’ve got something that might suit that.” And the next thing you knew he’d be standing there with a piece of paper in one hand, wrapped around the microphone stand, with his head down, making the melodies work. We’d never hear what he was singing about in rehearsal because the equipment was so terrible. In his case it didn’t matter because he delivered the vocal with such a huge amount of passion and aggression, as if he really meant it.

I recently got offered the tape of that session with Rushent. Eden Studios was taken over by a firm of solicitors, and left in a storeroom, hidden in the bowels of it, were the Joy Division masters. One of the staff members claimed to have them and offered me the tape through a third party. He wanted £50,000 for it. This was in 2006 or something. Even then there was no way on earth you could make a record and hope to recoup 50 grand. I offered him a finder’s fee, two grand, but he said no, and I’ve never heard from him since; it’s never appeared. Ah, well. It’s a funny thing, people trying to sell you back bits of your own past. But I’m getting used to it, to be honest.

Peter Hook is a co-founder of the bands Joy Division and New Order. This essay is adapted from his memoir, “Unknown Pleasures,” published this month by HarperCollins.

That was the thing about Joy Division, though: writing the songs was dead easy because the group was really balanced. We had a great guitarist, a great drummer, a great bass player and a great singer.

hahahaha. yep, if you had to be specific about what made the group balanced, it really comes down to how great each member was.

reads better than:

On the way home that night we decided to form a band — Warsaw. Stiff Kittens or something.

sounds like Hooky begging for his former job back.

I know he is a figure of fun here these days but I'm about a third of the way through Hooky's JD memoir and am really enjoying it. What am I missing?

I finally get it!
― adam. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, September 15, 2004 9:18 PM (8 years ago)

Looking at it now, I guess my question reads along the lines of something like " if the Velvet Underground are so popular, why are there so many threads making fun of Lou Reed?"

http://adamcap.com/2011/05/19/history-of-joy-division-unknown-pleasures-album-art/

Where is the image of the parody t-shirt which was on another thread recently?

i think that was on Defend the Indefensible: Joy Division, one of my favorite thread titles on this site because of its.. i think the word used here is "challopsy-ness". anyway, does anyone else love the song Interzone? one of my top 5 JD tracks easily

Interzone is great. I've got this cycle going now where I get the N.F. Porter song "Keep On Keepin' On," which has a very similar riff (and according to the JD documentary they were encouraged to cover by a manager, I think) going through my head and then Warsaw's version, then the Joy Division version and back again.

http://www.willlovetearusapart.com/

It's some kind of game inspired by the song, seems very resource-intensive and I didn't have the patience to see it through tbh.

Joy Division tapes 'saved from skip'

I was hoping the Peter Hook memoir would be chock full of cocaine thoughts and it delivers!

I bought it last week but it's already annoyed me so much in the first chapter that I can't imagine i'll ever pick it up again.

I saw Peter Hook a couple months ago playing all of Movement and Power, Corruption, and Lies (+ some other songs such as "Procession"). He's not bad! Really not bad at all.

So Brittany Spanos is reporting on Twitter that Iggy Pop is currently being backed by New Order covering Joy Division songs. Apparently "Transmission" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" were played at the least.

hah, just posted on facebook about that. A friend of mine reported the same.

http://instagram.com/p/lbJVFWtLKX/

originally read that as "Britney Spears is reporting etc."

not sure what to think about this. it really is bizarre.

Ian Curtis heavily inspired by Iggy so not so bizzare.

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2014/03/11/new-order-iggy-pop-joy-division-love-will-tear-us-apart/

From Brittany's review:

The evening then arrived to the concert "headliners," if that's an appropriate term for a benefit. Bernard Sumner, Phil Cunningham and Tom Chapman of New Order brought on stage Manchester poet Mike Garry and composer Jo Duddell for a special performance of Garry's poem "St. Anthony" set to New Order's "Your Silent Face." Making it even more special is who the poem had been written in honor of -- Factory Records' owner Tony Wilson. Wilson of course, discovered them all when they were Joy Division.

The most excellent and fulfilling of the surprises came from Iggy Pop's entrance on stage to perform a trio of songs with New Order. Dressed in an oversized black blazer, dress pants, and no shirt, Iggy Pop looked particularly buttoned up with only part of his bare chest peeking beneath the suit. He made a very Iggy Pop show of New Order's "California Grass" before the evening's most audience-rousing pair of performances arrived as the collaborators dove into two Joy Division tracks. Pop took over Joy Division's "Transmission" as patrons jumped to their feet to "dance, dance, dance, dance, dance" as the song commands. Pop's voice has aged nicely, even deeper and with more resonance as he perfectly delivered a vocal reminiscent of the late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis' deep tone. Excitement heightened as they transitioned into "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and more people jumped to their feet and ran towards the stage to continue dancing and jumping and taking part in this truly remarkable moment. Sumner took over the majority of vocal duties though Pop did the refrain justice.

Um, wasn't Iggy on Ian's turntable when he hung himself? Something sort of ... unseemly about this.

His album was, yes.

Should have brought Werner Herzog and a chicken on for the encore.

That's actually the one thing about it that doesn't feel dumb to me. There's no way of knowing what anybody's last hour was actually like, of course, but I think of The Idiot on the turntable as signifying "let me hear some music I love one last time" or possibly "maybe playing an album I like will help; it used to help."

Bernard Sumner, Phil Cunningham and Tom Chapman of New Order

who?

Phil has been in New Order for 10yrs longer than Joy Division was active.

Aero, that was a really insightful and humanizing comment. It's easy to be removed from everything Ian was going through, poor bastard.

otm.

Phil has been in New Order for 10yrs longer than Joy Division was active.

holy shit that's a terrifying thought

subtract the years they were split though

@peter_hook1
Very sad to hear the news today about Annik Honore - we'll be playing Atmosphere tonight for her. Hope she's sat up there with Ian. RIP.

She was so much more than Ian's other woman, though - she played a big role bringing attention to some great European bands.

Yeah we talk about her on the Disques du Crepuscule thread

Good old Hooky, still claiming the JD legacy for himself.

So, 34 years ago I was listening to Closer the week after it was released. And it meant EVERYTHING.

And now...it almost means more.

Ian is dead. Annik is dead. But the songs.. oh God, those songs. As much as I loved the band at the time, I never realised how much those words and those melodies coud mean, even 34 years later.

I really am too old for this to matter, but it does. "Here are the young men, a weight's on their shoulders.." and now they aren't young but the weight is still there.

We have carried the weight because of this music; these words. They really are that important and that magical. They aren't a band; they are a mystique that manages to transcend everything, even their future (and their future was magnificent).

So thanks Bernard, Peter, Stephen, Ian and Martin ( and Debbie and Annik because you, too, were part of this mythology). Thanks for every note, every idea, every tear, every laugh. You have helped to get me here, still alive and more rounded because of the music you created.

I feel ya, man. When you live with albums, songs and people your whole life (practically), through the highest highs and lowest lows, the music, the myths and the people behind it mean more and more. Don't forget Tony Wilson, Peter Saville and Rob Gretton. All essential to the story of Joy Division.

Dunno if this has been mentioned on the rolling BBC4 thread, but tonight there is a documentary this evening on JD.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0543ytw

Looking forward to seeing Paul Morley's big squashy face.

*tonight/this evening* jeez, forgive my aprés work brain

Les Brains Douche </supernerdyjoydivbootlegjoke>

That's the movie that was out a few years ago.

xpost

great documentary, chiefly for the archive footage of the band and around Manchester at the time, but I got really irate at that bloke who described Ian as 'bipolar'.

Watched a few bits, there have been a few JD docs: so curious how Deborah Curtis is a ghost in these...hated the conclusions of a regenerated Manchester whose nice plush housing is possibly unaffordable to most of the people that work there.