It’s raining….Ian Curtis…and Redemption Song
It’s been pouring with rain the better part of 24 hours, weather like this makes me long for a ride on a double decker down to my local pub. The Sunday papers to read all about the football and have a nice flaky sausage roll. If you’ve always lived in England and bemoan the clouds and rain just trust me when you live in the sunniest place imaginable you do miss the rain. So I’ve been happy as can be this wet winter while the locals can’t stop complaining about the weekly rains.
I’ve been reading (again) the excellent Chris Salewicz bio of Joe Strummer recently, nothing certifies a great book as much as being able to read it again and still find a lot to enjoy. The complexities of Strummer are something to behold but the sincerity and dedication of the man can’t be questioned. If you haven’t read it – it is a book that will at times make you recoil at times as you learn about Joe up close from those who knew him, and while it’s not a book that seeks to put a halo above Strummer’s head it is still a book that needed to be written. I mention this as I was reading about how Joe was perfectly happy as a late teen (and again in his 40’s) to visit a 3-4 day music festival or even an extended country party. It might involve just a sleeping bag on the grass somewhere but his borderline nomadic tendencies probably made being in a band that was constantly touring that much easier to adjust to. Much of it was also possibly because he moved so often before the age of ten (and from country to country) and then felt that he was ‘discarded’ into a boarding school. If that represents the first seventeen years of your life it is fairly easy to understand that Joe probably never felt settled anywhere/felt at home anywhere depending on your point of view. I went the long way round to get there, but knowing and wet and gloomy the English weather can be, how did he manage to rough it when needed? Was the weather that much better in the late 60’s? From my memory (1974 onwards) the only summer England has ever had that was very warm and dry was 1976 which was also the summer that punk germinated in London. Just a coincidence? It does make you wonder. Incidentally there are 10 signed copies of Salewicz’ book Redemption Song – The Ballad of Joe Strummer being given away in a drawing via his site – so drop on by.
I’ve only one other short thing this evening (Clash Cup tomorrow) and it’s something definitely worth a read. The blog ‘Ariff Minds The Gap’ has written a good article about ‘Cut The Crap’. He has more of an opinion on the album than I can compose at present, well at the very least he explores some of the legend behind the making of the final ‘Clash’ album. I’ve got to be honest, if I was introducing someone to The Clash I’d most probably suggest they stop their historic education with Combat Rock. Am I being unfair?
Finally, I found myself in the mood to at last tackle the film ‘Control’ this weekend by Anton Corbijn. As you are no doubt aware the film focuses
on the last 7 or 8 years of Ian Curtis and the formation of Warsaw who were to become Joy Division. I read a great deal about the film when it was released in 2007 and then partly by intent never saw the film. I’m pleased I waited, it gave me distance from all the reviews and recommendations and I was able to watch it with my knowledge of Curtis and Joy Division as it previously was – fairly in keeping with the film. I must say I thought it was incredibly creative in it’s production and the major character of Ian, his wife and his mistress were all superbly cast. The film has a brutal starkness to it and the use of Black and White only adds to the desolation of the story itself and the settings of Manchester and Macclesfield in the mid-late 70’s. My only complaint was the minor characters (example, the rest of Joy Division!) were somewhat shallow and bordered on cliched but that scarcely detracted from a stunning film, my comment is tempered by the fact that the film was truly about Ian Curtis after all. The palpable sense of despair and confusion circling his life almost brings you to frustration, but the final feeling is one I’ve had since I first heard he died when I was just a kid – what a tragically brief life. You almost sense that Curtis was dying as soon as he joined the band. Sam Riley as Curtis and Samantha Morton as his wife Debbie are simply remarkable. I hope you’ve had the chance to see the film, if not you should.


