The band got their start after two of the members, guitarist Bernard Sumner (ne Albrecht and Dicken) and bassist Peter Hook took in a Sex Pistols show, circa 1977. Calling themselves Warsaw - after the David Bowie song "Warsazwa" from Bowie's "Low" LP, the group included dramatic, epileptic singer Ian Curtis. Warsaw released one EP, the four song "An Ideal For Living" in 1977, before changing their name to avoid conflict with another similarly monikered band.
The first EP, though spirited, did little to prepare anyone for what happened next.
Now called Joy Division (after Nazi camp prostitutes of World War II), the group released the bouncy, frenetic single "Digital" in late 1978. With its manic bassline and its lyrics telling of ultra-frustration, "Digital" signaled a new era for the band. 1979 would see the release of the first album, "Unknown Pleasures," produced by the iconoclastic Martin Hannett for the upstart indie label, Factory Records.
The album was a futuristic, nihilistic masterpiece, both in the band's intense playing and Hannett's landmark production. "Unknown Pleasures" remains one of the greatest LPs of the post-punk era, for a number of reasons. The album introduced a new kind of art rock, and updated punk for an era of existential doubt. Dealing with themes of apocalypse, fear, urban decay, and personal destruction, the album caught the music-buying public unaware. England loved Joy Division, and they now clamored to see the incendiary Curtis and the band live on stage.
And what a spectacle they were. Curtis' epilepsy prevented Joy Division from using strobe lights on stage. Yet Curtis had little inhibitions. He flung himself wildly, writhing to the new and dangerous rhythms as the band played emotionless behind him. One critic called Curtis' strange dance "The Dead Fly," a fittingly Kafa-esque description. Joy
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