Control

[poliphilo]

I'm looking forward to seeing Control- Anton Corbijn's new movie about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian says it's the film of the year. 

Manchester in the early '80s. Whoo-hoo!

Love Will Tear Us Apart is my favourite pop song.

I didn't listen to it at the time. Who was I listening to? Al Stewart probably. 

But I guess it was playing somewhere in the background as I trudged round the streets of Reddish on behalf of the Church of England. 

Reddish isn't that far from Ian Curtis' home town of Macclesfield. They're both of them sad little burgs within the blighting halo of the big city. 

Curtis and I shared a landscape. Post-industrial, abandoned by the people who matter. It wasn't in black and white, though. And the sun shone as much or as little as it does now.

I knew the lead singer of the band Sad Cafe.  They almost made it but not quite. He and Ian Curtis must have rubbed shoulders.

Paul Morley the music writer was saying he wished he could remember the conversations he'd had with Curtis, but imagines they were probably about football results.

No-one ever knows they're living a legend.

Comments

nothing about the original post

[(Anonymous)]

I have 2 lovely photos to send you when the post is back to normal. One is of you and one of Alice and Ma. We are off on our travels with her tomorrow to Ghent till Monday. I have a copy for Alice too.
I need to catch up with Ailz re the wedding, but it's been rather manic this week. It went well though - much better than we might have expected and we were made very welcome by Lili.
Hope all's well with you and all the family.
Jenny

Re: nothing about the original post

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Have a good weekend. I look forward to seeing the photos.

Speak to you soon...

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

You really should write your autobiography. Or have you done that already?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I tried once, about 20 years ago. I wrote about 50 pages then ran out of material.

I like diving into the past and coming back with nuggets of recovered memory, but I don't think I could write a long consecutive narrative with myself as hero. I just don't find myself interesting enough.

[goddlefrood.livejournal.com]

I never did see the late lamented Gibson, but did attend the festival of the 10th summer at G-MEX where Joy Division played with the remaining crew. They must have been renamed by then and I can't remember what the band was called, damn it. I do remember The Smiths and The Smashing Pumpkins as well as the unlamemnted OMD played at the same gig.

Being from the Borough of Macclesfield, although not from the town itself, I'd have to enquire when Manchester sprawled that far? It certainly didn't last time I was over. Cheers.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Joy Division morphed into New Order after Curtis died. I believe they're still going strong.

I've always thought of Macclesfield as an- admittedly far-flung- Manchester suburb. I had a girlfriend who had family there. I think of all the whole of North Cheshire- with its resident footballers and Granada TV personalities- as being part of Greater Manchester.

(Sorry).