Ian Curtis

Ian Kevin Curtis - who was born on July 15th, 1956, in Stretford, Lancashire, England - was an English singer-songwriter and musician, best-known as the lead-singer and lyricist of the post-punk band, Joy Division.  He was the second of two children born to Kevin and Doreen Curtis, and grew up in Macclesfield, Cheshire.  An intelligent child, Curtis was awarded a scholarship to the independent King's School at the age of eleven.  Winning several scholastic awards whilst there, he eventually left with nine 'O'-Levels.  As part of a school project, Curtis chose to visit elderly people in their homes; he and his friends would pilfer prescription drugs from them, on one occasion Curtis being found unconscious after a Largactil overdose.  With little money, but an increasing love for music, he would also steal records from local shops.  After dropping out of 'A'-Level studies, he got a job in a record store, before becoming employed in the civil service.  Curtis met Deborah Woodruff in 1972, and they married in August of 1975; they had one child, Natalie, born in 1979.  In 1976, he met three musicians - Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Terry Mason - at a Sex Pistols concert in Manchester.  The four, along with drummer Stephen Morris, eventually named themselves Joy Division, with Curtis becoming their lead-singer, lyricist, and sometime guitarist.  They only released one album, 1979's Unknown Pleasures, which did not chart, during Curtis's lifetime.  Curtis became renowned for his awkward stage persona, and his peculiar dancing, which seemed to mimic the epileptic fits which he began experiencing from 1978.  The epilepsy was severe, but Curtis continued drinking and smoking and sleeping irregularly, contrary to medical advice.  Medication he began taking for the condition caused him to become irritable and depressed.  In 1979, he began an affair with music journalist and promoter, Annik Honore.  In April of 1980, Curtis suffered two epileptic seizures in one day, both onstage and at different concerts.  On April 6th that year, he made his first definite suicide attempt.  By this time, his marriage was floundering, and his wife began divorce proceedings against him.  Curtis's final live performance with Joy Division was at Birmingham University on May 2nd, 1980.  On the evening of May 17th, 1980, Curtis asked his wife to drop divorce proceedings; mindful of his fragile mental state, she agreed to spend the night with him, subsequently driving to her parents' home to inform them of her intentions.  However, on returning to Curtis's place, he told her of his intention to spend the night alone, and so she left again.  It seems that Curtis spent much of that night listening to music and watching films.  When Deborah Curtis returned to her husband's house the next morning, May 18th, she found that he had hanged himself from a washing-line in the kitchen.  He had left a suicide note in which he proclaimed his love for his wife.  At the time of his suicide, Joy Division were on the eve of their first North American tour, and it was speculated that Curtis's intense fear of flying, along with his concerns as to how American audiences would react to his epilepsy, may have further enhanced his depressed state.  Two months after Curtis died, Joy Division released one more album - Closer, which reached no. 6 in the U.K. charts - before disbanding.  Ian Curtis was just 23 years old.