2009 saw the 30th anniversary of the original Factory Records release of Joy Division’s bleak but utterly compelling emotional masterpiece Unknown Pleasures.

Unknown Pleasures’ beautifully minimal cover designed by Peter Saville made up of 100 successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered CP 1919; perfectly sets scene for what is to come “this is the way come inside”. Ten perfectly crafted songs in beautiful austere perfection, art on vinyl from four young working class lads from Manchester brought up on Bowie and JG Ballard.

Unknown Pleasures was recorded over the winter of 79 in an unheated studio in Stockport and produced by the drug addled genius of “play it faster but slower” Martin Hannett. Hanett’s shorn down production precisely captures the mood of imposing decay of 1979 Northern Britain and his dark brutal production has only recently been equalled in my mind by the very talented young South London dubstep pioneer Burial.

The album contains so many classic tracks Day of the Lords, Shadowplay Interzone, Disorder” and the strangely catchy anti-funk anthem She’s Lost Control but New Dawn Fades is the track that grabs and never lets go, even after thirty years of buying music it still stands on a pedestal of the great songs of my life. Putting it on today (and the whole album) reminded me like all great art of it’s power to move us and it’s ability to invoke time and place, bringing back memories of growing up listening to John Peel and being a suburban seventeen year old.

I saw Joy Division at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park in 1980, I’m so grateful I got the one chance to see this iconic and magnificent band, two weeks later and just before their US tour and the release of their start-to-finish masterpiece Closer, Ian Curtis hung himself in the front room of his little house in Macclesfield with Iggy Pop’s, The Idiot on the turntable. Curtis was 23 and I was 17 and I cried when I heard the news on John Peel that night and almost exactly 25 years later I saw New Order play a Joy Division set at the John Peel memorial gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall . New Order were very conscious of what Peel and Joy Division meant to the people in that room including themselves and when they played Atmosphere I just burst into tears again and as I looked around everyone else was crying including the remaining members Joy Division on stage now morphed into New Order it was an extremely moving experience.

Joy Division have since the release of Unknown Pleasures thirty years ago been an important part of my life and I’m sure they always will be. If i any readers are interested in why Joy Division were such an influential rock band and how they fitted into the social currents of the late Seventies and early Eighties I recommend reading Paul Morley’s wonderful book – Joy Division: Piece by Piece: Writing About Joy Division 1977-2007 and of course listen to Unknown Pleasures.

A loaded gun won’t set you free…

“New Dawn Fades”

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