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Joy Division

Joy Division

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Joy Division: University Of London, London

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 16 February 1980

I DIDN'T KNOW which way to turn. In every corner of the second floor of the anonymous university building there seemed to be some group ...

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Buzzcocks, Penetration, John Cooper Clarke, Warsaw: Electric Circus, Manchester

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 18 June 1977

THERE IS undoubtedly a great deal of refining and cleaning to be done on Buzzcocks' material before the album they can so definitely record comes ...

Buzzcocks/Magazine/John Cooper Clarke/The Worst/The Fall/The Prefects/The Negatives/Warsaw: Electric Circus, Manchester

Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 15 October 1977

Prime Manchester venue closes... Power cut at the Electric Circus ...

Nosebleeds, Snyde, Joy Division, V.2.: The Ritz, Manchester

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 3 June 1978

DROPPING INTO 1977 was 'easy'. ...

Joy Division: Band On The Wall, Manchester

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 9 September 1978

THOSE FAMILIAR with this young quartet. mainly through their excitable appearance on the "Short Circuit" pretty package, and to a lesser extent with their self ...

Joy Division: Band on the Wall, Manchester

Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 16 September 1978

IT WAS during the unforgettable summer of '77 that I had my first encounter with Joy Division (then named Warsaw). Through a steamy Electric Circus ...

Joy Division: A short, pulsating feature on a small, pulsating band

Interview by Mick Middles, Sounds, 18 November 1978

THROB,THROB, THROB, THROB. "Hey Miss, a bottle of Newcastle please, what? Oh, a bottle of Pils then." THROB, THROB, THROB, THROB. ...

New Stirrings On The North-West Frontier

Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 13 January 1979

The Underground sticks its Collective head overground to explain how the rest of the world went wrong. Please fasten your safety helmets now. Words: PAUL ...

Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, John Dowie: Factory Night, Acklam Hall, London

Live Review by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 26 May 1979

FOUR DIVERSE samples of current Mancunian Factory products: dopey comedian John Dowie; a cute pop duo called Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark; A Certain Ratio ...

Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (Factory Records Fact 10) *****

Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 14 July 1979

DEATH DISCO ...

Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (Factory)

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 14 July 1979

JUST WHEN the year's vitality was threatening to be expunged by a non-stop parade of rehashed fashions, 'ordinary geezers' with French Riviera yachts and the ...

Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 21 July 1979

"To talk of life today is like talking of rope in the house of a hanged man." Where will it end? ...

Joy Division: The Factory, Russell Club, Manchester

Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 28 July 1979

TOGETHERNESS IS a quality found in few bands. In these days of the inflated ego most rock outfits tend to thrive on the opposite. The Fall, ...

The Fall, Joy Division, the Distractions et al: Stuff The Superstars Special, Mayflower Club, Manchester

Live Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 4 August 1979

Manchester city fun ...

Joy Division: Pseud Yourself

Report and Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 11 August 1979

TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE MANCUNIAN WAY — DAVE McCULLOUGH GETS NO JOY (INFORMATION-WISE) FROM JOY DIVISION ...

Joy Division: Take No Prisoners, Leave No Clues

Profile and Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 11 August 1979

LET ME DRAW BACK the curtains on a probably wet and no doubt freezing night last winter. A mid-week night of no special significance, save ...

Joy Division, Teardrop Explodes, OMD, Echo & The Bunnymen et al: Leigh Rock Festival, Lancashire

Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 8 September 1979

A movement with no name... and a festival with no people (But a 'staggering event' all the same, says our man Middles) ...

Joy Division/Echo & The Bunnymen/OMD/Teardrop Explodes/The Distractions/ACR: Leigh Valley Festival, Lancashire

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 8 September 1979

Angst in an East Lancs wasteland ...

Joy Division, Pil et al: Futurama '79 Festival — Set The Controls For The Squalor Of Leeds

Live Review by Andy Gill, Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 15 September 1979

The World's First Science Fiction Music FestivalWords: Ian Penman and Andy Gill. Pix: Kevin Cummins ...

Factory Records: Food For Thought

Report by Mary Harron, Melody Maker, 29 September 1979

Lots of people thought that Operation Julie was a bit of an anachronism. Who, in the late Seventies, could be dropping all those tabs? It ...

The Buzzcocks, Joy Division: Mountford Hall, Liverpool

Live Review by Penny Kiley, Melody Maker, 12 October 1979

OF IMAGES AND IDOLS ...

Buzzcocks/Joy Division: Rainbow, London

Live Review by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 17 November 1979

ON CURRENT FORM, Joy Division should have been the best thing happening on Friday night, and the Buzzcocks camp knew it too. Consequently, they treated ...

Joy Division: University of London Union

Live Review by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 16 February 1980

AH, THE HORROR, the horror... where's Colonel Kurtz? Somehow the demented Brando figure is there, spiritually leading the new dance. Like him, today's purveyors have ...

Joy Division, A Certain Ratio: Osbourne Club, Manchester

Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 1 March 1980

TO THE centre of the city in the night waiting for Joy Division. ...

Joy Division, The Royal Family, Crawling Chaos, Section 25: Moonlight Club, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, New Musical Express, 19 April 1980

THE 1980 FACTORY ACT ...

Martin Hannett

Interview by uncredited writer, ZigZag, May 1980

(This article was credited to "Worried, Preston". We have no idea who Worried, Preston is. If you do, please get in touch — RBP Ed) ...

Joy Division: From Safety To Where?

Comment by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 14 June 1980

ABOUT MIDDAY on Sunday, May 18, Ian Curtis was found dead by his wife in the kitchen of his house in Macclesfield. Although the exact ...

Joy Division: University of London

Live Review by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, July 1980

THERE IS NO joy in Joy Division. And no division either. At the University of London the band presented an hour of unrelenting, uncompromising bleakness; ...

Joy Division: Closer (Factory)

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 19 July 1980

Closer to the edge ...

Phantom of the Factory — It's Martin Hannett! A legend in his own town!! Didsbury!!!

Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 July 1980

Bassist with Arnie Prole's Blues Band! Founding member of John Cooper Clarke's Curious Yellows! Close friend of Eric the Ferret! Producer of Spiral Scratch, Jilted ...

Joy Division: Closer (Factory Records FACT XXV)

Review by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, 26 July 1980

FROM THE beginning we were always dealing with something special. Joy Division, by the very nature of their set up, could never have been just ...

A History of Joy Division

Retrospective by Mick Middles, The Face, November 1980

JOY DIVISION began life in romantically seedy surroundings. In late 1977, as the initial push of the new wave began to soften, hundreds of imitation ...

Letter from Britain: The Exploding Psychedelic Inevitable

Column by Penny Valentine, Creem, November 1980

"YOU CRY OUT in your sleep/And all my failings exposed," mourns Ian Curtis on the extraordinary, emotional 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. This song, currently ...

New Order: Heaven, London

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 14 February 1981

THE HAUNTING OF HEAVEN ...

Rough Trade and Factory: Business Brains in Action!

Interview by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, July 1981

Independent Thoughts From Rough Trade's Geoff Travis And Factory's Tony Wilson ...

The Doors and Joy Division: 2 Dead Bands Still Going Strong

Essay by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 6 September 1981

TWO OF the most intriguing rock 'n' roll bands of the '80s exist on the airwaves, on vinyl and in the consciousness of fans in ...

Joy Division: Still (Factory)

Review by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 17 October 1981

FEATURING: 'Ice Age', 'Walked In Line' and The Kill' (from '77 sessions), 'Glass' (from Factory Sampler) 'Exercise One' and The Sound Of Music' (John Peel sessions), ...

FAC~T or Fiction

Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 12 June 1982

Dave McCullough corresponds with Factory boss TONY WILSON. ...

The Voice Squad

Overview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 12 January 1985

From the raw to the pure, from the sublime to the meticulous — BARNEY HOSKYNS sings the praises of 24 of music's most glorious voices. ...

Division On: Joy Division

Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 19 May 1990

"FUNNY. I WAS IN the car with Barney the other day and I just hit Unknown Pleasures into the CD. And Barney shouted, 'Get that ...

Anthony Wilson: Renaissance Manc

Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 30 November 1991

FACTORY: aloof, elegant, misunderstood Mancunian home of Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, possibly the coolest record label in the world — but there are ...

An Interview with Martin Hannett, 29th May 1989

Interview by Jon Savage, Touch-Vagabond, 1992

JS: How did you come across Joy Division? ...

Factory R.I.P.

Report by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 5 December 1992

FACTORY RECORDS, arguably the most influential record label of the Eighties, fell into the hands of the Receiver last week — after months of speculation ...

Joy Division: Someone Take These Dreams Away

Retrospective and Interview by Jon Savage, MOJO, July 1994

HERE ARE THE young men, a weight on their shouldersHere are the young men, well where have they been?We knocked on the doors of hell's ...

Deborah Curtis: Touching From A Distance: Ian Curtis And Joy Division (Faber & Faber)

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, June 1995

AS THE JOURNALIST and pop historian Jon Savage Suggests in his foreword, for one narrowly defined sub-generation, Ian Curtis's suicide was a first personal encounter ...

She’s Got Control

Interview by Len Brown, Q, June 1995

Fifteen years after he hanged himself in their Macclesfield kitchen, Joy Division leader Ian Curtis has been "outed" by his widow, Deborah, as an ill-tempered, ...

Joy Division: Permanent

Review by Mark Cooper, MOJO, August 1995

WHEN JOY DIVISION'S UNKNOWN PLEASURES was released in June, 1979, it sounded like it came from another planet. Of course, it's easy now to historicise ...

Torn Apart: Joy Division and the death of Ian Curtis

Retrospective and Interview by Dave Simpson, Uncut, December 1997

Joy Division were the most crucial of all the post-punk bands. But, on the eve of their first US tour, lead singer Ian Curtis committed ...

Joy Division: Heart & Soul

Review by David Stubbs, Uncut, January 1998

JOY DIVISION were the last British band who mattered, for whom something was truly the matter. Forget Oasis' last-gasp efforts to bring the rock community ...

Joy Division: Heart And Soul

Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1998

The complete JD story, from Warsaw to 'Atmosphere', compiled by the band’s surviving members with Jon Savage and including dozens of outtakes, unreleased demos, and ...

Joy Division: The Making Of Unknown Pleasures

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, November 1998

Joy Division settle into 10cc's Strawberry Studios in Stockport to record one of the greatest albums of the 70s. But Ian Curtis has just discovered ...

Ian Curtis

Profile by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, August 2000

IAN CURTIS has amassed more disciples since his death 20 years ago than he ever attracted as singer with Manchester post-punk legends Joy Division. ...

Joy Division: Les Bains Douches 18 December 1979

Review by Keith Cameron, MOJO, June 2001

Twenty-one years ago, Paris heard the primal scream. Official release of famous bootlegged Paris concert. Anthony Wilson contributes, typically (and justifiably) hyperbolic sleevenotes. ...

24 Hour Party People: directed by Michael Winterbottom

Review by Djuna Parnes, Rock's Backpages, May 2002

MUCH TO MY surprise, this self-serving cinematic essay about and around Anthony H. Wilson of Factory and Haçienda fame is a resounding success. It's extremely ...

Adventures in Hi-Fi: Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures

Retrospective by John McCready, MOJO, June 2003

ALREADY MAKING the transition from off-the-peg punk to something harder and darker, Joy Division were on the verge of great things in 1979. ...

Deborah Curtis: "I was just besotted"

Retrospective and Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 11 April 2005

Twenty-five years ago, Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, killed himself. His wife Deborah talks to Laura Barton about getting over him, obsessive fans ...

Ian Curtis

Book Excerpt by Mick Middles, Linsday Reade, Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis (Omnibus Press), 2006

The authors of this new biography are uniquely qualified to reveal the extraordinary events surrounding the life and death of Ian Curtis. Manchester-based Mick Middles was ...

Various Artists: Zero - A Martin Hannett Story 1977-1991

Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, May 2006

The post-punk Phil Spector lives on again on a (single CD) retrospective that reveals him to be a producer both before his time and ahead ...

Joy Division: The Eternal

Retrospective by Jon Savage, MOJO, February 2007

Jon Savage returns to the claustrophobic urban landscape of post-punk northern England to re-examine the soul-scorching singular vision of the band's late vocalist, Ian Curtis, ...

Closer Still: An Interview with Control director Anton Corbijn

Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, September 2007

THE ESSENCE OF DEATH, much like that of war, rests in how it has irreparably changed those left to grapple with its aftermath. Its effects ...

Joy Division: Music to Brood by, Desolate and Stark

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 7 October 2007

THE MYSTIQUE surrounding Joy Division has always been way out of proportion to its record sales. Far bigger bands, like the Clash and Pink Floyd, ...

Torn Apart: The Legend Of Joy Division

Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Uncut, November 2007

One of Britain's most influential bands is now the subject of a compelling new film. Paul Lester talks to Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and Bernard ...

Music books: the most debauched tales of rock'n'roll excess

Book Review by Ben Thompson, The Independent, 16 December 2007

HOW BETTER to salve the pangs of remorse induced by a season of over-indulgence than by voraciously consuming the reminiscences of those whose lifestyles make ...

Joy Division: The Joy Division Industry

Comment by Chris Roberts, The Quietus, 10 April 2008

More offcuts from the Factory ...

The Right Way To Remember Joy Division

Essay by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 9 July 2009

As Unknown Pleasures reaches its 30th anniversary, Jude Rogers looks behind the commercialisation and Paul Morley's jowls at Joy Division's eternal truth ...

Kevin Cummins: Manchester – Looking For The Light Through The Pouring Rain (Faber & Faber)

Book Review by Keith Cameron, Q, October 2009

Manc-rock, from punk to Oasis, by legendary lensman. ...

Joy Division: "Ian was a normal, happy guy. We didn't know he was approaching his breaking point…"

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2010

Thirty years ago, Joy Division arrived in London. Their mission: to escape Manchester, have a laugh and make a classic second album. Now, Bernard Sumner, ...

Joy Division: Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis by Mick Middles and Lindsay Reade

Book Review by Leyla Sanai, Rock's Backpages, June 2010

WITH THE thirtieth anniversary of Ian Curtis's suicide (he killed himself on May 18th 1980) just gone, enough time had passed for me to want ...

Joy Division: +-

Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, 6 December 2010

AVAILABLE AS EITHER a download (plus video content) or as a limited-edition vinyl box set, collecting 10 seven-inch singles and featuring art from Factory co-founder ...

"You Can't Escape Your Influences" Mark Lanegan's Favourite Albums

Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 26 January 2012

In one of our best Baker's Dozens yet, Mark Lanegan talks Julian Marszalek through the most-played discs in his collection. ...

Bassists: Let's Stick Together

Overview by James Medd, The Word, February 2012

They are "the glue" that cements the music, the mysterious put-upon souls plying their crucial trade in a cloud of dry ice by the drum-riser. ...

Peter Hook: Unknown Pleasures – Inside Joy Division

Book Review by Andy Beckett, The Guardian, 19 September 2012

Andy Beckett on a raw, surprising account of the classic post-punk band ...

Manna for Fans: The history of the hidden track in music

Retrospective by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 25 January 2015

From inner groove loops to absurd backmasking, artists have long found ways to embed secret songs, cryptic writings and coded messages in their albums. ...

Jon Savage: This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else – Joy Division, the Oral History (Faber)

Book Review by Clinton Heylin, The Spectator, 8 June 2019

The post-punk band were great performers. But they sold very few records, and their lead singer committed suicide aged 23 ...

see also Monaco

see also New Order

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