The New Order songs about Ian Curtis
Overcoming the death of your frontman and principal songwriter is an issue that many groups would not recover from. When Ian Curtis of Joy Division took his own life in May 1980, his fellow bandmates needed to deal with the tragic loss of their close friend, in addition to the loss of the main creative force behind their band. It was a near-impossible task, but eventually, the group rose from the ashes and rebranded as New Order.
Eventually becoming famed for their unique brand of gloomy, often experimental synth-pop, New Order began as a continuation of Joy Division’s sound. In fact, the sound that would later become synonymous with New Order was present on Closer, the Joy Division album released two months after the death of Curtis. Tracks like ‘Isolation’ featured a more prominent electronic, synth-pop sound that the remaining members of the group carried forward into New Order.
Furthermore, during the early days of the band’s operation as New Order, much of the material was made up of Joy Division songs that they had been working on prior to Ian’s death. Their first release as a band, the single ‘Ceremony’, was performed by Joy Division at what would be their final gig at Birmingham University in 1980.
Both ‘Ceremony’ and its B-side, ‘In a Lonely Place’, were written by Curtis before his death, with the former appearing on the 1981 compilation album Still. Rerecorded by New Order after Ian’s passing, the single reached the top of the independent singles chart in the UK.
Although the single helped to establish New Order as its own entity, the band still remained true to their Joy Division roots on their debut record, Movement. In terms of sound, the album feels very similar to the kind of work created by Joy Division, though there are some new influences coming into play thanks to the recruitment of Gillian Gilbert. Although the lyrics of Bernard Sumner paled in comparison to the stunningly poetic lyricism of Ian Curtis, the themes explored on New Order’s debut follow the same logical path from where Joy Division left off.
Of course, the band members were still dealing with the loss of their close friend during this period. It makes sense, therefore, that some of this grief and mourning would bleed over into the songs on Movement. The band paid homage to Ian twice on the record, with tracks ‘The Him’ and ‘ICB’ (standing for ‘Ian Curtis buried’) specifically written about the late frontman. Appearing next to each other in the track listing, these tracks are fairly downbeat and deal with Ian’s depression and suicide.
In the period following Movement, New Order found their own unique sound. Releasing the seminal hit ‘Blue Monday’ followed by the incredible Power, Corruption and Lies, the group cemented themselves as their own musical tour-de-force separate from Joy Division. However, the band still regularly pay tribute to Ian during their live performances, often performing a mix of Joy Division tracks as an encore to their sets. The group dedicated their 2002 track ‘Here to Stay’ to Ian, along with producer Martin Hannett and manager Rob Gretton, who were both instrumental in the story of Joy Division.
