Jennifer Otter Bickerdike - Joy Devotion: The Importance of Ian Curtis and Fan Culture

Love has torn us apart.*

A HEADPRESS BOOK
First published by Headpress in 2016

[email]
[web] www.worldheadpress.com

JOY DEVOTION
The Importance of Ian Curtis and Fan Culture

Text copyright Individual contributors
This volume copyright Headpress 2016
Images: Photos of Macclesfield and crematorium unless stated otherwise Jennifer Otter
Bickerdike; Map on pages 10/11 Lydia Bevan
Cover design: Ganymede Foley
Book design & layout: Mark Critchell <>
Headpress diaspora: Thomas McGrath, Caleb, David, Giuseppe

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Images are used for the purpose of historical review. Grateful acknowledgement is given to the respective owners, suppliers, artists, studios and publishers.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

978-1-909394-28-5 ISBN PAPERBACK
978-1-909394-29-2 ISBN EBOOK
HARDBACK NO-ISBN

WWW.WORLDHEADPRESS.COM
the gospel according to unpopular culture
Special editions of this and other books are available exclusively from Headpress

* Ian Curtis, Thursday

For James.
For all the kids who I grew up with in Santa Cruz stay golden.
Live forever all things Manchester, Factory Records,
Haienda, post-punk, Madchester, baggy thank
you for providing the soundtrack to my life.

THE ORDER OF THINGS

Joy Division & New Order

STEPHEN MORRIS

I n todays world awash with social media hype and criticism it seems odd to recall that over thirty years ago, when we were young and wild, we placed absolutely zero importance upon how Joy Division might be perceived by the world at large. That, I suppose we thought, if we considered the matter at all, was the job of the world at large and not really our problem. Theyd only get it wrong anyway, whatever they thought. We would be nothing like that really, just be ourselves, be neutral, uncontrived, have no image, and if they didnt like it well fuck em. The music would speak for itself.

Which is fine as far as it goes. Most bands start out with a very similar manifesto. Thing is, the people who hear that music will add their own impressions of you and your music, and all your attempts at avoiding this will be conceived as the thing itself.

This was a time when marketing was something that mostly applied to fancy drinks or boxes of cornflakes, frivolous things. Music is much MUCH more serious than that! Cornflakes will never break your heart the way that music can. The best music does not have a sell-by date either. Some of our songs they say are timeless I wouldnt know.

Jennifers book is a seriously good, considered, and well written study on the curious interaction that takes place between the music and the fan. An interaction that can give meaning, security and identity in a world where these things are in increasingly short supply.

Stephen Morris,
Drummer, Joy Division & New Order

THE POWER OF IMAGE

Kevin Cummins

INTERVIEWED BY JENNIFER OTTER BICKERDIKE

K evin Cummins is the legendary photographer best known for his iconic shots of music luminaries, including Joy Division, New Order, Morrissey, the Smiths, the Happy Mondays, Oasis, David Bowie and the Stone Roses. His many accolades and accomplishments include a two ten-year stint as chief photographer for the NME, being a founding contributor to The Face, and having his pictures used extensively in films, including Grant Gees Joy Division and John Dowers Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop. Cummins work is often exhibited around the world and is highly influential in sustaining the images and ideas of the post-punk through Madchester music scenes in his native Manchester, as well as providing inspiration for generations of fans and artists alike.

The interview with Kevin Cummins that follows takes place on a Friday afternoon in April 2016, the location being the Boot and Flogger pub in Southwark, London. Also present is David Kerekes. Outside its raining heavily.

The staff has graciously set aside a private room for us, but in the end we opt for the bustling bar area: after all, a pub is a pub, and it makes for informal chat, touching all bases Manchester and the Manchester heart. The conversation addresses the mythology surrounding the citys recent past, through one who was very much part of its construction. I often get asked, says Cummins, early in our meeting, What is the most important picture you have ever taken? I think the most important picture is one I did not take. This he says in relation to the Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, a cultural cornerstone, but also an event that increases in stature and crowd number as time goes by symptomatic of the meretricious nature of fan culture. If I had taken a camera, instead of just going to see it, says Cummins, and turned my camera on the audience, it would have destroyed the whole mythology of Manchester: we would know who every one of those forty-eight people in the audience was.

Looking back at the pictures he took of Joy Division, those on Epping Walk Bridge in the snow and Ian Curtis looking into the camera smoking described by one critic as the most important pictures of the twentieth century Cummins is self-effacing but also rightly conscious of the role he plays. I was twenty-five when I took those pictures, he says. I was taking them for the following weeks NME. I wasnt taking them thinking in thirty-five years time I will still be talking about them, and I will be receiving an honorary doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University. But you know, its amazing that these pictures have helped define my city. So I am really proud of that, I am massively proud of that.

Do you remember the first time you saw Joy Division?

Kevin Cummins: I saw Joy Divisions first gig, when they were Warsaw. Richard Boon, who was the manager of the Buzzcocks, offered a support slot to open for them at the Electric Circus in May 1977. They were not very good. And they were not very good for a while. They were outsiders. They didnt live in Hulme, and they didnt hang around with the same group of people I did. They couldnt really play. They had a few songs. And they had that faux anger that everyone who was in a punk band ought to have. They had PVC trousers and moustaches! They were just another band. I took some pictures of them as I would anybody that was playing, just so I had a record of it. They were just normal lads. They were kids the same as us: into music Ian liked football everyone talks about girls and drinking. It was no more cerebral than that.