Now, there are some bands that you hear and you know they're gonna be a big part of your life from the moment you hear 'em for the first time. For me Joy Division were one of those bands. A good friend let me borrow a compilation he had on CD, and I don't think I've been the same since, given that it was my doorway into the genre known as Post-Punk, a genre that fair gives me the willy wobbles. Fuck, I even learned to play bass while listening to their records (partly cos I didn't own any Ramones records at that point, partly cos the bass is rather prominent in most Joy Division songs).
Last night, thanks to the wonderful World Cinema Showcase, I got to see the new Joy Division doco, which was made by Grant Gee, probably most famous for making Meeting People Is Easy, a documentary about Radiohead, circa the madness that was the OK Computer album/tour/world domination thingy. Given that I really enjoyed that doco, and I really love Joy Division, this was gonna be a real no brainer, unless Gee managed to fuck it up somehow. Thankfully, this wasn't the case. The doco was well paced, plus pretty much all of the people interviewed were informative and funny. The surviving members of the band in particular were very entertaining, providing many anecdotes about the early days of the band, when they were called Warsaw and were pretty much one of those dime a dozen punk groups that sprung up in the wake of the Sex Pistols. The late Tony Wilson was amusing as always, as was Peter Saville, who designed all those great Joy Division/New Order album covers.
Sadly, there were a few key characters in the story that couldn't/didn't/wouldn't state their case. Joy Divisions manager Rob Gretton passed away in the 90s. Ian Curtis, Joy Divisions lead singer, hung himself on the eve of a US tour in 1980, an act that contributed to the aura that Joy Division carries. Oddly, Curtis's widow, Deborah, was absent from precedings, possibly due to her involvement in the Ian Curtis biopic Control, possibly due to the fact that Curtis's mistress was also interviewed for this doco, who knows.
Now, apart from the great interviews, there was also a huge chunk of great archival footage used. The audio of John Peel mistakenly playing Atmosphere at twice the normal speed, something Peel did to a lot of records throughout his broadcasting career, is probably worth the price of admission alone. Plus there was plenty of live and TV footage of Joy Division. When the DVD comes out, it will hopefully make use of this footage, presenting it uncut, thus making it a must buy DVD. One can but hope.
It was interesting, and slightly unavoidable, while watching the doco to compare and contrast this doco with Control, the Ian Curtis biopic based Deborah Curtis's book, Touching From a Distance. Control was the directorial debut for Anton Corbijn, photographer par excellance, and as such was beautifully shot. Plus, as both films prove, the story of Joy Division and Ian Curtis is a compelling one. The problem I had with Control was that there were certain aspects of the Ian Curtis legend that are well known, but were dropped into the film almost like product placements(lingering shots on the infamous "HATE" jacket and the cover of Iggy Pops "The Idiot"(reprtedly the last album Curtis listened to) in particular got my goat a touch). While both of these were refered to in the doco, they weren't made to key parts of the narritive like the seemed in Control.
That said, any problems I had with Control were minor and it works as a companion piece with Joy Division the documentary. Plus, add to these the Micheal Winterbottom directed Tony Wilson biopic 24 Hour Party People and you get a pretty good feel for the Manchester scene that produced so much great music from the late 70s, right through to the early 90s(tho' none of these film really mention The Smiths, Stone Roses, or Oasis, tho its not really in their frames of reference, particularily on the case of the Joy Division doco and Control).
Anyhoo, Joy Division, great band and and a great doco. Well worth checking out if yr a fan and even if yr not, and enjoyable viewing experience.
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