Automatic has just released a new cover of Shadowplay. The vibes are all in place.

Im new to fanmail and Im wondering if anyone tried and if there was any success to that

I recently have been getting back into joy division, in a really deep way, I've always sat on the new order side of the band until recently and wow, man, they truly are my favourite band, they were something so special and I'm mad I'm only just getting around to them

Ceremony is my favourite Joy Division song and I love listening to all the recordings and sometimes I just listen to them over and over again to try and decipher the lyrics. It's kind of interesting how replayable this particular song is and how it means different things to different people. I think part of it is some parts are muffled so we can't hear what Ian is actually singing and each time you might think the lyrics are different.

I really love listening to the New Order version and Peter Hook's version as well.

I was just wondering if anyone else listens to different versions of Ceremony back to back as well? Or am I just weird? 😅 I mean I'm definitely weird but am I alone?

Yes, I know I'm late to the party with these reissues and there is a very long story as to why which I won't relate here, but started with my OG releases being in good enough condition at the time of their release.

I accidentally came across these new and sealed beauties in a small record store near where I was visiting relatives last week. I got home yesterday and immediate put them on. Wow! The remastering is quite frankly astounding and the packaging is absolutely beautifully recreated. I had no idea what i was missing all these years!

Found this guy on a trip up to Ann Arbor and looking forward to watching them all. What's the feedback on the audio quality?

Hi everyone!

After more than a year of research, interviews, writing, and more revisions than I care to remember, I'm happy (and honestly a little relieved!) to announce that "A Cactus in a Dead Land", is finally available on Amazon!

https://amzn.eu/d/01p7S0CH

The official launch will take place on October 26 in Macclesfield, alongside a performance of New Dawn Fades, the play about Joy Division and Manchester.

Until then, I've set all three editions (Kindle, paperback, and hardcover) at the lowest prices Amazon allows. They'll stay that way for the next 14 days, until the official launch.

So, what's the book about?

I've been listening to Joy Division for over 30 years, but I never wanted to write another Ian Curtis biography. There are already plenty of excellent ones, and I wasn't sure I had anything useful to add.

Instead, I became interested in a different question: why do people travel thousands of miles to visit the grave of a musician they never met?

Why do fans leave flowers, letters, photographs, cigarettes, and other objects at his memorial? Why do ordinary streets, buildings, record shops, and even walls become places of pilgrimage? And how can someone who died 46 years ago remain so important to people who weren't even born when he was alive?

My professional background is in travel, hospitality, and cultural research, so I approached these questions from a slightly unusual angle, combining music history, philosophy, tourism, collective memory, and the anthropology of ritual.

But something unexpected happened during the research.

The forgotten story of Cornelia F.

Just seventeen gravestones away from Ian Curtis's memorial in Macclesfield Cemetery lies Cornelia F., a German Joy Division fan whose story has remained largely unknown for decades.

As I began looking into her life, I found fragmented accounts, contradictory memories, and details that had never been properly documented.

Through archival research, correspondence, and firsthand testimonies, I was able to uncover previously unpublished information about Cornelia, including details that, to the best of my knowledge, have never appeared in print before.

I don't want to spoil her story here, but what began as a small part of my research eventually became the emotional centre of the entire book.

And possibly a previously unseen photograph of Ian Curtis

Another unexpected discovery was what we believe may be a previously unpublished photograph of Ian Curtis, found on a weather-damaged card left at his memorial.

The image was painstakingly restored for the book. I can't guarantee that it has never appeared elsewhere, but despite our research, we haven't been able to find another copy or any previous publication of it.

16 contributors and a lot of Joy Division history

The book also brings together 16 contributors from the worlds of music, photography, literature, theatre, and cultural history.

Among them are Philippe Carly, Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, Ben Walker, Brian Gorman, Josh Lonsdale, Nigel Carr, Katja Ruge, Chris Connelly, and many others.

Some were there when Joy Division were still performing. Others have spent years documenting the band's history or keeping its legacy alive through photography, music, art, and theatre.

The result is a 296-page illustrated book combining my research with interviews, personal accounts, historical documents, photographs, and essays.

It's part cultural history, part philosophical investigation, and part love letter to a band that has meant an enormous amount to me for most of my life.

A little thank you to this community

I also want to say that this Reddit community has been incredibly helpful throughout the project.

Some of you shared information, photographs, memories, and leads. Others helped me connect pieces of stories that might otherwise have remained forgotten.

And even when I wasn't actively asking questions, reading your discussions helped me enormously.

So I'd like to give something back.

If you would like a free copy of the Kindle edition, just send me a private message. I'll be more than happy to share one with you.

Seriously, no strings attached. I'd much rather have the book read by people who genuinely care about Joy Division than sitting unnoticed on Amazon.

Of course, if you'd prefer to buy a copy, that would mean a lot too, particularly because all profits remaining after expenses will go to charity, with a focus on mental health and suicide prevention.

I decided to self-publish partly because I wanted to preserve these stories without compromising the project or cutting down the contributors' work. This was never intended to be a commercial venture.

And if you're curious but don't want to commit to the whole book, you can download the first 40 pages for free here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VtUy5iiNW9biCydiSNau19azs7OlGwYQ/view

I know promotional posts aren't always popular on Reddit, so I hope the moderators and the community are okay with this. I've put a huge amount of time and care into the project, and I genuinely think there's material here that Joy Division fans will find interesting, especially the research on Cornelia and the previously unseen material.

Thanks again to everyone who helped, directly or indirectly, and for keeping the music alive.

Love will tear us apart. Good music will keep us together.

This is actually terrible! Do you guys think there's any way to, like, petition for it to be made available on there as well? It would be great

Saw New Dawn Fades in Shrewsbury on the weekend. It was better than I ever imagined. Really moving stuff.

Not a fan of JD or NO currently, but plan to be in about an hour or so LOL. I have both of these albums on vinyl in my “need to listen” section, and I recently learned the history that connects these two bands together (I.e. they’re composed of mostly the same people). Would listening to these both for the first time as a double header, without listening to either band previously, be a good/bad idea to get first exposure to both bands?

Picture sent to me from a friend in Scotland

Update: Bourbon and rum barrel aged STOUT BEER. Sorry for the wrong subject.

I don’t know exactly how I stumbled upon Joy Division, but one day I ended up hearing Love Will Tear Us Apart on Spotify and I decided to check out the rest of their music.

Man this has got to be my favorite band to shake up my regular listening. I’m normally a mostly progressive/heavy metal fan. Mainly what draws me to this music is the bass and percussion forward aspect. Joy Division has that great heavy droning base that I love and the percussion is tight and methodical.

The instrumentals being what drew me in first, but after a short while I came to really appreciate the lyricism and tone of Ian Curtis. In my opinion he is one of the best examples of a singer not having to have some crazy spectacular range, but matching the overall atmosphere and tone of the band to a point that it’s magical.