"I never got Joy Division"

I was talking today with the editor of a music industry magazine who I was off with to take photos of his band. (he has also written some good books on the music biz and and has just had a hand in an exceedingly high profile book out soon).

We were chatting about music and the like and I asked if he had seen 24HPP, which he hadn't. he then said he never got JD. With his background it seems a bit odd, but then on his age he missed them first time around and never really had a 'miserable teen' phase.

I got into them at about 17/1989 after buying the NO back catalogue and wondering where to go next. I forking hated the smiths (whingey poof singer) and the cure (old blokes trying to look like 'da kids') and JD fitted nicely.

so an interesting question after that background, at what age did you discover JD? Was it mostly miserable teens or have some of you been converted in adulthood?

c'mon, let the pain out.... you're with friends :)

I still haven't discovered Joy Division :p

Seriously, though, I first heard them around my eighteenth birthday and (I'm really tired of saying this, but it's true) thought they sounded a lot like the Doors (I believe my exact words were "He[Ian]'s ripping off Jim Morrison"). But I got hooked and (the best part of the story) I now think JD is better than the Doors

I'm discovering Joy Division right now at age 22...of course it's partly through New Order, but also by the massive influence JD have had on many of my favourite bands.

I only have Substance at the moment...Atmosphere is the song I love right now, but I really like Love Will Tear Us Apart and Transmission too. Scottish band Annie Christian's fantastic Transmission cover (B-side to The Other Way single) helped too

Ian Curtis's voice is definitely an acquired taste though...

14 years old in 1989.Became sick after that

Originally posted by Mr Ben I was talking today with the editor of a music industry magazine who I was off with to take photos of his band. (he has also written some good books on the music biz and and has just had a hand in an exceedingly high profile book out soon).We were chatting about music and the like and I asked if he had seen 24HPP, which he hadn't. he then said he never got JD. With his background it seems a bit odd, but then on his age he missed them first time around and never really had a 'miserable teen' phase.I got into them at about 17/1989 after buying the NO back catalogue and wondering where to go next. I forking hated the smiths (whingey poof singer) and the cure (old blokes trying to look like 'da kids') and JD fitted nicely.so an interesting question after that background, at what age did you discover JD? Was it mostly miserable teens or have some of you been converted in adulthood?c'mon, let the pain out.... you're with friends :)

when you referred to "whingey poof singer" where you referring to barney?

when you referred to "whingey poof singer" where you referring to barney?

its all by comparison really. i mean barney could kick morrisey's arse any day. (now there is another thread - name the people the members of new order could easily have or would be evenly matched with in a fight)

I only have Substance at the moment...

that's what I started with and it took a while. its a bad one to start with really, a bit patchy.

definately get UP and Closer, it will make more sense. or just skip the lot and get the heart and soul box set if you can and get virtually everything

JD was a band "of the time" really. a lot of there stuff seems to be lost on a lot of younger audiences simply because they didnt grow up in the uk at the time the band members did IE:recession,colapse of manufacturing industry in manchester area ect. i remember traveling in to manchester on the train from chorley and seeing all the run down and derelict buildings on the way into city centre and you really got a feel of what they was about. joy division was born out of this era and i think that a lot of their stuff dont translate to a more modern audience because they havent expeirienced that same sort of dispair?. good thing too. that said though,i still think that joy division produced some of the most wonderfull music you will ever hear in their short time as a band. if you "dont get' JOY DIVISION then think yourself lucky.

I got into Joy Division at the wee young age of 18, luckily still able to qualify as a miserable teen, and it makes logical sense in retrospect that I got into them after my Sex Pistols-Clash-etc stage. Having grown up in the countryside my whole life (on a beach, actually), I've always loved walking through backalleys of cities and industrial landscapes. With the echoing Hannett production (on the drums especially) and knowing enough about the late-70's in Ingerland, I get some great mental images of urban decay when I listen to songs like I Remember Nothing, Day of the Lords, and the instrumental-type dirges on Closer (Decades, The Eternal). And the energy of songs like Transmission, Disorder, Isolation, etc. Then there's the creepy lyrics of songs like New Dawn Fades, SLC, 24 Hours, Decades, et al. that take you into a very painful mind; it's good depressing music, but thankfully I hadn't heard of the band in the more depressing periods in my own life. However, since I have lived through those periods, I have a greater appreciation for what he's singing about than Barney's silly lyrics (plus the fact that Curtis' lyrics are much richer image-wise); my fascination for the macabre (which I've had since a young child) helps me enjoy the music much more. To be quite honest, the whole suicide thing does make the music more interesting to me because I can put it into the context of someone's life; the irony of songs like Atrocity Exhibition or LWTUA or SLC becomes extra-creepy when you match up various bootlegs taking place around the time of various events described in Debbie's book. I've completely lost where I was going with all this, but I'll just stop now. :p

mid teens, a year after discovering NO Substance I still wasn't interested in JD even though I knew about the history somewhat. A school friend (a huge Sisters fan) kept on bugging me to check them out, finally I bought JD Substance and I've never looked back since then... it became the theme music for a good part of my confused 'coming of age' years

Originally posted by Taboo # 7 I still haven't discovered Joy Division :pSeriously, though, I first heard them around my eighteenth birthday and (I'm really tired of saying this, but it's true) thought they sounded a lot like the Doors (I believe my exact words were "He[Ian]'s ripping off Jim Morrison"). But I got hooked and (the best part of the story) I now think JD is better than the Doors

I didn't learn until later what Ian's influences were, but the first time I heard Decades, I thought, "Now there's a Doors tune." Probably the, ahem, closest thing they've done to the Doors.

No wait.... Fine Time has a very Doors feel to it.

1982, 14 yrs old - heard two unnamed songs on a compilation tape of my brother - turned out to be Passover and Isolation - I'd never heard anything like that before and I immediately sought out the rest of their stuff, then turned onto NO later that same year

Originally posted by Taboo # 7 I still haven't discovered Joy Division :pSeriously, though, I first heard them around my eighteenth birthday and (I'm really tired of saying this, but it's true) thought they sounded a lot like the Doors (I believe my exact words were "He[Ian]'s ripping off Jim Morrison"). But I got hooked and (the best part of the story) I now think JD is better than the Doors

When I played JD for the first time, for my hubby, he said they sounded like the Doors!!!

John Peel devotee, early 1979. WTF ? Like it, have to find out more about this band. By the end of the first Peel session, I was hooked. If they'd never done anything else I would still remember them today (thinks back to stuff of similar era that didn't last, like Josef K that is still played by me on regular basis).

I think some of the miserablist thing is in the songs themselves though, a clear picture of the frame of mind IC was in a lot of the time, even if he was happy occasionally. The stuff on Closer was pretty morbid even when he was alive, so it is inevitable that people will pick up on the depressing mood emanating from the record. The fact that he took it that stage further personally serves to reinforce this. JD the band may well have been practical jokers etc, but there can be no doubt that Curtis the individual was a depressive who went some way to articulate his depression through his songs, either intentionally or unintentionally.

There is far too much of this "the songs are miserable so we have to be as well, in order to show them the respect they deserve" though. Bollocks to that.

Kept seeing them on T.V ..GRANADA/SO IT GOES and just thought they were brilliant.Even though they had a somewhat MISERABLE surrounding,living up NORTH for me was the norm so i didn't really take on board all that stuff.Also i was almost 20...therefore there was NO MISERABLE teens stuff for me.I was already a dad by then so i had other other things to worry about.Probably the only relevance to my life at the time was that by the time LWTUA came out i was already almost DIVORCED.So for me the time i enjoyed the band was at a time of great (and too young getting married) sadness and sometimes joy that i had another chance at having fun.Like all good music you tend to use it as the SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR LIFE.But they were not miserable gits to me.Just intense,great sounding a very different to most of the other music i was listening to then.And when i play them now i don't have bad memories.Indeed my son from that time is now 25 and still here with me.I got custody of him at the age of 4 which was very rare in those days.So i am very fortunate in that respect.He is a massive DOORS fan after i gave him the re-released LIGHT MY FIRE when he was a teenager.But he never listens to JOY DIVISION at all.STRANGE DAYS Rocket Mick

I discovered Joy Division through New Order too. Well, actually, maybe not. When I was twelve (before I got into New Order), I was introduced to New Dawn Fades, and loved it. Of course I had no idea that it was Joy Division at the time, nor did I know who Joy division was. Of course, my mom used to listen to New Order when I was 2 and such, the early years. So maybe New Order WAS first... Ah fuck, I donno. But anyways, New Order and Joy Division are both great. :D End of story.

Still, you have to admit that, regardless of New Order's back catalogue being ignored to play Joy Division songs in concert, having Barney sing a song like She's Lost Control is quite a parody. While any song being sung by a different singer isn't going to match up to the original, the very personal nature of songs like SLC or Atrocity Exhibition (being about epilepsy) wouldn't be convincing with anyone but Ian fronting them.

Having grown totally tired of being forced to listen to crap like Boston, Foreigner, Kansas, etc, whilst growing up, the arrival of "punk/new wave" was a great change of pace, so I started looking to anything that was off of the beaten path in terms of popularity.

A friend who had access to the import stores in Portland bought the 7" of Transmission and was extremely enthusiastic about the band; he taped it for me until I could find my own copy.

I had absolutely no idea about the turmoil of Ian's personal life until after he was dead, for I found just a few small mentions in whatever magazines I could find back then (Trouser Press, NY Rocker, NME, Rolling Stone, etc). Though I loved JD a helluva lot, and found all of the records from either import stores or mail order, I never once felt the impulse to dress like that or emulate Ian in any way whatsover, the problems of a middle class kid in school in Oregon weren't the same as his.

Nice call on Josef K Tim, that's about the third time they've ever been mentioned in this forum, and twice by you (once by me).

The Missionary is still one of my all-time Top 10 songs. Such a pity that Paul Haig went off the rails, they could have been up there with the best. I suppose the fact that we are still fondly remembering Josef K shows that they did have an impact.

got into jd via new order (in turn was via the human league, ymo and glen miller...)

The first time I put up on my stereo I had to sit down. I still recall feeling like I'd been struck by something physically from that first listen, which, against a backdrop of Tell Out My Soul, The Greatness of the Lord was revelatory.

For a 13 year old being brainwashed by the C of E it was a godsend...

i got into joy divison after buying the new order story on laserdisc in high school. i got permanent shortly after and substance and still, i liked them but i fell in love with them when i first heard the boxset in 1999. i was going through a weird phase in life and for some reason joy division was my answer, for about a year they were all i listened to, i still get goose bumps when i hear dead souls live from disc 4 boxset and walked in line and the kill back to back on still. now they are my second favorite band ahead of new order who got exposed me to joy division. i love ian's lyrics and how raw and angry the music was, i think im gonna go listeb to joy division now actually :) kamar

Originally posted by kamar khan i got into joy divison after buying the new order story on laserdisc in high school.

laserdiscs, what fond memories I have of those

Originally posted by Reg Bumswizle The Missionary is still one of my all-time Top 10 songs. Such a pity that Paul Haig went off the rails, they could have been up there with the best. I suppose the fact that we are still fondly remembering Josef K shows that they did have an impact.

Whilst some of Paul Haig's solo stuff is a bit patchy, he did produce some good stuff - "Warp of Pure fun" album was mostly good and "Chain" was not bad. Josef K could have evolved into something interesting had they stuck around.... Paul worked with Bernard and also extensively with my other all time favourites, Billy Mackenzie & Alan Rankine so I guess there is a good link there...

i bought my first JD cassette (substance) when i was 14, during the summer of 1989 on holiday in vancouver. i was into NO and thought i'd give JD a try. i liked what i heard and continued on from there. never liked them as much as their second incarnation, however, but they are one of my favourites, nonetheless.

Remember being vaguely aware of JD late 79/early 80, listening to John Peel on the radio in my bedroom, lights off, hoping my folks wouldn't hear! First clear memory, however, was hearing Peel start a show with the Curtis sucide, "bad news lads" was how I think he started and I think he then played Atmosphere.

Ceremony in early 81 was where it took off for me, 'though. Bit of a NO career break in the late 80's and all through the 90's brings us to today!

Originally posted by Reg Bumswizle The Missionary is still one of my all-time Top 10 songs. Such a pity that Paul Haig went off the rails, they could have been up there with the best. I suppose the fact that we are still fondly remembering Josef K shows that they did have an impact.

Great, great song indeed! After picking up a couple of the Postcard singles and the album, and enjoying them immensely, I distinctly remember worrying back then that I was never gonna be able to find a copy of that single, but there weren't too many other Josef K fans round here then, so I did find it shortly after its release, to my relief :)

BTW, run off groove notation for the single is "Dreams Never End" on the a-side, for the trainspotters amongst us.

got into joy division when i was.....18? right around when get ready was comming out. i was starting to get into new order and i thought i'd check out joy divison, trying to see what the big fuss was about. JD were always one of those bands music journalists kept talking highly of, you know, influencial blah blah blah.

i started with a best of...i forgot what it was called, it had a yellow and green cover. then i started going through their back catelogue and the music was surprisingly good. cuz i never thought any good music came out of the 70s before.

i was waaay out of the angry, angsty teenager phase by that point, i think it's just good music...which angry or not, you don't grow out of easily.