365-315 The Grave Of Ian Curtis, Joy Division, Macclesfield, Cheshire UK

To the centre of the city where all roads meet, waiting for you,
To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank, searching for you,
I was moving through the silence without motion, waiting for you,
In a room with a window in the corner I found truth.
In the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more,
As the assassins all grouped in four lines, dancing on the floor,
And with cold streel, odour on their bodies mad a move to connect,
But I could only stare in disbelief as the crowds all left.
I did everything, everything I wanted to,
I let them use you for their own ends,
To the centre of the city in the night, waiting for you.
To the centre of the city in the night, waiting for you.

Ian Curtis (Ian Kevin Curtis to be precise) was songwriter and lyricist of the Manchester band Joy Division.

I was lucky enough to see Joy Division a couple of times. Once at the manchester Free Trade Hall 25/06/1979, with Fashion supporting Salford Punk Poet John Cooper Clarke. Secondly at the Factory / PSV / Russel club in Hulme, Manchester 28/09/1979. The latter time on a bill with The Teardrop Explodes (we were too late to see Foreign Press), before they were signed and had just released the Sleeping Gas EP on Zoo records.

I remember that friday night well as me and my pal from school David Hague were dropped off by his brother Nick in his nippy red leather seated Mazda. This was to be totalled some weeks later in Sheffield with over a hundred charges being cooked up by the south Yorkshire police. As you would expect the case was chucked out! But thats another story as they say.

The first time I saw Ian Curtis I was amazed at the power he had. I like everyone else it seemed at the FTH was drawn down to the stage to look at this man and his unique dancing style. Similar to an epileptic Northern Soul dancer. To this day I have not witnessed a vocalist with those same powers. He and his writing was special, dark, urban.

He explained the motivation as "Instead of just singing about something you could show it as well, put it over in the way that it is, if you were totally involved in what you were doing".

Songs like 'Transmission', 'Shes Lost Control again' and Shadowplay encapsulated Manchester and the late 1970's.

In the early hours of 18 May 1980, on the eve of a first tour in America, Curtis hanged himself in the kitchen of his house in Macclesfield. He had just viewed Werner Herzog's film 'Stroszek' and listened to Iggy Pop's 'The Idiot'. At the time of his death, his health was failing as a result of the epilepsy and attempting to balance his musical ambitions with his marriage, which was foundering in the aftermath of his affair with journalist Annik Honoré. His wife Deborah found his body the next morning.

Curtis's memorial stone, which is inscribed with "Ian Curtis 18 - 5 - 80" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (the single released just before his death), was stolen in July 2008 from the grounds of Macclesfield Cemetery. The missing memorial stone was later replaced by a new one shown here.

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(c) Hotpix / HotpixUK Tony Smith - Hotpix.freeserve.co.uk WDCC

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Macclesfield (show map)

Taken on: May 3, 2010

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Sets appears in: • One Year, One a Day (walk a year in my shoes)

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/16.0, 1/80 sec, 12mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	12mm
ISO:	250
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
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