Watch a 15-minute compilation of Joy Division’s only TV appearances
The cultural impact of Joy Division feels insurmountable. Their post-punk sound continues to inspire acts today, while even people who might not be acquainted with the band’s music would easily recognise the infinitely replicated cover of Unknown Pleasures. However, for a group with such insane reach, their tenure was surprisingly short. After forming in 1976, they only existed for four years, cut short by the saddening death of their frontman.
They instantly knew that they couldn’t continue without Ian Curtis. He was Joy Division, not only giving the band his distinctive voice but colouring it with his hypnotic presence. Both on an external and an internal level, the band was a creation of Curtis’ world. It was a product of his inner workings, penning the lyrics and plucking them from the darkness that sat within him. Sadly, Curtis would commit suicide in 1980, just as the group were about to get out on a US tour and release what would be their last record, Closer.
While it’s wrong to glorify sadness, and it’s important to continue busting the dangerous tortured artist trope that leads so many creatives into suffering, it’s also a fact that Joy Division would never have been the band they were without Curtis’ psyche. Their spiralling darkness set them apart. They formed after seeing a Sex Pistols gig, clearly inspired by the outright and boisterous punk of that scene. But their more introspective lyrics and rumbling instrumentals existed in a different space that has now inspired so many.
On the outward and external way, Curtis was the face of the band. While frontmen naturally end up drawing the most attention, no one could pull their eyes off the band’s leader. His presence was unique, captivating, strange and even somewhat scary. In the few TV appearances they did, viewers were shocked by the singer’s wild movements as he danced such a distinctive dance, more akin to a fit than any steps the kids knew.
As he suffered from severe epilepsy, Curtis’ on-stage movements seemed to replicate the seizures he was plagued by. Sometimes, it was even hard to tell if the singer was actually dealing with a fit right there and then as he seized and shook his body so oddly. The second he stepped into the spotlight, he seemed to lose all control of his body, surrendering any limitations up to the performance. Bandmate Peter Hook recalled, “He [Curtis] dropped a pint pot on the stage, it smashed, and he rolled around in the broken glass, cutting a ten-inch gash in his thigh.” In the moment, there was no thought for safety and no consideration of how his dancing might look, his limbs simply ran away with him.
In sound and style, Joy Divison was Ian Curtis. After his death, the rest of the members, who are all also incredibly powerful and influential musicians, couldn’t bear to do it without him. They disbanded and eventually reformed in a new and equally inspirational shape: New Order.
But for those four years, Joy Division burned bright and fast. In his obituary for Curtis, writer Jon Savage worried that “now no one will remember what his work with Joy Division was like when he was alive; it will be perceived as tragic rather than courageous.” So, instead of dwelling on the sadness of the band, let’s focus on the glory. In four television appearances across their existence, Joy Division are captured at their best. Musically tight, hypnotic to watch and fuelled by raw emotion and sharp lyricism, the performances prove exactly why they became such a huge cultural phenomenon, and why they’re celebrated still to this day.