Stephen Morris's (of Joy Division & New Order fame) autograph on the front cover of my NME Jan 13th 1979.Do you know when you hear an old band for the first time properly and you wonder why on earth you hadn't discovered them much earlier? Well, that happened to me with a band called Joy Division. It was very early on in 2005 that I first heard something by them other than the brilliant "Love Will Tear us Apart". I had been listening to another band at the time called Interpol and I liked them enough for me to see who their influences were and the name Joy Division came up, so onto itunes I went and the rest as they say is history.
I was literally blown away by the sound that I heard! Peter Hooks creeping bass on "The Only Mistake", Bernard Sumner's eerily painful guitar work on the truly haunting "New Dawn Fades", Stephen Morris's simple yet highly hypnotic drumming on "Digital" and most of all Ian Curtis's ever so sad, tear soaked voice & lyrics on "Insight".
I have never, not once, looked back since I discovered Joy Division. There is nothing at all that I can fault them with. I must have heard every one of their tracks hundreds of times (some tracks more like a thousand). Even all their live performances and all their mistakes. Their music hasn't aged with time at all. It has been almost 28 years since Ian died at the tender age of 23 and Joy Division's legacy still lives on.
And I should know, as I was fortunate enough to be one of the audience at a recent press screening in London for a brand new documentary about Joy Division. It was a special Q&A screening held at the Curzon cinema, Soho where Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris was also present. He sat through the entire film with us all and directly after the film he and one of the films co-writers Jon Savage took to the front of the auditorium and sat with the chief editor for 'Time Out' and spoke about Joy Division and also took questions from the audience. Jon Savage was a high-profile writer during the glory days of British punk and wrote articles on all the major punk acts.
I didn't ask any questions, as I was busy filming the Q&A with my trusty camera and also mainly in awe of exactly whom I was spending my evening with! But I did manage to meet them both afterwards and got Stephen to sign my 1979 copy of NME (January 13th) that features Kevin Cummins famous photo of a trench coated Ian Curtis casually drawing smoke from a cigarette on the front cover. I waited patiently behind a whole bunch of other autograph hunters, including a young woman who had the CD single of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" ready for ink, and then suddenly it was my turn. I pulled the paper out from it's special protective sleeve that I had brought it in and took the cap off my permanent marker specially brought just in case and presented it before him. He smiled as he saw it and instantly asked if I was sure if I wanted him to deface such a collectible. And straight away, I said "Are you joking?, if anything, this will make it worth more." And he said "Oh, well. Fair enough." Then his wife Gillian whisked him away and that was my meeting with a real life member of Joy Division done and dusted. I still can't quite believe that it happened!
Then on my way out of the almost empty auditorium, I spotted Jon Savage running back in and I turned around and went to see if he would mind also putting his mark on my NME. As soon as I turned around, there he was again running back out with a hat on and in a bit of a hurry. I pushed the paper in front of him and kindly asked. He saw the paper and laughed as I mistakenly said that I know he worked for the NME, but when did he first start writing for them and he said that he didn't write for the NME at all. (don't believe everything you read on the internet!). He took the 29 year old paper and wrote "This Is The Enemy, Jon Savage, 24.04.08". I was very pleased!
Jon Savage wrote for, amongst others publications over the years, Sounds, The Face & Mojo. He is best known for his award winning history of The Sex Pistols and punk music, "England's Dreaming".
On my way back home to Twickenham, I blotted out the sounds of London with the sounds of Joy Division.
So, why do I Love Joy Division so much? Because I have no fucking choice!
Jason
Thanks to Phil for a one in a life time opportunity.
(C) JPT 2008.........
