Joy Division

Manchester, 1977. This is the starting point of Warsaw , a formation later known as Joy Division with reference to the book The House Of Dolls describing the sexual slave groups formed by the German army during the war among the deportees. Warsaw is at the initiative of Bernard Summer (guitar), Peter Hook (bass), and Terry Mason (battery) before they recruit, through a small ad, a certain Ian Curtis (chant/guitar). Mason was soon replaced by Tony Tabac for the band's first concerts in the spring of 1977. But five weeks later, Steve Brotherdale (from the punk group Panik) took the place behind the drums. The time of a first demo, and Stephen Morris will eventually be preferred as a drummer. A stability that will be synonymous with a change of name (but also not to be confused with the Londoners of Warsaw Pakt), since it was at the end of 1977 that the group opted for Joy Division, not without causing a strong controversy as to their supposed political orientations. A polemic that proves a posteriori to be a fantasy and in relation to the dark imagery of a bubbling cold-wave scene. Things accelerated for Joy Division from 1978. After some EPs and other compilations, the band performed during John Peel's BBC Sessions radios, giving more and more concerts (one of which will be a date with another young figure, The Cure), and Ian Curtis will even make the headlines of the very sight New Musical Express. A demand/agitation that continues to grow until the release of their first album, entitled Unknown Pleasures, in mid-1979. The public and the critics will immediately give him an ultra-favourable welcome, but despite this situation, Joy Division will be forced to cancel a lot of concerts due to the numerous epilepsy attacks that Ian Curtis is hit during his live performances. Following a long break, a European tour will be scheduled for 1980. But Curtis's health is deteriorating again in spite of the lightshow developments. Joy Division decided to return to the studio with Martin Hennett to record a new album. This will include the famous single Love Will Tear Us Apart in April. The reception is once again dithyrambic, but it still fails to get this title out of the thick underground sphere. A two-week respite will be taken by the quartet before leaving for a tour in the USA. But at that time, the relationship between Ian Curtis and his wife deteriorated greatly because of the leader's infidelities. On Saturday, May 17, 1980, on his own, Curtis watched a film (called Stroszek) about the life of an artist who would lead him to suicide. The next day, he will be found by his wife Deborah in their kitchen, hanged at the end of a rope. It is here that the human history of Joy Division ceases, since the members have always admitted that if one of them left it would be the end. However, the musical adventure survives and brings the natives of Manchester into the legend. We owe it one part to the posthumous release of the second album Closer in the month of August 80, as well as to the multitudes of compilations, rarity, or live ones that follow. But the impact that Curtis's band had on a whole generation of artists remains the decisive factor. As for the members/survivors, they will form the New Order group, considered an influential/determining member of so-called electronic music.
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