doesn't take a Jedi Master to see that coming

I am always interested in the situation concerning the time of Ian Curtis' death. When I dug up info about it in the New Order box set, it said somewhere in there that the band and Rob Gretton never knew something was wrong with Ian and how depressed he was. But concerning the time before his time in the JD box set, it said there was a huge rift in his marriage to Debra and the band wating to kick him out of the band and ultimately lead to his death.

Funny thing also, if you hear Ian's voice, that dark, gothic tone on Closer, you can tell there was something wrong with him. Sheesh!

Only Ian knows the whole truth. As Rob said in the New Order Story they were all busy having a good time; including Ian.

Nobody paid any great attention to Ian's stage antics. They all thought it was great showmanship including him cutting himself.

Never heard that about the rift in the band before. There were suggestions they take a year off for Ian to sort himself out.

The others in the band did not really analysie his lyrics, hence they did not interpert them.

It seems the only person who had any idea was Debbie Curtis, who did listen to the lyrics. Ian had also told her that he wanted to die young. (see her book) She could not prevent it as they were seperated at the time.

Let me just say there was obviously more involved than a broken marriage. There was his health, the medication for which casused huge mood swings.

Again no-one knows the real reasons why. was it depression about his marriage? was it mood swings brought about by his medication? did he just want to die as a young rock idol? or was it something else?

hmm... The box set said that they wanted to kick Ian out of the band, exact words, not to sort himself out.

Well Ian was a happy guy on the ouside, enjoying a successful job for JD but inexplainably fighting a personal war on the inside.

Why Ian ended himself is a huge mystery no one will answer.

It will be a mystery. Given everything he was going through, in hindsight it doesn't seem surprising (particularly as there were at least two previous attempts). But at the same time, they were planning on going on tour in America. How can you think someone is going to kill themselves when they are making plans for such a huge event.

Tony Wilson had an interesting comment on the situation in his 24 hr party people book: to paraphrase (see Chapter 25 for the details), Wilson is married but has another woman in his life he loves. Peter Hook asks him how life is going and Wilson replies "Fucking shit, Peter" to which Hook replies, "Now you know how Ian felt". Wilson then discusses a conversation with Annick some weeks before the suicide. When Wilson asks her what she thinks of the album she says it's terrible because Ian means exactly what he says in the lyrics.

I didn't know that Ian went so far as to cut himself! Did he ever do it onstage?

I believe he had various incidents/injuries on-stage, but this was a result of the epileptic seizures, not deliberate self-mutilation.

From what I've read, the suicide attempts were all separate from any live shows.

If anyone has more details, please post.

I'll have to did out the article, but it goes on with I think it was Barney saying something like " we thought it was cool like having our own Iggy.

Nice thread, guys. The suicide of a young man is really something to discuss in such a facile way as this.

BIGINOIL wrote: Nice thread, guys. The suicide of a young man is really something to discuss in such a facile way as this.

The band and Debbie talk/edit and answer questions about it. Why shouldn't we. What are you calling facile? As far as I can see it's a quite mature discussion.

Just trying to provide some information to someone who appeared to be looking. But if it offends anyone's sensibilities, I'll refrain from commenting further.