Ian Curtis

Early life and adolescence

Curtis was born on 15 July 1956, at the Memorial Hospital in Stretford, Lancashire and grew up in a working-class household in the market town of Macclesfield in Cheshire. He was the first child born to Kevin and Doreen Curtis.

From an early age, Curtis was a bookish and intelligent child, displaying a particular flair for poetry. He was awarded a scholarship at the age of eleven at Macclesfield's independent King's School. Here, he would develop his interests in philosophy, literature, and eminent poets such as Thom Gunn. While a student at King's School, he would be awarded several scholastic awards in recognition of his abilities—particularly at the ages of fifteen and sixteen. The year after Ian had graduated from King's School, the Curtis family relocated to New Moston.

As a teenager, Curtis chose to perform social service by visiting the elderly as part of a school programme. While visiting these people, he and his friends would steal any prescription drugs that they found and later take them together as a group. On one notable occasion when he was sixteen, after consuming a large dosage of Largactil he and his friends had stolen, Curtis had to have his stomach pumped.

Curtis had held a keen interest in music since the age of twelve, and this interest would develop greatly in his teenage years, with artists such as Jim Morrison and David Bowie being particular favourites of his, and thus influencing his poetry and art. Nonetheless, as Curtis hailed from a working-class background, he could seldom afford to purchase records, leading him to frequently resort to stealing them from local shops.

Despite gaining nine O-levels at King's School, and reportedly briefly considering sitting A-Levels in History and Divinity, Curtis was disenchanted with academic life, and thus chose not to continue with his education. Nonetheless, after leaving school, Curtis did continue to focus on the pursuit of art, literature and music, and would gradually draw lyrical and conceptual inspiration from evermore insidious subjects.

Having stated to his family and friends that he did not want to continue with his studies, but to actually begin working, he got a job at a record shop in Manchester City Centre, before obtaining more stable employment within the civil service. His employment as a civil servant was located in Woodford, Greater Manchester, although approximately one year later, Curtis was posted to Macclesfield.

Marriage

On 23 August 1975, Curtis married Deborah Woodruff, a school friend of his whom he had been dating since late-1972, when he was sixteen. The service was conducted at St Thomas' Church in the Cheshire village of Henbury, and at the time of the wedding, he was nineteen, and she was eighteen (their only child, a daughter named Natalie, would be born on 16 April 1979). Initially, the couple lived with Ian's grandparents, although shortly after their marriage, the couple relocated to a working-class neighbourhood in Chadderton, where they undertook a mortgage while working in jobs neither particularly enjoyed. Before long, the couple became disillusioned with life in Oldham, and remortgaged their house before briefly returning to live with Ian's grandparents. They then moved into their own house in Barton Street, Macclesfield.

Joy Division

At a July 1976 Sex Pistols gig at Manchester's Free Trade Hall, Curtis encountered two childhood school friends named Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook. The two informed Curtis—whom they had seen at earlier punk gigs at The Electric Circus—of their intentions to form a band, and Curtis immediately proposed himself as both their singer and lyricist. The trio then unsuccessfully attempted to recruit several drummers before selecting Stephen Morris as their final member in August 1977. The band would be managed by Rob Gretton.

Initially, the band named themselves "Warsaw", but as their name conflicted with that of another group, "Warsaw Pakt", they opted to name themselves "Joy Division". The moniker was derived from a 1955 novel The House of Dolls, which featured a Nazi concentration camp with a sexual slavery wing called the "Joy Division". The cover of the band's first EP depicted a drawing of a Hitler Youth beating a drum and the A-side contained a song, "Warsaw", which was a musical retelling of the life of Nazi leader Rudolf Hess.

After founding Factory Records with Alan Erasmus, Tony Wilson signed the band to his label following the band's appearance on the TV music show he hosted, So It Goes. This appearance had been largely prompted by an abusive letter personally sent to Wilson by Curtis.

While performing with Joy Division, Curtis became known for his quiet and awkward demeanour, as well as a unique dancing style often reminiscent of the epileptic seizures he experienced. Although predominantly a singer, Curtis also played guitar on a handful of tracks (usually when Sumner was playing synthesizer; "Incubation" and a Peel session version of "Transmission" were rare instances when both played guitar). Initially, Curtis played Sumner's Shergold Masquerader, but in September 1979 he acquired his own guitar, a Vox Phantom VI Special (often described incorrectly as a Teardrop or ordinary Phantom model) which had many built-in effects used both live and in studio.

Relationships

Curtis's widow has claimed that, beginning in August 1979, Curtis began conducting an affair with Belgian journalist and music promoter named Annik Honoré, whom he had first met at a gig that month. Reportedly, Curtis was consumed with guilt over this affair due to his being married to his wife, and the father to their baby daughter, but at the same time still yearning to be with Annik. On one occasion in 1980, Curtis asked Bernard Sumner to make a decision on his behalf as to whether he should choose to remain with his wife, or form a deeper relationship with Annik, although Sumner refused to make this decision on Curtis's behalf. (Honoré would claim in a 2010 interview that although she and Curtis had spent extensive periods of time in each others' company, their relationship had been a platonic one.)

Curtis's bandmates would later recollect Curtis began to become slightly "lofty" and distant from them after he had become acquainted with Honoré, who herself was noted to be demanding of both his time and attention. These facts would occasionally invoke pranks directed at himself and Annik from them. He is also known to have become a vegetarian—likely at Honoré's behest—although when not in her presence, he is known to have eaten meat.

Following Curtis's first definite suicide attempt on 6 April 1980, he is known to have written several letters to Honoré, proclaiming his love for her as he recuperated from this initial suicide attempt in the village of Charlesworth.

At the time of Curtis's death, his marriage to Deborah was floundering, as she had commenced divorce proceedings due to his having failed to cease all contact with Honoré. In addition, he was having difficulty balancing his family obligations with his musical ambitions, and his health was gradually worsening as a result of his epilepsy. On the evening prior to his death, Curtis informed Bernard Sumner of his insistence upon seeing his wife that evening; he had also made firm plans to rendezvous with his bandmates at Manchester Airport the following day, prior to their departure for America.

Epilepsy

Curtis began suffering epileptic fits in late 1978; he would be officially diagnosed with the condition on 23 January the following year, with his particular case being described by doctors as so severe, his "life would [be] ruled to obsolescence by his severe epilepsy" without the strong dosages of medications he was prescribed. Throughout 1979 and 1980, Curtis's condition gradually worsened amid the pressure of performances and touring, with his seizures becoming both more frequent, and more intense. In addition, following his diagnosis, Curtis continued to drink, smoke, and maintain an irregular sleeping pattern—all of which is contrary to advice given to individuals suffering from the condition. Furthermore, the medications Curtis was prescribed for his condition produced numerous side effects, including extreme mood swings. This change in personality was also observed by Curtis's wife and family, who noted how largely taciturn he had become in his wife's company. In addition, following the birth of his daughter in April 1979, because of the severity of his medical condition, Ian was unable to hold his baby daughter in case he compromised the child's safety.

At the time of the recording of the band's second album, Curtis's condition was particularly severe, with his enduring a weekly average of two tonic-clonic seizures. On one occasion throughout these recordings, Curtis's bandmates became concerned when they noted he had been absent from the recording studio for approximately two hours, only for the band's bassist, Peter Hook, to discover Curtis unconscious on the floor of the studio's toilets, having split his head open on a sink following a seizure. Despite instances such as this, Hook would state that, largely through ignorance of the condition, he, Sumner and Morris did not know how to help. Nonetheless, Hook was adamant that Curtis never wanted to upset or concern his bandmates, and would "tell [us] what [we] wanted to hear" if they expressed any concern as to his condition. In one notable incident at a concert held before almost 3,000 people at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park in April 1980 and in which Joy Division appeared alongside the Stranglers, the lighting technicians at this venue—contrary to stern instructions given to them by Rob Gretton prior to the gig—switched on strobe lights midway through Joy Division's performance, causing Ian Curtis to almost immediately stagger backwards and collapse against Stephen Morris's drum kit in the throes of an evident seizure. Resultingly, he had to be carried offstage to the band's dressing room to recuperate.

When Curtis had recovered from this first seizure, he was adamant the band travel to West Hampstead to honour their commitment to perform their second gig of the evening at this location, although some 25 minutes into this second gig, Curtis's "dancing started to lose its rhythmic sense and change into something else entirely" before he collapsed to the floor and experienced the most violent seizure he had endured to date.

Onstage performances

Curtis's onstage dancing was often reminiscent of the seizures he experienced, some of which occurred in the midst of his live performances. Throughout Joy Division's live performances in 1979 and 1980, several incidents occurred in which Curtis collapsed while performing and had to be carried offstage. (To minimise any detrimental effects Curtis's condition had upon his personal or professional life, a minder named Terry Malick was appointed in 1980 to ensure Curtis took his prescribed medications, avoided alcohol consumption, and undertook sufficient sleep.)

Regarding the choreography of Curtis's stage performances, Greil Marcus in The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs chose to quote Jon Savage from the music magazine Melody Maker: "Ian's mesmeric style mirrored the ever more frequent epileptic spasms that Deborah Curtis had to cope with at home." Marcus remarked that Curtis's performance "might also have been a matter of intentionally replicating fits, re-enacting them, using them as a form of energy and a form of music."

Curtis's final live performance with Joy Division was on 2 May 1980. This performance was at the High Hall of Birmingham University, and was a gig which included Joy Division's first and only performance of "Ceremony", later to be recorded by New Order and released as their debut single. The final song Curtis performed onstage was "Digital". (The recording of this performance was later to be included on the 1981 compilation album Still.)

Death

In the early hours of 18 May 1980, Curtis committed suicide by hanging himself in the kitchen of his house at 77 Barton Street, Macclesfield. He was 23 years old. His wife Deborah found his body the next morning; he had used the kitchen's washing line to hang himself after having penned a note to her in which he declared his love for her despite his recently conducting an affair with Honoré. In her biography, Touching from a Distance, Deborah Curtis recalls when she found his body:

I didn't call his name or go upstairs. At first, I thought he had left because the house smelled strangely fresh. The familiar clinging stench of tobacco wasn't there. He must have caught the train after all. There was an envelope on the living-room mantelpiece. My heart jumped when I realized that he had left a note for me. He was kneeling in the kitchen. I was relieved – glad he was still there. 'Now what are you up to?' I [then] took a step towards him, about to speak. His head was bowed; his hands resting on the washing machine. I stared at him, he was so still. Then the rope – I hadn't notice the rope. The rope from the clothes rack was around his neck.

According to Tony Wilson, prior to his suicide, Curtis had also viewed Werner Herzog's 1977 film Stroszek and listened to Iggy Pop's album The Idiot.

At the time of his suicide, Joy Division were on the eve of their debut North American tour, and Deborah Curtis has stated Ian had viewed this upcoming tour with extreme trepidation, not only because of his extreme fear of flying (he had longed to travel to America by ship), but because he had also expressed deep concerns as to how American audiences would react to his epilepsy. Deborah Curtis later claimed Ian had confided in her on several occasions that he held no desire to live past his twenties. He had furthermore expressed to both his wife and Annik Honoré his deep concerns as to his medical condition being likely to kill him in addition to his receiving mockery from the band's audiences, and that this mockery would only increase from the band's impending American audiences on their upcoming tour.

According to Lindsay Reade (the wife of the manager of Factory Records), Curtis had informed her shortly before his death of his belief that, with his epilepsy, he could no longer perform live with the band. In addition, he had claimed that with the impending release of Closer, he believed the band had hit an artistic pinnacle.

Bassist Peter Hook would later reflect: "The great tragedy of Ian's death was that all he really wanted was to be successful, and he missed it ... by a week." On the subject of Curtis's prescribed medication, Hook would also reflect that, prior to the release of the 2007 documentary film Joy Division, when a specialist in epilepsy had viewed the combination of the cocktail of drugs Curtis had been prescribed for his condition, this specialist had said: "Oh my God. This was guaranteed to kill him".

Curtis's body was cremated at Macclesfield Crematorium on 23 May; his ashes were later buried at Macclesfield Cemetery. A memorial stone, inscribed with "Ian Curtis 18 – 5 – 80" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart", was placed above his ashes.

In a 2007 interview granted to The Guardian, Stephen Morris stated: "This sounds awful, but it was only after Ian died that we sat down and listened to the lyrics. You'd find yourself thinking, 'Oh my God, I missed this one'. Because [we would] look at Ian's lyrics and think how clever he was putting himself in the position of someone else. I never believed he was writing about himself. Looking back, how could I have been so bleeding stupid? Of course he was writing about himself! But I didn't go in and grab him and ask, 'What's up?' I have to live with that."

New Order

Shortly after Curtis's cremation, Sumner, Hook, and Morris—strongly aided by Rob Gretton—made the decision to continue with their careers via forming a new band. Initially calling themselves "The No Names" and playing largely instrumental tracks, they would soon label themselves "New Order". English music journalist Paul Morley would later recollect: "Ian didn't just kill himself and it all just disintegrated and the whole thing fell apart; the group just picked themselves up and kept going which was extraordinary. I would never have thought it would happen so quickly, [but] it was only a matter of weeks."

Shortly after Curtis's death, Bernard Sumner inherited the Vox Phantom VI Special guitar Ian Curtis had acquired in September 1979; he would use this instrument in several early New Order songs, including the single "Everything's Gone Green".

Tributes

In 1985, New Order released the song "Elegia", dedicated to Curtis. Label sharing band the Durutti Column released in 1981 their album LC, including the Ian Curtis tribute song "The Missing Boy". In 1990, Psychic TV released "I.C. Water", a song dedicated to Curtis. Deborah Curtis wrote Touching from a Distance, published in 1995, a biographical account of their marriage, detailing in part his relationship with Annik Honoré. In 1999, the post-hardcore band Thursday released a song titled "Ian Curtis" on their debut album, Waiting.

The 2002 New Order song "Here to Stay" was dedicated to Ian Curtis, Rob Gretton and Martin Hannett. Authors Mick Middles and Lindsay Reade released the book Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis in 2006. This biography takes a more intimate look at Curtis and includes photographs from personal family albums and excerpts from his letters to Honoré during their relationship. Music journalist Paul Morley wrote Joy Division, Piece by Piece, writing about Joy Division 1977–2007; it was published in late 2007. The book documents all of his writings and reviews about Joy Division, from their formation until Tony Wilson's death.

The words "Ian Curtis Lives" are written on a wall in Wallace Street, Wellington, New Zealand. The message, which appeared shortly after the singer's death in 1980, is repainted whenever it is painted over. A nearby wall on the same street on 4 January 2005 was originally emblazoned "Ian Curtis RIP", later modified to read "Ian Curtis RIP Walk in Silence" along with the incorrect dates "1960–1980". Both are referred to as "The Ian Curtis Wall".

On 10 September 2009, the wall was painted over by Wellington City Council's anti-graffiti team. The wall was chalked back up on 16 September 2009. Following this, council spokesman Richard MacLean said, "They [the anti-graffiti team] may turn a blind eye to it". The wall was repainted on 17 September 2009, and has been removed and repainted on and off. A new and improved design, with correct dates and the original "Walk in Silence", was painted on the wall on 27 February 2013.

In 2012, Curtis was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Peter Blake to appear in a new version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.

Film portrayals

Curtis was portrayed by Sean Harris in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which dramatised the rise and fall of Factory Records from the 1970s to the 1990s. In 2007, a British Ian Curtis biographical film entitled Control was released. This film was largely based upon material sourced from Deborah Curtis's book Touching from a Distance. This biographical was directed by the Dutch rock photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn, who had previously photographed the band and directed the video for their single "Atmosphere". Deborah Curtis and Tony Wilson were executive producers, while Todd Eckert of Clara Flora was the producer. Sam Riley, the lead singer of the band 10,000 Things, portrays Curtis, while Samantha Morton plays his wife, Deborah.

Control was debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2007, and was met with critical acclaim, taking three awards at the Directors' Fortnight. Control portrays Curtis's secondary school romance with Deborah, their marriage, his problems balancing his domestic life with his rise to fame, his struggles with both his major depressive issues and his poorly medicated epilepsy, and his later relationship with Annik Honoré. The film ends with his suicide.

House-Museum

In 2014, the house in which Curtis committed suicide was up for sale. Whereupon, a fan named Zak Davies initiated a campaign in Indiegogo to raise funds to buy the house and preserve it as a museum dedicated to Curtis and Joy Division. Davies planned to "raise awareness and educate future generations on the music and life of Ian Curtis and allow existing fans the experience to walk the same floorboards as the man himself" while also creating a new tourist location in Macclesfield. However, the campaign only garnered £2,000 out of final goal £150,000. The money was later donated to the Epilepsy Society and MIND charities.

One year later, the house was bought by musician Hadar Goldman for £115,000, plus £75,000 to cover the legal fees necessary to reverse the sale to a private buyer that was already in progress. Goldman plans to turn the place into a Joy Division museum and also a digital hub to support musicians and other artists across the world.