Joy Division

小简介

关于快乐分裂(JOY DIVISION)，有人这样说，如果你活着，这样的音乐永远都不会属于你。只有Ian Curtis这样的人才能做出如此黑暗的音乐。爱会将我们分开，又有什么能使我们在一起？在这个只有两张专辑和若乾单曲传世的乐队短暂的黑暗旅程结束后，在那个男人23岁时带着与生俱来的绝望离开后，再没有人能给出答案。　

最让人震撼的作品

在1979年4月14日，乐队出现在了英国国家电台上，他们很快就被公众所熟悉。6月Joy Division的第一张专辑《Unknown Pleasures》正式发行，评论反映良好，卖得也还不错，到1982年6月为止共卖了10万张。这是一张前所未有的低调作品：冷漠、暗淡且沉重，Ian Curtis深沉的嗓音在由简练的吉他布景中缓缓地唱着献给残酷青春的挽歌。其中的《She’s Lost Control》被认为是“最让人震撼的作品”。

这些成功让他们整个夏天和秋季都在伦敦的酒吧里演出。9月13日，Factory公司在伦敦的斯加拉剧场举行了一个称为“FAC9”的现场聆听会。15日Joy Division第一次在BBC电视二台举行了大型现场表演，Ian Curtis在《Transmission》和《She’s Lost Control》中以令人着迷的机器人舞步给观众留下了深刻的印象。
Joy Division诞生

Joy Division是英国后朋克乐队中在上世纪70年代极具影响力的一支乐队，主唱Ian Curtis更是英年早逝。20年后，Joy Division未被世人遗忘，反而成了一个黑色的神话，Ian Curtis更成了失落一代的代言人。

1976年秋天，在英国曼彻斯特，有三个职业音乐人决定组成一支乐队，他们花了整个秋季来寻找合适的小提琴手。在一次SexPistols音乐会上，他们遇见了Ian Curtis。

后来他们给自己取名叫“Warsaw”(华沙)。不过，他们只在录制了一盘只有五首歌的Demo后就四分五裂。但Ian Curtis与Steve Brotherdale却留了下来并很快找到了新的鼓手：Steve Morris，就这样组成了Joy Division的正式班子：Ian Curtis，Peter Hook，Bernard Summer和Steve Brotherdale……

1977年12月，他们决定录制4首新歌，这就是后来的《An Ideal For Living》，当时他们仍以“Warsaw”作队名，结果发现这个名字与别人有冲突，于是在1978年1月正式更名为“Joy Division”，并在1月28日这天在曼彻斯特的Pip酒吧举行了正式演出。乐队的经纪人也换成了Rob Gretton。

同年曼彻斯特一家俱乐部老板Tony Wilson和Alan Erasmus注册了The Factory这个唱片品牌，并在10月签下了Joy Division。渐渐的Joy Division的名气越来越大，但主唱Ian的癫痫病却成了乐队以后发展的一大阴影。那个时候他与妻子Deborah快有了自己的孩子，乐队的首张专辑也在制作中，但他却变得越来越孤僻，拒绝与外界沟通。

灵魂中的莫名哀伤

这之后Ian Curtis的癫痫病发作越来越频繁，乐队只能断断续续地录制一些作品。其间诞生了Joy Division的另一首经典歌曲：Love Will Tears Us Apart。第二张专辑《Closer》也同样是一张叫人想自杀的作品。专辑中处处可见Ian Curtis那颗黑色的心灵的伤痕。从一开始的《Atrocity Exhibition》到结束的《Decades》都是如此，更不用说著名的《Isolation》和《The Eternal》了。听过这张专辑后，你会发现现在的很多所谓××的乐队都只不过是在玩“轻音乐”而已。那种渗透进灵魂中的莫名哀伤已让不少IanCurtis的追随者变成了殉道者。
终于在1980年5月18日，Ian Curtis，这个一直崇拜早逝的Jim Morrison的23岁年轻人完成了他人生的两大夙愿：“成名和自杀”中还剩下的那一个——自杀。

接下来的一个月，《Closer》爬上了BBC专辑榜的前10位，《Love Will Tears Us Apart》成了单曲榜10佳。

这又是一出摇滚史上的悲剧，但只要摇滚还在，它就会继续压榨着每一个艺人的每一条神经，直到吸乾他们的每一滴血。坚持下来的人成为了英雄，中途退缩的已没有人会记得他的名字，而那些因为种种不幸未走完他们的路的人则成为了永久的传奇。愿Ian Curtis的灵魂得到安息！

Formed in the wake of the punk explosion in England, Joy Division became the first band in the post-punk movement by later emphasizing not anger and energy but mood and expression, pointing ahead to the rise of melancholy alternative music in the '80s. Though the group's raw initial sides fit the bill for any punk band, Joy Division later incorporated synthesizers (taboo in the low-tech world of '70s punk) and more haunting melodies, emphasized by the isolated, tortured lyrics of its lead vocalist, Ian Curtis. While the British punk movement shocked the world during the late '70s, Joy Division's quiet storm of musical restraint and emotive power proved to be just as important to independent music in the 1980s.

The band was founded in early 1977, soon after the Sex Pistols had made their first appearance in Manchester. Guitarist Bernard Albrecht (b. Bernard Dicken, January 4, 1956) and bassist Peter Hook (b. February 13, 1956) had met while at the show and later formed a band called the Stiff Kittens; after placing an ad through a Manchester record store, they added vocalist Ian Curtis (b. July 15, 1956) and drummer Steve Brotherdale. Renamed Warsaw (from David Bowie's "Warszawa"), the band made its live debut the following May, supporting the Buzzcocks and Penetration at Manchester's Electric Circus. After the recording of several demos, Brotherdale quit the group in August 1977, prompting the hire of Stephen Morris (b. October 28, 1957). A name change to Joy Division in late 1977 — necessitated by the punk band Warsaw Pakt — was inspired by Karol Cetinsky's World War II novel The House of Dolls. (In the book, the term "joy division" was used as slang for concentration camp units wherein female inmates were forced to prostitute themselves for the enjoyment of Nazi soldiers.)

Playing frequently in the north country during early 1978, the quartet gained the respect of several influential figures: Rob Gretton, a Manchester club DJ who became the group's manager; Tony Wilson, a TV/print journalist and owner of the Factory Records label; and Derek Branwood, a record executive with RCA Northwest, who recorded sessions in May 1978, for what was planned to be Joy Division's self-titled debut LP. Though several songs bounded with punk energy, the rest of the album showed at an early age the band's later trademarks: Curtis' themes of post-industrial restlessness and emotional despair, Hook's droning bass lines, and the jagged guitar riffs of Albrecht.

The album should have been hailed as a punk classic, but when a studio engineer added synthesizers to several tracks — believing that the punk movement had to move on and embrace new sounds — Joy Division scrapped the entire LP. (Titled Warsaw for a 1982 bootleg, the album was finally given wide issue ten years later.) The first actual Joy Division release came in June 1978, when the initial mid-1977 demos were released as the EP An Ideal for Living, on the band's own Enigma label. Early in 1979, the buzz surrounding Joy Division increased with a session recorded for John Peel's BBC radio show.

The group began recording with producer Martin Hannett and released Unknown Pleasures on old friend Tony Wilson's Factory label in July 1979. The album enjoyed immense critical acclaim and a long stay on the U.K.'s independent charts. Encouraged by the punk buzz, the American Warner Bros. label offered a large distribution contract that fall. The band ignored it but did record another radio session for John Peel on November 26th. (Both sessions were later collected on the Peel Sessions album.)

During late 1979, Joy Division's manic live show gained many converts, partly due to rumors of Curtis' ill health. An epilepsy sufferer, he was prone to breakdowns and seizures while on stage — it soon grew difficult to distinguish the fits from his usual on-stage jerkiness and manic behavior. As the live dates continued and the new decade approached, Curtis grew weaker and more prone to seizures. After a short rest over the Christmas holiday, Joy Division embarked on a European tour during January, though several dates were cancelled because of Curtis. The group began recording its second LP after the tour ended (again with Hannett), and released "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in April. The single was again praised but failed to move beyond the independent charts. After one gig in early May, the members of Joy Division were given two weeks of rest before beginning the group's first U.S. tour. Two days before the scheduled flight, however, Curtis was found dead in his home, the victim of a self-inflicted hanging.

Before Curtis' death, the band had agreed that Joy Division would cease to exist if any member left, for any reason. Ironically though, the summer of 1980 proved to be the blooming of the band's commercial status, when a re-release of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" rose to number 13 on the British singles chart. In August, the release of Closer finally united critics' positivity with glowing sales, as the album peaked at number six. Before the end of the summer, Unknown Pleasures was charting as well.

By January of the following year, Hook, Morris, and Albrecht (now Bernard Sumner) had formed New Order, with Sumner taking over vocal duties. Also in 1981, the posthumous release of Still — including two sides of rare tracks and two of live songs — rose to number five on the British charts. As New Order's star began to shine during the '80s, the group had trouble escaping the long shadow of Curtis and Joy Division. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" charted for the third time in 1983, and 1988 also proved a big year for the defunct band: the reissued single "Atmosphere" hit number 34 and a double-album compilation entitled Substance reached number seven in the album charts. Seven years later, the 15th anniversary of Curtis' death was memorialized with a new JD compilation (Permanent: Joy Division 1995), a tribute album (A Means to an End), and a biography of his life (Touching From a Distance) written by his widow, Deborah Curtis. In 1999, the Factory label began a program of concert-performance reissues — all overseen by the remainder of the original lineup — with Preston Warehouse 28 February 1980.