Ian Curtis

At 23 years old, Ian Curtis has this physical status:

Ian Kevin Curtis, born in 1956 and died on May 18, 1980, was an English singer-songwriter and guitarist.

He was the lead singer and lyricist of the post-punk band Joy Division and released two albums with the group: Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980).

Curtis was known for his bass-baritone voice, dance style, and songwriting that was predominantly filled with images of loss, emptiness, and alienation.

Curtis was inspired by a variety of musicians, including David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Sex Pistols, Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Lou Reed, and Neu!, as well as lyrically by writers such as William Burroughs, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, T. S. Eliot, and J. G. Ballard.

Curtis was particularly influenced by Iggy Pop's stage persona. Curtis, a epilepsy and depression sufferer, died by suicide on the eve of Joy Division's first North American tour and shortly before the debut of Closer.

The band's dissolution and the subsequent establishment of New Order as a result of his suicide. Joy Division have wielded a wide range of influence throughout their short career.

Joy Division "became the first band in the post-punk movement by... emphasizing not aggression and passion but rather mood and expression, pointing to the emergence of melancholy alternative music in the 1980s. "Joy Division's fame has honed from contemporaries such as U2 and the Cure to more recent music, including Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Neurosis, Interpol, Bloc Party, and some rap artists.

Early life

Curtis was born in 1956 at the Memorial Hospital in Stretford, Lancashire, and grew up in a working-class household in Macclesfield, Cheshire. He was the first of two children born to Kevin and Dominien Curtis. Curtis was a bookish and intelligent child, with a particular flair for poetry from an early age. At the age of 11, he was granted a scholarship at Macclesfield's free King's School. He began his interest in philosophy, literature, and eminent writers, such as Thom Gunn. During King's School, he was given numerous scholastic awards in recognition of his leadership, particularly at the ages of 15 and 16. Curtis' family bought a house from a relative and moved to New Moston this year.

Curtis, a teen, wanted to provide social care by visiting the elderly as part of a school curriculum. While visiting, he and his companions would obtain any prescription drugs they found and then take them together as a team. Curtis was discovered unconscious in his bedroom by his father's on one occasion, and he and his friends had stolen a large dose of Largactil, and he and his friends had to be admitted to hospital to have his stomach pumped.

Curtis had a keen interest in music since the age of 12, and his teenage years were influenced by his poetry and art. Curtis' first involvement in music was as a youth in Macclesfield, where he was in a church choir. Curtis could not afford to buy records, causing him to regularly take them from local stores. Curtis had already established a reputation as a vivacious person with a keen eye for fashion by his mid-teens.

Despite graduating nine O-levels at King's School and briefly studying A-Levels in History and Divinity at St. John's College, Curtis was dissatisfied with academic life and moved to seek jobs. Despite completing his undergraduate studies at St. John's College, Curtis continued to concentrate on the pursuit of art, literature, and music, and he would eventually get lyrical and conceptual inspiration from ever more obscure subjects.

Curtis began working at a record store in Manchester City Centre before obtaining more stable employment in the civil service. Curtis first deployed to Cheadle Hulme, where he spent many months with the Ministry of Defence before being offered alternative positions within the Manpower Services Commission in a building at Piccadilly Gardens. Curtis later served as a civil servant in Woodford, Greater Manchester, but about a year later, Curtis was posted to Macclesfield's Employment Exchange, where he served as an Assistant Disablement Resettlement Officer.

Curtis married Deborah Woodruff on August 23, 1975, to whom he was introduced by a colleague, Tony Nuttall. Both Ian and Deborah met as friends and then started dating in December 1972, when both were 16 years old. The couple's wedding reception took place at St Thomas' Church in Henbury, Cheshire. Curtis was 19 and Woodruff 18. They had one child, Natalie, who was born on April 16, 1979. The couple lived with Ian's grandparents until their marriage, but shortly afterward, the couple moved to Chadderton's working-class neighbourhood, where they paid a mortgage while doing in jobs neither enjoyed. The couple became disillusioned with life in Oldham and remortgaged their house for a brief period of time with Ian's grandparents. The couple moved into their own house in Barton Street, Macclesfield, in May 1977, with one of the rooms becoming colloquially identified between the two couples as Curtis' "song-writing room."

Personal life

Curtis' widow has discovered that Curtis began working at the Belgian Annik Honoré in October 1979, before becoming a writer and music promoter. They first met at a gig in Brussels the month before. Despite the fact that he had a somewhat controlling attitude within their marriage (which had to exclude any chance for his wife to speak with other men), Curtis was plagued with shame over the situation as a result of being married and the father of their baby's infant daughter, but he was still yearning to be with Honoré. Curtis begged Bernard Sumner to make a decision on his behalf whether he should stay with his wife or have a deeper friendship with Honoré, but Sumner declined. In a 2010 interview, Honoré said that although she and Curtis had been together for several months, their friendship had been platonic. Deborah Curtis has denied that it was a sexual and romantic affair.

Curtis' friendship with Honoré led him to distance himself and become "lofty" with them later in life. Curtis' and Honoré's expense were all pranks due to this distance. He became a vegetarian, presumably at Honoré's behest, since he was known to have eaten meat while not in her presence.

Curtis began having epileptic seizures in late 1978, and doctors confirmed him on January 23 as "severe epilepsy" in this condition. Curtis was initially eager to discuss his illness with anyone who inquired, but he soon became withdrawn and reluctant to address any topic besides the most obvious and essential aspects. On each occasion, it was clear that a particular prescribed drug failed to treat Curtis' seizures, his doctor would prescribe a different anticonvulsant, and his wife expressed her excitement that this particular drug would help him keep his seizures under control.

Curtis' illness gradually worsened during 1979 and 1980, with his seizures getting more frequent and more severe. Curtis continued to drink, smoke, and maintain an irregular sleeping pattern, against the medical advice given to those with the disorder. Curtis' medications, which included extreme mood swings, were a result of his illness. Curtis' wife, husband, and in-laws all observed this change in character, which also showed how taciturn he had become in his wife's company. Ian was unable to hold his baby girl in the event of his son's health, owing to his medical condition.

Curtis' illness was particularly bad at the time of the band's second album, with him suffering a weekly average of two tonic seizures. Curtis' bandmates became worried when they heard he had been missing from the recording studio for two hours on one occasion during these recordings. Curtis was unconscious on the floor of the studio's toilets when he fell on top of a sink following a seizure. Despite cases like this, Hook said that, largely due to ignorance of the condition, he, Sumner, and Morris did not know how to assist. Hook was adamant that Curtis never intended to offended or worry his bandmates, and that if they had a query regarding their wellbeing, they would "tell [us] what [we] wanted to hear." The lighting technicians at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park, England, in one incident—contrary to Rob Gretton's instructions before the gig—switched on strobe lights midway through Joy Division's appearance, causing Curtis to stagger backwards and collapse against Stephen Morris' drum kit in the throes of an apparent seizure. He had to be carried offstage to the band's rehearsal room to recover.

Curtis had recovered from his first seizure, but the band's return to West Hampstead began to disappoint their promise to perform their second gig of the evening was something else entirely, but only after the pair collapsed to the ground and suffered the most violent seizure he had ever seen.

Curtis' onstage performances were often reminiscent of his seizures and has been dubbed by others as his "epilepsy dance." Curtis died several times during live performances in 1979 and 1980, and she had to be carried off stage. Flashing lights were banned at Joy Division gigs to reduce the chances of Curtis having epileptic seizures; however, Bernard Sumner later said that certain percussion effects could cause Curtis to have a seizure. Terry Mason was deployed in April 1980 as a minder to ensure Curtis received his prescribed medications, avoided alcohol intake, and got enough sleep.

Greil Marcus in The History of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs quoted Jonathan Savage of Melody Maker: "Ian's mesmeric style reflected Deborah Curtis' ever-more frequent epileptic spasms that she had to deal with at home." Marcus commented that Curtis' appearance "may have also been a case of intentionally creating fits, re-enacting them, and using them as a source of motivation and a style of music."

Curtis' last live performance with Joy Division was on May 2nd, 1980 at the High Hall of Birmingham University, and included Joy Division's first and only appearance of "Ceremony," which was later released by New Order as their first and only song. "Digital" was Curtis' last song on stage with Joy Division before his death.

Curtis' first concrete suicide attempt on April 6, 1980, Tony Wilson and his partner, Lindsay, who expressed deep concerns about how Curtis' hectic touring schedule was affecting his health and mental stability, were compelled to recover at their cottage in Charlesworth, Derbyshire. Though he recuperated, he is said to have written several letters to Honoré, expressing his admiration for her.

Curtis' marriage to Deborah was floundering early 1980, when she had started divorce proceedings after she had failed to stop all contact with Honoré. Curtis loved solitude, but they weren't well prepared to live alone. He had trouble balancing his family commitments with his musical aspirations, and his wellbeing was getting worse as a result of his epilepsy, which heightened his reliance on others. Curtis told Bernard Sumner of his insistence on seeing his wife that evening on the evening evening before his death. He had also confirmed plans to rendezvous with his bandmates at Manchester Airport the following day, well before they left for America.

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