Last week I attended the splendid play, New Dawn Fades, written by Brian Gorman, at the Bloomsbury Theatre, and which tells the story of the band Joy Division. Although Joy Division were essentially a modern post-punk band, and their influence is monumental, for me personally they have always existed in a shadowy timeless, past-not-present realm. Unlike other post-punk bands that I have grown up with and love, such as Magazine and Simple Minds, Joy Division were always a ghostly entity due to the suicide of singer Ian Curtis in 1980, aged just 23. I was a mere lad of seven when they released their first record, and had not even turned ten when Curtis died, so it wasn't until a few years later after they crossed my path, and even then it took a few years more before I was able to listen to them properly, as my just-become a teenage self was simply too petrified of the entire aura of the band's sound and aesthetic, and even hearing 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' made me feel like I was being pulled into some kind of vortex. A similar thing happened to me with another band I would grow to love but which on my first proper listen scared the life out of me: The Smiths. I remember I had loaned the Meat Is Murder album cassette from the local library but when the title track came on I had to stop playing it. The grinding, inhuman mechanical sounds at the start of the song and Morrissey's soul-piercing, accusatory words were simply too much for me. I recall almost trembling with fear and guilt as I stopped the tape and replaced it with something else as it was just too unsettling and upsetting to listen to. I was aware of animal rights and despaired of and despised the way humanity treated its non-human animal cousins, but I just wasn't ready at the age I was to listen to this monumental, challenging work. And the same was true with Joy Division.
I was also been appearing in Les Miserables and sharing a stage with some of the finest singers on the planet, and the world of musical theatre was an absolute obsession at this point, and I think it's fair to say that post-punk didn't really fall into this category. But as I grew into my late teens and early twenties, and as the harsh realities of life kicked in and chronic illness, loss, grief, and anxiety increasingly entered my life, as it inevitably does for everybody, post-punk soon spoke directly to my soul. And the hypnotic dark art of Joy Division suddenly made sense.
One of my greatest CD purchases, still to this day, is the Joy Division box set, Heart and Soul, which I clearly remember purchasing in one of my favourite record shops in Soho on its release in 1997. The box set's four discs included pretty much everything they had ever recorded, but in that pre-digital, internet age (well, for me, anyway), the booklet it contained was almost as invaluable as the music itself. It had a fascinating discography, but far more important for me was an extended essay by Paul Morley, which was like gold dust at the time as a key in helping to unlock some of the mysteries contained within this haunting, quite devastating music. This compilation was my real entry point into the world of Joy Division, and having also watched the Joy Division film/documentary (2007), as well as Anton Corbijn's Control (2007), numerous times since then, this path has now led me to the play, New Dawn Fades.
The play itself was intriguing to witness, and because it's still relatively early in my re-emergence from almost three years of shielding, a trip to the theatre is a most cherished occurrence (it always has been, but even more so since the pandemic). I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, but it was a real pleasure to watch the actors bring the band and the people around them to life. But the real icing on the cake of this production, however, was hearing the four main actors playing a smattering of the band's songs. Obviously, I never got to see the actual Joy Division play in concert, and the closest thing I experienced was seeing a Joy Division tribute band over twenty years ago at the Limelight Club in Crewe. And I really do have to give the four principal actors great credit here, as they summoned the sound and spirit of Joy Division with great accuracy, and to hear them performing 'Dead Souls', 'She's Lost Control', 'Transmission', and 'Love Will Tear us Apart' brought a chill down my spine. Josh Lonsdale, in particular, brought an uncanny, eerie resemblance to Ian Curtis, in both voice and physicality. There was also a small exhibition of Joy Division/New Order, post-punk memorabilia in the foyer of the theatre, and to see and touch the very guitar (a vox phantom VI special) that Ian Curtis had performed in the very famous 'Love Will Tear us Apart' promo video was a very moving experience. It was clear from witnessing other people's reactions to these treasured items that they have the power of religious artefacts. They certainly did so for me.
A night at the theatre is always a great pleasure for me, and this new play was a delight to witness.
