Posts Tagged ‘joy division’

A dark, brooding new wave classic, and one of Joy Division’s defining tracks

In today’s Soundbites - our look back at the past week’s news, features, videos and tabloid gossip – ‘Love Me Do’ is 50, Morrissey and Johnny Marr stun the world when responding to Smiths rumours, Dave Grohl puts his feet up, Mumford & Sons don’t want any more fans, and the week’s most popular video is revealed.

Though with us for only a short time during the post punk years of the late Seventies and early Eighties, Joy Division‘s legend makes them one of Manchester’s most mythologised groups, as well as one of the cities most influential bands.

And though the story itself has been put to film several times and told by a number of people who were around at the time, no one from the group has ever taken the tale up themselves, until now.

Here, Peter Hook talks to Live4ever contributor Carl Stanley about why he felt the time was right for his new book Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division and of all the memories his writing brought back.

Books about bands – and, for that matter, rock music in general – are big business, playing on the compulsive need of fans to know the finer details; to inhabit a space and time in which the songs they so lovingly play on their iPods and car stereos flourished, to take a peek between the ears of the artists who created them.

It’s no surprise then that when such books are penned by bands and artists themselves, a more coveted bounty of music ephemera is laid bare.

Peter Hook’s Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division is a lucid and unromantic account of the band’s short life and a veritable treasure trove for those aforementioned fans. Between chapters, a detailed timeline is presented, sketching Joy Division’s gigging history and notable events of the period, including the rise of bands like the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols, and the goings on at the then-nascent Factory Records.

In today’s Soundbites - our look back at the past week’s news, features, videos and tabloid gossip – Liam Gallagher knows exactly what he’d be up to if he was a ginger prince, the rock world really warms to Mitt Romney, The xx’s new album is reviewed, The Stone Roses are record breakers and this week’s most popular video is showcased.

New Order frontman Bernard Sumner has said fans should be ‘very wary’ of the new Joy Division book which has been written by his estranged bandmate Peter Hook.

New Order closed their first ever live appearance in Poland last night (July 4th) by airing a couple of Joy Division classics as part of a career-spanning set.

Peter Hook will tell the inside story of Joy Division in a new book which is due to be published later this year.

Former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook has launched a new music industry course which will offer students a degree in management and promotion.

Debut albums. Get them right, and their impact can change the world. Some mark the starting point for even greater things to come, others make such a lasting impression their legacy becomes an almost unbearable burden on the shoulders of its creators.

Many bands have got it very right on their first attempt; defining eras, inspiring generations, or simply becoming cult classics for an instantly dedicated fanbase. Here, we’ve sorted through the long-list of enduringly classic debuts to present 25 of our own essentials, all of which have left an indelible mark on the musical landscape.

When you’ve been through our rundown, leave a comment below letting us know which debuts you keep going back to time after time, and which records not included on our list you feel deserve a mention.