I know the less than 10 people who actually follow this blog have
already had it up to here with the number of my recent Joy
Division-related posts. I couldn't help myself as today marks the 30th
anniversary of the death of legendary Joy Division front man, Ian
Curtis. I just finished watching the Curtis biopic "Control". It's
very well done and a definite must-see for anyone even remotely
interested in the subject. Even if you're not a fan of Joy Division or
interested in British post-punk, the film makes for a compelling drama
that stands on its own. I have a copy if anyone local is interested.
One aspect of the movie I particularly enjoyed is that all the live
performances depicted in the film were actually performed by the
actors who are portraying the musicians. I guess they went in to the
project with the assumption that they'd learn the songs and rehearse
them so that they could play along and on film it would be convincing
enough when they overlayed the original Joy Division recordings. After
a week of rehearsals they were sounding good enough that they
convinced the director to let them actually play the songs and use
their live versions in the final film. The result adds an amazing
authenticity to the concert scenes that would've been absent had the
audio track been the original studio recordings.
