Joy Division - Vinyl Stories

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 19 / 12 / 2024

intro

In ‘Vinyl Stories’ Dave Goodwin writes of the kaleidoscopic music culture of Britain in 1980, of discovering Joy Division and the continued impact of him of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ all these years on.

1980 It’s 1980 and I’m fourteen years old. I have just discovered grown up music. Well, as grown up as you get at fourteen. The trouble is… that at this point in time – and more than any other time anywhere in the history of everything – the music is just that diverse and just so, so good that I have no idea who or what I actually am. I say that because I have got caught up in a time when there are so many different genres and styles of music, it is bonkers, and to make matters worse my mum and dad have no idea what I am either. I go to school proudly wearing an original Army issue Fishtail Parka with a target on the back. Underneath I have a white short-collared shirt with a black pencil tie, and I’m wearing black stay-pressed trousers. On my feet are a pair of black brogues. At the weekend I’m in jeans and a Harrington Jacket with a pair of Doc Martens. Other times, out and about, like meeting mates in town on a Saturday, I’m wearing a white granddad shirt with a pair of burgundy Bowie-pleated trousers and a Blue box jacket I had borrowed from a mate. Among all of this, one thing remains constant: ginger hair. And I mean GINGER. It was crimson. And to top it all, not only was there a plethora of music to be explored but I had just discovered girls. Loads of girls, most of whom had an allergy to ginger hair. If the clothes weren’t enough to go by, musically I’m a mess as well. I’m listening to stuff that’s just come out this year and ly. I really get The Specials: ‘Too Much Too Young”; and the moody, super-brilliant ‘Do Nothing’ last year, which have both just come out, along with ‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Secret Affair (that’s another story). ‘Travelogue’ by The Human League has just dropped, and I love anything synthy like Yazoo and Gary Numan. I have six-foot posters of Debbie Harry on my bedroom walls and I have everything Blondie have done to date. I absolutely adore ‘Oliver’s Army by Elvis Costello and “Up the Junction” by Squeeze which came out last year. I am madly into vinyl records and just lately there has been a massive shift in the designs for album covers, with the new technology and all that, using graphics on computers. Coupled with the futuristic music, on offer this is a time to behold. I especially love the stuff turned out by a design company called Garrod and Lofthouse whose name I discovered on the back of some album or other. I love the simple yet involved images that appeared on covers and one of them captured me completely. This, then, is where I discover Joy Division. I have bought ‘Unknown Pleasures’ and ‘Closer’. In-between these two, they released the record to out-do all records. I absolutely fell in love with ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. I bought the 12-inch version from my step-brother’s record shop in West End Arcade, Nottingham. I have grown up in a time where we don’t have any way to research new music other than the weekly music papers and the radio and TV. For information on bands I have to rely on the New Musical Express, Sounds and Melody Maker. Trying to find lyrics is useless so I have to listen to the record over and over again to try and decipher what they are on about. I love this record so much that I have got the lyrics down to a tee, laid them out on beige-coloured card with a fancy self-drawn image of the F in Factory Records, all in deep black felt-tip pen. This record is the dog danglers. 2024 I have just set up a corner in the room that lets me showcase some of my LP’s and my turntable. A kind of music corner. In choosing albums from my collection to have in the shelving under the record deck I’ve no quibbles about including my collection of Joy Division and New Order albums and 12-inch singles. I’ve been taking out each one to examine it before I lovingly insert it into the box shelf that’s its new home. Then I come across the holy grail of records. My copy of ‘“Love Will Tear Us Apart’ makes me sit back in awe of the wonderous creation I have in front of me. I can’t help thinking that this record is the dog’s bollocks. And then I accidentally tip it on its edge as I move it around. From within the sleeve, out falls a piece of paper which drops to the floor, landing face-up. Staring up at me is the design I did way back when I was fourteen, in its deep black felt-tip lines. I cringe at the poor quality of the artwork. But I was fourteen, with no computer and no other equipment like I have now. Slowly it dawns on me, what I have in front of me. I sit in awe at my creation. This is an account of my life as a teenager that I don’t suppose many folk will have. I take the record out of the sleeve and find that I had put it in an album inner. On the front is writing describing the record with dates and facts. I must have written it a short time after Ian Curtis’ suicide. Part of the writing reads: “In autumn on 12th of November 1983 a record re-entered the charts at number 30 and got to number __ [unreadable], 3 years after it had first been released. It was this record.” Instantly the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. In the corner of the sleeve I had written the comments that had been scratched into the run out groove that appeared on a lot of records at that time: “Don’t disillusion me – I’ve only got record shops left!” This spurs me on to examine the rest of the records which are exactly the same, with some sort of comment on them from way back in 1980. I’ve had this record over 40 years. It’s has been all over the country with me, wherever I lived. It’s been to the Isle of Anglesey and back. It’s seen good times and bad. The inner is stained but intact. The record itself is surprisingly near mint, however many plays it’s had and however many decks it’s been played on. I even used it for DJing at times when I used to do 80s nights – which got very messy indeed at times. It doesn’t get out much anymore now, because I’m afraid to damage it any further. Most of all this record and the secondary school artwork that it now comes with are a record of me. And it really is the dog’s boll

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