Joy Division's frontman Ian Curtis is most remembered for his haunting lyrics, eventual suicide, and contagious, unique dancing – let's take a look at the latter. Maybe you’ve seen one or two clips of him boogieing away on stage - but why did he dance like that?
No, he wasn’t trying to be avant-garde and ahead of the curve, Curtis’s dance moves were inspired by his struggles with epilepsy. One of their most popular songs ‘She’s Lost Control’ was written about his experiences working in a Job Centre in Macclesfield, where he was working closely alongside a girl with epilepsy, before noticing that she had stopped coming to the appointments. He later found out that she had fallen into a seizure whilst asleep and had passed away because of it.
At the end of 1978, on the long drive back from a gig in London, Curtis had physically and verbally lashed out at his fellow band members, and it was later found that he had an epileptic fit whilst in the car. After a hospital visit, and a later visit to the doctor’s - Curtis was diagnosed with epilepsy. If you’ve never seen the film Control, I 100% recommend giving it a watch, it has a completely harrowing playback of Curtis’ descent into decay after the detriments of his diagnosis.
Curtis danced on stage during their more up-beat and faster-paced songs, which to be fair, isn’t that many, but it quickly became a staple part of many Joy Division’s sets. People thought he was on drugs with his sporadic, violent jolts of his body, but in reality, it just seemed to be expressive of his ultimately fatal dosage of his epilepsy and later depression.
Curtis fell victim to his disorders the night before the band were set to embark on their American tour, hanging himself in his family’s home. Perhaps one of the greatest lyricists of his generation and beyond, may he rest in peace.
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