Joy Division (band)

Joy Division was a rock music band formed in 1977 in Manchester, England. The band dissolved in May 1980 after the suicide of its lead singer Ian Curtis. The remaining members reformed as New Order a couple of months later.

Equipment

Joy Division liked to experiment with different sounds, and Bernard Sumner was said to have been the main brain behind instrumental ideas and usage. He, for instance, instigated the use of synthesizers in Joy Division's music. Synthesizers were notable for being hard to use live, which is probably why on some of the band's live performances, the synthesizer sounded rather out of tune. Another problem with using a synthesizer live was that Bernard, the groups lead guitarist, was obviously not able to play both instruments at the same time. For this reason Ian Curtis took over basic guitar duties on some live tracks. "I Remember Nothing" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" were just two tracks where Curtis was enlisted to play the electric guitar. It is known that he played guitar at live performances of certain songs and possibly in the studio as well, although this is questionable as Bernard could have played both synthesizer and guitar when recording tracks in a studio.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Footage exists of Curtis playing Bernard's Shergold Custom Masquerader and also VOX Phantom and VOX Teardrop guitars, which were apparently cheap at the time. Although not a skilled guitarist, Curtis' playing enhanced the band's ability at live gigs. Bernard Sumner, as previously mentioned, was the group's lead guitarist and used two or more different models with Joy Division; the mentioned Shergold Custom Masquerader and a Gibson SG Standard were two he is definitely known to have used.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peter Hook, the bassist of the band, chose to play his bass guitar more like a lead guitar on many tracks. This enabled songs to have more dominant bass riffs to compliment the other instruments. Peter Hook started to use a six stringed bass guitar on the "Closer" album, which allowed for higher notes to be played on the bass. He continued to use six string bass guitars with New Order. Peter Hook also performed backing vocals for the group and was the 'other voice' on the song "Interzone". On the track "Sound Of Music", Hook and Sumner swapped instruments so that Hook was playing electric guitar and Sumner bass guitar.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Even a melodica wind instrument was used by Joy Division during their recording sessions: briefly on "Decades" and quite predominantly on "In a Lonely Place" which only exists as a rehearsal recording (this recording can be heard in the "Heart and Soul" box set). New Order used the melodica a number of times and were said to have "inherited" it from Curtis.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stephen Morris, the band's drummer, used expansive drum kits with many pieces to allow great ranges of rolls, rhythm shifts and beats. Morris seemed to be the most physically active band member behind Ian Curtis, especially on tracks such as "She's Lost Control" and "Tranmission" where quite complex drumming was used. Morris used electronic hi-hats on some songs to achieve a variety of effects.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~