BOB MOULD About The JOY DIVISION Debut LP
12 January 2026
Mould didn’t lose control.
Timeless masterpiece.
Joy Division
UNCUT Magazine Introduces A New Ultimate Music Guide Edition – The Stories Of JOY DIVISON & NEW ORDER
6 December 2025
British music monthly tells the story of Joy Division, one of the most iconic
post-punks bands ever. It all started with Warsaw, a band set up by Bernard
Sumner and Peter Hook, after seeing the Sex Pistols in 1976, next year 50 years
ago.
Stephen Morris (drummer): ““In Warsaw it was all about the riff. Joy Division was all
about the space. Not to denigrate Ian in any way but we wanted to take it on somewhere.
The question we were asking is, ‘What are we doing?’.”
After Ian Curtis‘s untimely passing, the remaining members decided to continue.
They started to investigate the possibilities of a hybrid electronic/guitar
music as New Order. The succeeding years delivered exceptional albums.
Morris about NO: “I think we all find it daunting starting with nothing. It’s like
you’ve got a mountain to climb and no-one can remember where they’ve put the
ropes. But when New Order’s good, it’s fantastic.”
You can purchase a copy and have it sent to your home. Info HERE.
One Summer Booster A Day Keeps Insanity Away – Today: Indies ENGLISH TEACHER And RICHARD HAWLEY Dance To The Radio
Holey moley. What a surprising team-up doing a surprising cover.
Last year British indies ENGLISH TEACHER won the renowned
Mercury Prize with their debut LP This Could Be Texas played
a gig for BBC Radio 6 last March. They were joined by Sheffield
crooner RICHARD HAWLEY.
Together they performed a bold and sterling cover of
Joy Division‘s bone-chilling debut single Transmission
from 1978.
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio
JOY DIVISION – Second And Final LP ‘CLOSER’ Released This Day 45 Years Ago
Significant longplayers from yesteryear
18 July 2025
Highly influential (still today) post-punk legends JOY DIVISION released
their 2nd and final LP CLOSER on 18 July 1980, today 45 years ago, through
Factory Records, produced by the late Martin Hannett. It came out two months
after frontman/lyricist Ian Curtis took his own life. It reached # 6 in the UK.
Debut LP Unknown Pleasures still is my favorite, although Closer is
a formidable record too, but the pitch black debut opus was hard
to match.
Bernard Sumner (guitarist): “We’d go to rehearsals and sit around and
talk about really banal things. We’d do that until we couldn’t talk about banal
things any more, then we’d pick up our instruments and record into a little
cassette player.
We didn’t talk about the music or the lyrics very much. We never analysed it.”
Peter Hook (bassist) wasn’t a Hannett fan: “I was like, head in hands, oh fucking
hell, it’s happening again. Unknown Pleasures number two. Martin had melted the
guitar on the track ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ ‘with his Marshall Time Waster.
Made it sound like somebody strangling a cat, and to my mind, absolutely killed
the song. I was so annoyed with him and went in and gave him a piece of my mind
but he just turned around and told me to fuck off.”
Melody Maker (former, legendary, British music weekly) said: “Probably some
of the most irresistible dance music we’ll hear this year and a far cry for sure from
the almost suffocating claustrophobic world of the debut album.
The best (and most subversive?) rock music has always dealt head-on with emotions
and thought rather than clichéd, standardised stances; that’s what makes Closer and
Joy Division so important.”
Key Track
ALBUM
.
JD Story
2 May 1980 – 45 Years Ago IAN CURTIS Played His Last Gig With JOY DIVISION
2 May 2025
Legendary Joy Division frontman/lyricist IAN CURTIS – mentally
and psychically suffering from epilepsy and depression – committed
suicide on 18 May 1980.
16 days before that fateful day he played his final gig
with the band at Birmingham University, England.
R.I.P.
BERNARD SUMNER About Legendary JOY DIVISION Producer MARTIN HANNETT Who Passed Away This Day In 1991
Legendary Bassist PETER HOOK About The Band That Heavily Influenced IAN CURTIS And JOY DIVISION
10 January 2025
Kraftwerk were models for JD.
JOY DIVISION – British Post-Punk Icons Released Their Buzzing Debut Single ‘TRANSMISSION’ 45 Years Ago
Top singles from the past
19 November 2024
Iconic Manchester post-punk band JOY DIVISION released their
fabulous, buzzing single TRANSMISION on 16 November 1979,
45 years ago.
It was originally recorded in 1978 for the aborted self-titled album, re-recorded
the following year at a faster tempo and released by label Factory as the band’s
debut single.
Famous British music journalist Greil Marcus said about the song: “It’s a dramatization
of the realization that the act of listening to the radio is a suicidal gesture. It will kill your
mind. It will rob your soul.”
Peter Hook (bassist): “We were doing a soundcheck at the Mayflower (club in Manchester)
and we played ‘Transmission’. People had been moving around, and they all stopped to listen. I realized that was our first great song.”
“Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio“
Here’s JD’s live performance on BBC’s
youth television program Something Else.
100 BEST ALBUM COVERS Ever According To Legendary ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE
21 July 2024
The first edition of iconic music weekly Rolling Stone, founded in San Franciso, was issued in November 1967. It became one of the most respected music magazines ever and still is.
Over the years RS published several ‘best of lists’, best song ever, best album ever,
best guitarist ever etc. Now they published their 100 best album covers ever. Below
the TOP-10. You can check the full TOP-100 right HERE.
To be honest I’m not impressed by their Top-10 choices.
1. ‘Unknown Pleasures’ by JOY DIVISION – 1979
2.’Abbey Road’ by THE BEATLES – 1969
3. ‘There’s A Riot Going On’ by SLY & THE FAMILY STONE – 1971
4. ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ by PINK FLOYD – 1973
5. Ready To Die by THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. – 1994
6. ‘Horses’ by PATTI SMITH – 1975
7. ‘Maggot Brain’ by FUNKADELIC – 1971
8. ‘London Calling’ by THE CLASH – 1979
9. ‘She’s So Unusual’ by CYNDI LAUPER – 1983
10. ‘Nevermind’ by NIRVANA – 1991
JOY DIVISION Released Their Post-Punk Milestone Album ‘UNKNOWN PLEASURES’ 45 Years Ago
16 June 2024
Manchester’s post-punk heroes JOY DIVISION released their ground-and-sound
breaking debut LP UNKNOWN PLEASURES, on 15 June 1979, 45 years ago.
A post-punk milestone. Along with the Sex Pistols‘s Never Mind The Bollocks, Oasis‘
debut Definitely Maybe and The Stone Roses‘ first, one of the best-ever debut LPs
in my book.
An at times pitch black experience that sounded like nothing else before. Mind-blowing, masterly music that appealed to doubtful hearts and confused souls, and still does after
all these years. The astonishing record, despite the fact that not all members were happy with the final result due to producer Martin Hannett‘s excessive drug use and imposing views, became a classic tour de force for many generations.
To my and countless other ears this record still has a blood-curdling impact with every single member of the band delivering essential contributions to this incredibly gripping and wholehearted raw diamond. A full track-by-track accomplishment. Each piece is on
target and terrifically rousing.
R.I.P. Ian Curtis