Joy Division HHV Records 41 Items

The Blueprint of Post-Punk

When the right people come together at the right time, it can happen that it doesn’t take much time to create something great. In the case of Joy Division, it took only three years and two albums to redefine post-punk and become the blueprint of the genre: Songs like Love Will Tear Us Apart, Disorder, and Transmission made them one of the most important bands in Britain by the end of the 1970s until the group was forced to dissolve after the tragic death of lead singer Ian Curtis in 1980. In the following, they reemerged as New Order. Joy Division’s formation can be pinpointed to the exact day: on June 4, 1976, the still relatively unknown Sex Pistols played their legendary concert at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in front of about 40 people. Among the audience were future alternative stars like Morrissey and Mark E. Smith, as well as Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook. The two decided to join forces in the name of the emerging punk movement and bought their first instruments. The band’s uniquely heavy, melancholic sound emerged after a period of experimentation and various name changes – until 1978, the band performed as Stiff Kittens and Warsaw, until Joy Division finalized its lineup with Stephen Morris and the voice of the band, Ian Curtis.

Thunderous live shows and gray jackets

With the self-released debut EP An Ideal for Living, they landed a record deal with the Manchester indie label Factory Records in the summer of 1978, still sounding like an eccentric punk group. Not only did a live session on BBC Radio 1 in November of the same year bring them attention from the music scene, but also the provocative aesthetics of their EP cover – and ultimately, the band name, taken from a piece of Nazi history. The first full-length album, Unknown Pleasures, was released in 1979 and established Joy Division’s definitive sound: wrapped in its own way in black romance, dystopian vocal performances met layers of synthesizers and guitars. With a brilliant debut album and thunderous live shows, including an manically dancing Ian Curtis, the band gathered fans nationwide, dressing in gray jackets in homage to their idols. Despite all this success, the lead singer increasingly dealt with epileptic seizures, some of which surprised him on stage, leading to complications and canceled shows in the following months. In early 1980, the band recorded their second album, Closer, and planned to embark on their first US tour shortly afterward. However, it was already too late – Ian Curtis’ suicide in May 1980 came unexpectedly for the other band members.

From Post-Punk to Alternative Dance

Joy Division’s most famous single, Love Will Tear Us Apart, was released shortly thereafter and made it into the Top 20 – with the release of Closer in August 1980, the band met its tragic end, with the album being another masterpiece of creative post-punk energy, anticipating the sound of New Wave in the coming years. After Curtis’ death, an agreement made by all four members at the beginning of their careers came into effect: if a band member leaves, the remaining members change the group’s name. So, Joy Division became New Order, whose first single, Ceremony, including the B-side In a Lonely Place, was the last recording with Ian Curtis. In the 1980s, New Order set out to revolutionize alternative dance – but that would never have been possible without Joy Division, including Ian Curtis, as the starting point. The pop-cultural influence of those early songs extends far beyond the post-punk scene today and continues to influence a wide variety of bands across genres – and Joy Division still manage to gain fans in the current generation.