Revisiting Joy Division’s first EP, ‘An Ideal For Living’
Joy Division played their first gig in 1977. By 1980, their frontman, Ian Curtis, was found dead. Yet, in those three short years, the band made a groundbreaking impact on alternative music. Inspired by watching the Sex Pistols perform, guitarist Bernard Sumner and bassist Peter Hook felt compelled to form a band of their own, recruiting Ian Curtis as lead vocalist after placing an advertisement in Manchester’s Virgin Records shop.
Choosing the name Warsaw, inspired by David Bowie’s track ‘Warszawa’ from his 1977 album Low, the band played their first gig on May 29th 1977, supporting the Buzzcocks, Penetration and John Cooper Clarke. A few days later, journalists gave favourable reviews in the NME and Sounds, giving the band instant recognition. By July, Warsaw had recorded a series of demos at Pennine Sound Studios in Oldham; however, during this time, they grew uncomfortable with drummer Steve Brotherdale’s behaviour and replaced him with Stephen Morris.
The core lineup was now established, but the band felt a name change was needed to differentiate themselves from the London punks Warsaw Pakt. They settled on Joy Division, taking the controversial name from a sexual slavery wing in a Nazi concentration camp mentioned in the book House of Dolls.
Joy Division hit Pennine Sound Studios on December 14th to record their first EP, An Ideal For Living, which was released the following year. The band self-financed the recording session, which cost £400. In the meantime, they built a fanbase by performing regular gigs, making their debut as Joy Division on New Year’s Eve 1977 at the Swinging Apple in Liverpool. However, they used the name Warsaw to ensure people would turn up.
On January 25th, 1978, the band performed for the first time under the name Joy Division at Pip’s Disco in Manchester. By April, they had been approached by Tony Wilson, who promised to put Joy Division on television, and Rob Gretton, who convinced the band to be their manager.
The band’s popularity began to pick up, so they self-released An Ideal For Living on June 3rd, 1978. The EP comprised four tracks: ‘Warsaw’, ‘No Love Lost’, ‘Leaders of Men’ and ‘Failures’.
Despite the band’s seminal album Unknown Pleasures, released just over a year later, pioneering a dark, moody post-punk sound, An Ideal For Living reflected the classic punk that inspired the band to form. Curtis’ voice was much less refined, possessing a more youthful, carefree quality that matched the energetic guitars and fast-paced drums. Hook recalled: “You can really hear how we’d already developed; though I’m amazed by how fast we played, we still had that punk thing going on.”
Although the band thought their recording session went well, things weren’t so smooth once they released the EP. Hook shared: “The session turned out so easy because we had the material, we were working well together, and we didn’t know enough about the recording process to be difficult.” Unfortunately, their naivety came back to bite them, and their efforts to press two songs onto one side of a 7″ record resulted in terrible audio quality. Luckily, once under the supervision of Gretton, he had the EP pressed onto a 12″ record in October — he also changed the cover.
The EP’s cover art, designed by Sumner, depicted a member of the Hitler Youth banging a drum. This, paired with their name, made people question whether the band were Nazi sympathisers. Furthermore, the lyrics to ‘Warsaw’ alluded to the life of Nazi Rudolf Hess. The song includes shouts of “3 5 0 1 2 5 Go!” and “31G” – Hess’ prisoner of war serial number was 31G-350125.
With the re-release of the EP and their increasing presence as an indomitable live act, Joy Division became one of Manchester’s most influential bands. Since the band’s dissolution, the songs from An Ideal For Living can be found on compilation albums such as Warsaw and Substance. Hook once reflected on the EP as a definitive point for the band. He said: “I think you could point to that whole EP as where Ian began to find his feet in both writing and singing. All the experiences he’d had with the band, reading voraciously, getting into Iggy Pop… it was shaping him into the writer he became, which was arguably one of the best lyricists ever. The songs seemed to flow out of him, and he didn’t put a foot wrong after that point. He didn’t write a bad lyric after An Ideal For Living right up until his death.”
