44 Facts About Ian Curtis

Ian Kevin Curtis was an English musician, singer, and songwriter.

Ian Curtis was best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the post-punk band Joy Division, with whom he released the albums Unknown Pleasures and Closer.

Ian Curtis was noted for his dark baritone voice, unique dancing style, and songwriting that was typically filled with imagery of loneliness, emptiness, and alienation.

Ian Kevin Curtis was born at the Memorial Hospital in Stretford on 15 July 1956, and grew up in a working-class household in Macclesfield.

Ian Curtis was the first of two children born to Doreen and Kevin Curtis.

Ian Curtis was awarded a scholarship at the age of 11 at Macclesfield's independent King's School.

The year after Ian Curtis had graduated from King's School, the family purchased a house from a relative and moved to New Moston.

On one occasion when he was 16, after consuming a large dosage of Largactil he and his friends had stolen, Ian Curtis was discovered unconscious in his bedroom by his father and was taken to hospital to have his stomach pumped.

Ian Curtis had held a keen interest in music since the age of 12, and this interest developed greatly in his teenage years, with artists such as Jim Morrison and David Bowie being particular favourites of his, and thus influencing his poetry and art.

Ian Curtis obtained a job at a record shop in Manchester City Centre, before obtaining more stable employment within the civil service.

Ian Curtis later worked as a civil servant in Woodford, Greater Manchester although, at his request, approximately one year later Curtis was posted to Macclesfield's Employment Exchange, where he worked as an Assistant Disablement Resettlement Officer.

On 23 August 1975, Ian Curtis married Deborah Woodruff, to whom he was introduced by a friend, Tony Nuttall.

Ian Curtis used the guitar on Joy Division's early 1980 European tour and in the video for "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

Curtis's widow has claimed that in October 1979, Curtis began conducting an affair with the Belgian Annik Honore who had been working at the Belgian embassy in London before becoming a journalist and music promoter.

Ian Curtis had for many years exhibited a somewhat controlling attitude within their relationship.

Ian Curtis was consumed with guilt over this affair due to being married and the father of their baby daughter, but at the same time still yearning to be with Honore.

On one occasion in 1980, Ian Curtis asked Bernard Sumner to make a decision on his behalf as to whether he should remain with his wife or form a deeper relationship with Honore; Sumner refused.

Honore claimed in a 2010 interview that although she and Ian Curtis had spent extensive periods together, their relationship had been platonic.

Ian Curtis's bandmates recollected later that Curtis's friendship with Honore led him to distance himself and become somewhat "lofty" with them.

Ian Curtis began having epileptic seizures in late 1978; he was officially diagnosed with the condition on 23 January the following year, with his particular case being described by doctors as so severe, his "life would [be] ruled to obsolescence by his severe epilepsy" without the various strong dosages of medications he was prescribed.

The medications Ian Curtis was prescribed for his condition produced numerous side effects, including extreme mood swings.

At the time of the recording of the band's second album, Ian Curtis's condition was particularly severe, with him enduring a weekly average of two tonic-clonic seizures.

On one occasion during these recordings, Ian Curtis's bandmates became concerned when they noted he had been absent from the recording studio for two hours.

Nonetheless, Hook was adamant that Ian Curtis never wanted to upset or concern his bandmates, and would "tell [us] what [we] wanted to hear" if they expressed any concern as to his condition.

Ian Curtis had to be carried offstage to the band's dressing room to recuperate.

When Ian Curtis had recovered from this first seizure, he was adamant the band travel to West Hampstead to honour their commitment to perform their second gig of the evening at this location, although some 25 minutes into this second gig, Ian Curtis's "dancing started to lose its rhythmic sense and change into something else entirely" before he collapsed to the floor and experienced the most violent seizure he had endured to date.

The final song Ian Curtis performed on stage with Joy Division prior to his death was "Digital".

Ian Curtis enjoyed solitude, but had never been mentally equipped for living alone.

Ian Curtis was having difficulty balancing his family obligations with his musical ambitions and his health was gradually worsening as a result of his epilepsy, thus increasing his dependency upon others.

Ian Curtis had made firm plans to rendezvous with his bandmates at Manchester Airport the following day, before their departure for America.

Ian Curtis had used the kitchen's washing line to hang himself after having written a note to Deborah in which he declared his love for her despite his recent affair with Honore.

Ian Curtis's wife recollected that he had taken photographs of their wedding and their baby daughter off the walls, apparently to view them as he composed his suicide note.

Deborah has stated that Ian Curtis had viewed the upcoming tour with extreme trepidation, not only because of his extreme fear of flying but because he had expressed deep concerns as to how American audiences would react to his epilepsy.

Deborah has claimed that Ian Curtis had confided in her on several occasions that he held no desire to live past his early twenties.

Ian Curtis had expressed to both Deborah and Honore his deep concerns that his medical condition was likely to kill him, in addition to causing him to receive mockery from audiences, and that this mockery would only increase when performing before American audiences on the upcoming tour.

Hook claimed that, prior to the release of the 2007 documentary Joy Division, a specialist in epilepsy had viewed the combination of drugs that Ian Curtis had been prescribed for his condition and expressed concerns about the drugs' safety.

Ian Curtis's body was cremated at Macclesfield Crematorium on 23 May 1980, and his ashes were buried at Macclesfield Cemetery.

Shortly after Curtis's death, Bernard Sumner inherited the Vox Phantom VI Special guitar Ian Curtis had acquired in September 1979; he used this instrument in several early New Order songs, including the single "Everything's Gone Green".

Deborah Ian Curtis has written a biographical account of their marriage, Touching from a Distance, which was first published in 1995.

The words "Ian Curtis Lives" are written on a wall in Wallace Street, Wellington, New Zealand.

In October 2020, in line with Manchester music and mental wellbeing festival Headstock, a large mural depicting a black and white portrait of Ian Curtis was painted on the side of a building on Port Street in Manchester's Northern Quarter by street artist Akse P19.

In 2012, Ian Curtis was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Peter Blake to appear in a new version of the Beatles' Sgt.

Ian Curtis was portrayed by Sean Harris in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, which dramatised the rise and fall of Factory Records from the 1970s to the 1990s.

In 2014, the house in which Ian Curtis ended his life went on sale.