Love Still Tears Us Apart: 35 Years On…

On this day 35 years ago, we sadly lost a great talent in Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division. He was only 23 at the time.

To begin with, they were going to be called Warsaw, but this conflicted with a group that already existed called Warsaw Pakt – so they became Joy Division. “Warsaw” eventually became the name of one of their singles as well as the 4th compilation album for the group, which in itself was actually meant to be the debut album until the group decided the post-production wasn’t good enough.

Due to Ian’s early death, the history of Joy Division is short but one many will keep going forever. The group only achieved two Top 40 hits in the UK – Atmosphere (#34 in 1988) and Love Will Tear Us Apart, released on three occasions (#13 in 1980, and #19 in both 1983 and 1995) – but there was more success with the studio album Closer (#6 in 1980, two months after Curtis’ death) and compilation albums Still (#5 in 1981) and Substance (#7 in 1988).

The remaining members of Joy Division later in 1980 formed New Order, and to this day still perform having had some breaks in between. There were still tributes to Curtis during this time, too – New Order’s first release “Ceremony” was meant to be a Joy Division track, and in 1985 they released Elegia, a tribute song for Ian.

There was also another tribute song in 2002 from New Order called Here To Stay, and in 2007 The Wombats released a single about a moment where they danced on a table to Love Will Tear Us Apart – called Let’s Dance To Joy Division.

A short, but impactful time in the music industry, Ian Curtis won’t be forgotten any time soon.

Ashley Redman
Listening to Love Will Tear Us Apart