![]() Momentum quickly grew around the band and it began to attract music press and record company interest. However, the existence of a punk band called Warsaw Pakt convinced them to change their name to avoid any confusion and in January 1978 they played their first ever gig under the name Joy Division. The final line-up of Curtis (vocals) Hook (bass) Sumner (guitar, keys) and Morris (drums) performed and recorded as Warsaw in the second half of 1977. This was soon followed by the adoption of the name Warsaw, inspired by David Bowie’s Warszawa and further changes in membership. The 1976 punk explosion served as an initial catalyst for Sumner and Hook to form a band – temporarily called Stiff Kittens. Formed in Salford, over 29 months the band wrote and recorded 43 songs and played 120 gigs. Strictly speaking, Joy Division existed for only two and a half years. Curtis’s unexpected death marked the premature end of one of the most important and influential post-punk bands. It must have been a particularly difficult gig for the musicians to play, as just 11 weeks earlier their close friend and Joy Division band-mate Ian Curtis had taken his own life on the eve of their first tour of the United States. Their short set consisted of just five songs. With what might be best described as gallows humour, Sumner introduced the band as being the last surviving members of Crawling Chaos. I’ve heard the album mentioned enough times, over enough years, from enough varied people, that I’m confident it’s a worthy pick to push our musical knowledge and scope further.On July 30th, 1980, three musicians – Peter Hook, Steven Morris and Bernard Sumner – took to the small stage of The Beach Club at Oozits Bar in Shudehill, Manchester. I’ve not listened to a single track as I want to have the experience with my fellow Sonic Collective members. He did so using an image of radio waves from pulsar CP 1919, from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy, reversing the image from black-on-white to white-on-black, and it was printed on textured card for the original version of the album. Poster designer Peter Saville designed the now iconic cover, which has been ‘borrowed’ and appears in many forms, along with a pizza shop I once saw. He used several AMS 15-80s digital delays, the Marshall Time Modulator, tape echo and bounce, as well as the sound of a bottle smashing, someone eating crisps, backwards guitar and the sound of the Strawberry Studios lift with a Leslie speaker “whirring inside”, as well as the sound of a basement toilet. It employed a number of interesting production techniques pushed by producer Martin Hannett, who believed that punk rock was sonically conservative because of its refusal to use studio technology to create sonic space. I had no idea that Joy Division was the precursor to New Order back then and it’s time to see where their roots came from. When I started out as a DJ at Lloyd’s Recreation in Calgary as a teenager, Blue Monday and Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order were huge and some of the original 12-inch singles I learned how to beat-mix on. I’ve heard the strange legacy of Ian Curtis, who committed suicide in May 1980, mentioned on a number of episodes of The Ongoing History of New Music with Alan Cross and been intrigued. ![]() While the album did not attract much attention when it came out, and there were no singles released, it has since gone on to be credited by most musical publications and experts to be one of the most influential albums of its time and format. ![]() I’ve taken heavily from Wikipedia for the background here. Wow, the speed with which albums were recorded and released back then. It was recorded over three weekends between 1 and 17 April 1979 and released on June 15th 1979. ![]() It was also the only one to include lead singer Ian Curtis. But after a bit of consideration, without listening to any songs, which is very odd for me, I settled on Unknown Pleasures, the debut album by Joy Division. ![]() I considered a wide range of picks this month from Illmatic – Nas, to Dub Side of the Moon – Easy Star All-Stars, Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath and In the Court of the Crimson King – King Crimson. ![]()
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