Control - a film about Ian Curtis

I love Joy Division and like Ian Curtis. I thought he was a great presence and an original figure. He may have set a template for a style of 6th form poetry that is a less than endearing legacy, but we can't really blame him for that; he was simply being himself, in all his harsh glory. I do find the legend that has grown around the guy since he took his own life in 1980 a little hard to take. He wasn't that great. He wasn't a poet. He wasn't a spokesperson for a generation. He was one part of four, or five if you include the innovative production skills of Martin Hannett, that created a dark and sometimes beautiful soundscape that reflected the grim northern environment that they sprung from. Joy Divsion's legacy belongs as much to Hannett, Hook, Morris and Sumner as it does Curtis. Without them, it would never have happened.

So when I heard that there was to be a biopic about Ian Curtis called Control, I did fear the worst - a hagiography, a re-writing of history, a romanticised depiction of the facts. Luckily Control is none of the above.

Directed by Anton Corbijn, whose first job when he moved to England in 1979 was to photograph Joy Division, the film doesn't mess around with the facts, helped immensely by it's main source, the Joy Divsion biography Touching From A Distance, written by Curtis's widow Debbie.

The Ian Curtis we see here is not an icon, but a troubled intelligent soul who was far from perfect, particularly in the manner in which he treated his wife. His affair with Belgian Annik Honore is well documented thoughout. His fixation with epilepsy is touched on also, as we see the inspiration behind 'She's Lost Control' and how the condition begins to eventually take it's toll on Curtis himself.


The film is shot in black and white, in keeping with the general presentation of Curtis and Joy Division on camera throughout the years. It also serves to capture the urban coldness of late seventies Manchester to great effect. Sam Riley is excellent as Curtis, bearing both a physical and vocal similarity. Samantha Morton is as solid as ever as his wife Debbie.


The Manchester music scene of Control is a lot harsher and more realistic than the comedic caricature presented in Michael Winterbottom's 2001 film 24 Hour Party People. The soundtrack, naturally, is top quality, taking in Joy Division's classics mixed with Bowie and Kraftwerk. 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'Isolation' and 'Atmosphere' are used at exactly the right time, offering weighty parallels between the lyrics and the scenes. The climax is fitting, appropriate and done with a sensitivity and realism that refuses to lend itself to any kind of elevation of Curtis. This is about Ian Curtis the person, not the legend, and is why the film works as well as it does.

Shimmering neon lights...

A couple of brand new tracks that have really got me marching around with a spring in my step on these cold December nights are Neon Neon's 'Raquel' and Duffy's 'Rockferry'.

A dance side-project from Boom-Bip and Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys, Neon Neon have come up with a retro disco classic in 'Raquel', with it's 80s synths very much inkeeping with it's subject matter - actress Raquel Welch and her one-time lover John DeLorean. Can it get anymore 80s than that? Check it out here, or upstairs at the Farmers Home, Strabane on a Friday night, as I intend to play it to death..lol!

http://rapidshare.com/files/77922039/neon_neon-raquel__extended_edit_-1real.mp3.html

http://www.myspace.com/neonx2

Neon Neon release debut album 'Lex' early in 2008. Sounds very tastey, as does this lady:

Duffy is a new name that has been lazily thrown into the same basket as Amy Winehouse - a soulful female who tips her hat to a retro pop sound. With personal problems and tabloid headlines now clouding Winehouse's undoubted talent, the manner inwhich Duffy's debut single has been promoted has been very patronising. It's been a case of 'well, Amy's away with the fairies, lets make do with Duffy who has none of that baggage.' Well no thank you! Duffy doesn't need it.

The initial signs are good for Duffy. The debut single 'Rockferry' echoes the ghost of Dusty Springfield, and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler's production is quite Spector-esque. With someone as accomplished as Butler on her side, it's looking quite possible that Duffy will be much more than just a flash in the pan, and will need to be taken a lot more seriously in her own right than certain quarters are doing at present.

Bruce Springsteen - Live in Belfast, Dec 15, 2007

After many years of waiting, I finally got to see Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band live in concert on Saturday night. The venue was Belfast's Odyssey Arena. The two and a half hours the band performed onstage were everything I imagined they would be. But like Marty DiBergi with the mighty Spinal Tap before me, I got more, a lot more.

It's been a few decades since Springsteen had to worry about where his next penny was coming from, but the songs he has crafted will always resonate and attach themselves to a working-class spirit that translates the world over. The sharp cold and hussle and bussle of Belfast City on Saturday night could easily have been a scene from one of Springsteen's classic narrative tales with a New Jersey in the winter setting. The backstreets, the urban darkness and the Wildean gutter star-gazers who colour his work lend themselves well to the towns and cities of Ireland. This has been Springsteen's biggest success as a writer. As a performer, he's simply in a class of his own. The songs may be ours but the stage belongs to him.

This was clear as soon as he casually marched on and twice asked, nay growled, "is there anybody alive out there?" 'Radio Nowhere' instantly kicked in and the quest for soul, so vivid in the song, took flight around the arena and was met with thousands of kindred spirits - this was going to be a night to remember!

The band were without regular E-Streeters Danny Federici, who is undergoing surgery, and Patti Scialfa, who is back at the New Jersey homestead "making sure the house doesn't burn down," as Bruce informed us. But with Roy Bitton, Gary Tallent, Steve Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Nils Lofgren and 'Big Man' Clarence Clemons all on board, the trip through the Springsteen catalogue was always going to be a bump-free ride.


All but two tracks from Springsteen's current 'Magic' record were performed tonight. The man himself wasn't shy on highlighting the themes running through the songs, many of which address the distrust in the powers-the-be that is now so prevelant in the United States. The audience was here to party yes, but were also willing to listen when needed - title-track 'Magic' was met with an intuitive silence around the Odyssey, as Springsteen sang of a land of tricks and deception. As the tempo went up, a happy couple just wed on the day of the show got 'I'll Work For Your Love' played in their honour. 'Gypsy Biker', 'Devils Arcade' and 'Last To Die' were the stand-outs of the new material performed.


But it's the classics that got the place really bouncing, particularly 'Badlands', where, as usual, the audience became part of the E-Street vocal choir. Modern classics like 'Waiting on a Sunny Day', 'The Rising' and 'Lonesome Day' sat perfectly at home beside oldies like 'She's The One' and 'Born To Run'.


The latter is a natural show-stopper, and a sea of over ten thousand fists punched the air and dreamed that youthful dream of escape all over again. This was followed instantly by 'Dancing In The Dark', which was much rockier than it's 'Born In The USA' incarnation and had the whole place bouncing the roof off. Even older golden nuggets like 'Kitty's Back', 'Because The Night' and 'The River' (whose subject matter was in the crowd tonight - Springsteen's brother-in-law, Mickey) ensured that every period of the Springsteen's catalogue was represented.


When all that was done and dusted, it was time for Santa Claus, as Clarence and Bruce had a bit of festive fun with 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town'. 'Do you believe in Santa Claus?' shouted Springsteen. At an E-Street Band show it's easy to believe in anything. A glorious night and May can't come quick enough.

Kirsty MacColl - 1959 - 2000

I'm remembering Kirsty MacColl today. This day seven years ago she was sadly taken from us after a tragedy in Mexico. It has never been, or ever will be, a problem thinking of Kirsty this time of year, given her part in The Pogues' classic 'Fairytale of New York'. But Kirsty was an established solo artist in her own right also, taking in the Spector-flavoured pop sound in early classics like 'Terry' and 'They Don't Know'. She experimented with dance, folk and just at the end of her life released the South American flavoured and critically well-received 'Tropical Brainstorm', which saw her embrace an entirely new direction. She left a great body of work that will ensure she will never be forgotten.

Billy Bragg wrote this gem, but even Billy would concede that Kirsty made this song her own - as she did with everything she put her voice to.

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

The inaccurate one time depiction of Cerys Matthews as some kind of fiesty iconic female figure both amused and puzzled me. As much as I've never found Matthews to be worthy of such standing, I am curious as to why this seems to be the only way women are taken seriously in music.

Women in music have every right be as confrontational as their male counterparts, and in many cases they can be quite superior. But I think it is patronising to assume that woman have to be aggressive in order to have relevance. I love the energy, passion and venom of people like Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, Chrissie Hynde and Sinead O'Connor - all standing in positive contrast to the clothes horses of WAG and weekend trashy nightclub culture. Yet I would equally place people like Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant and Sandy Denny on that same pedastal. Their music may not be as immediately subversive at the surface, but if we're not going to crack the surface of anything then it's probably better if we pissed off and watched X Factor.

Remember the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 90s? Bands like L7, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile were 'in yer face' and 'making a stand' and doing generally everything to get overly verbose journalists and writers into a frenzy. Riot Grrrl produced some great music but was never the be all and end all - nothing ever is. The Breeders, Luscious Jackson, Kristin Hersh and countless others made some fantastic records in this period also, and not under the banner of being Women in Rock but simply artists. The female identity is imperative, but does it always have to be against the grain of male dominance? It can be whatever it wishes to be, but always keep both eyes open.

She's All Over The Front Page

So Cerys Matthews has fallen from grace, has she? Well that's what we've been informed after her fawning over some already attached former soap-actor in this year's 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here'. Critics and pop-pundits believe that this once fiesty independently thinking former front-woman of Welsh group Catatonia would never have behaved in such a way ten years ago. Back then she fronted one of the biggest bands of the country and shunned such shallow notions of celebrity, or so they say? This couldn't be the same Cerys that I recall.

The reality is that Cerys Matthews was always part of the shallow set she, for some absurd reason, is often depicted as being credibly removed from. Catatonia jumped on the back of the British fascination for Welsh bands like the Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals ten years ago. Cerys broadened her accent when singing. She praised the Lord that she was Welsh. She got drunk. Fell out of the Met Bar. Dueted with Tom Jones. Got drunk. Fell out of the Met. She did nothing but create a brand that kept her in the papers for 12 months (are you listening Beth?) and was every bit the media whore back then too, so lets cut the crap!

Catatonia were an average band; one of the many we've had to put with for the past ten years, who run out of steam after a year in the spotlight. I've never been interested in Cerys, especially after she murdered The Handsome Family's 'Weightless Again', and I'm even less interested now.