It was a Sex Pistols concert at the Lesser Free Trade Hall and its excitingly chaotic racket that suddenly made these friends say to each other “I can do that.” So they team up with another acquaintance, a hushed half of a local social duo nicknamed “The Two Ians” andd Stephen Morris to create Warsaw - a punk band whose first album, “Ideal for Living” is pressed with a £400 loan disguised as a “furniture loan” for then newlywed Ian Curtis. Soon after the record’s horrible reception and several complaints about their almost neo-Nazi look and name, they would change their name to Joy Division (another audacious Nazi reference) and their brief existence would last for decades to come.

‘Joy Division’ is a documentary from Grant Gee released on DVD in concordance with the Ian Curtis biopic ‘Control.’ Like most documentaries, you have your fair share of contributing interview bits from the band’s three surviving members, old local fans and classmates (including the “other” Iain Gray), musicians from the early Manchester scene like Pete Shelley from The Buzzcocks and Genesis P. Orridge of Psychic TV, the infamous manager/label svengali Tony Wilson, and intermittently displayed quotes from Curtis’s surviving wife, Deborah, who must have declined to be recorded. These interviews reveal the humorous antics on tour, the personal issues from Curtis including his obsession with books about human suffering and an all-around agreement that their music was a soundtrack for the new-industrial, concrete and bleak city that was Manchester.

We’re also given some neighborhood history including an assortment of clips showing places labeled “Things That Aren’t There” like where they performed their first gigs (Electric Circus, Pips Nightclub and Rafters) and their rehearsal space (TJ Daidson’s Rehearsal Rooms) all now demolished and either replaced with some new commercial hodgepodge or just left empty as if the original plans went kaput. What’s probably one of the more interesting statements made amidst this historical perspective is that even though Joy Division were labeled a punk band, they were the first not to say “F-you” to society, but the first to say “I’m fucked.”

Thanks to the fine pacing from Gee’s directing, interviewing and use of archival musical performance clips, those new to Joy Division as well as die hard fans will get a great look into some unknown music history and hope for what could have happened had Ian Curtis not committed suicide the night before their first US tour in 1980. You’ll see either praise from the music community who analyze everything about the band’s two only album releases (Unknown Pleasures and Closer - “all the others are just marketing” they say) or denial from the band members themselves who even confess that sometimes they felt the music was just “too dark.” This somewhat explains the band’s interesting new direction after Curtis’s death as the now influential electronic band New Order.

After viewing the 98 minutes of respect and adulation for what could have been, be sure to catch the extra interview clips which last just as long as the film itself. You’ll get even more revealing history and confessions including stories of their early band member tryouts, how much Ian Curtis was worth after his death and a very confident declaration from bassist Peter Hook about who he thinks is their biggest copycat. Who is it? I can’t tell you. Go buy the documentary and find out for yourself.

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