They did carry on, and the result was a singular sound, one honed by practice but perfected in the studio by mastermind producer Martin Hannett. At one point, speaking of the physical toll that touring was taking on the quietly suffering Curtis, Hook writes that an alternate title for his book might be “He Said He Was Alright So We Carried On.” He provides a raw, detailed chronological account of those days with an admirable directness, even as he addresses hard truths about the way he and his mates handled their lead singer’s condition. The musical legacy that Curtis, Hook, guitarist Bernard Sumner and drummer Stephen Morris created still resonates.

Struggling with depression, a failing marriage and debilitating bouts of epilepsy, Curtis killed himself on the eve of Joy Division’s first American tour, just as the band’s penultimate single, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” was released. His life offers a perfect narrative for disaffected, sun-averse souls the world over: a young genius too pure to live.Īs described in former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook’s honest, punchy and rough-hewn document of that period, “Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division,” Curtis was as tragic and magnetic a figure as the legend suggests, though at the time Hook saw him mostly as a beer-drinking, prank-playing pal. Curtis’ seemingly tortured life as a member of the English post-punk band Joy Division and early death in 1980 have been transformed into myth and Curtis into a modern-day Thomas Chatterton or Sylvia Plath. In the three decades since he committed suicide, singer Ian Curtis has become both a symbol and a caricature.

Unknown Pleasures by Peter Hook