Though I've been way too busy to post recently, I could not let today go by without recognising that it's 25 years to the day that Ian Curtis from Joy Division took his own life in his home in Macclesfield, Machester.
Frightening though it is to think of myself as a 14 year old, I can to this day recall sitting at my desk in my horrible little bedroom, listening as always to John Peel, and hearing him announce Curtis's death at the start of his show on the Monday evening. I accept there's something eternally teenage existentialist about some of the guff that can surround Joy Division, but through all of that I cannot think of another band whose music has so touched me from the day I first heard it right through to now. (Kraftwerk of course comes close, but for very different reasons and in a less visceral way.)
I had the unbelievable privilege of seeing Joy Division the year before, supporting The Buzzcocks at the Glasgow Apollo, and it was an amazing experience. I intend to listen to some of my favourite JD songs tonight as a little tribute, and to eradicate the memory of hearing New Order murder them on their comeback tour some years back. As you can tell from the title of this page, New Dawn Fades is absolutely my favourite song of theirs (which I suppose makes it my favourite song of all time) with Heart And Soul and of course Atmosphere and Love Will Tear Us Apart coming very close. It's hard to believe 25 years have passed since then, and I have yet to tire of them.