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New Order: The Cinema, San Francisco CA

Michael Goldberg, Musician, February 1982

ON MAY 18, 1980 Ian Curtis, lead singer for a relatively obscure English rock band called Joy Division, hanged himself. This immediately made Joy Division, a band that (loosely) sounded like the Velvet Underground fronted by Jim Morrison, the stuff of legend in the U.K. A month after his death, a single, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', and a second album, Closer (both completed while Curtis was alive) were released; both promptly popped onto the English charts.

Total word count of piece: 455

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