Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

It's May 18th 2011 and it's thirty one years since the death of the iconic Ian Curtis, Mancunian wordsmith and frontman of Joy Division. Last year for the thirtieth anniversary of Ian's death Peter Hook's The Light performed JD's debut album "Unknown Pleasures", tonight one year on, The Light will perform the second and final JD studio album "Closer". For some this is a contentious issue, Peter Hook bringing to life one of the classic and mystique enriched albums of the last 40 years, unthinkable?

As I stand here outside The Factory 251 Club I guess the myth mongers and purists are at home wincing in their f**king closets. They're probably sobbing into their cling film intact copies of "Closer" crying out "He can't do that - Closer should not be touched, oh the horror, the shame, the horror". Well bollocks to the purists. Music is not a dust incrusted exhibit to be displayed in a dust encrusted cabinet in a f**king dust encrusted museum cum mausoleum! Oh right they've opened the doors, we're going in, I'll shut up.

As was the case last year the old Factory stalwart Kevin Hewick (with acoustic) was in support. Thirty minutes of jolly doom-laden banter, reminiscences of Ian Curtis, and reminiscences of days of yore, punctuated with some music. Oh yeah there was some music too. Hewick spoke of feeling slightly embarrassed that he'd supported Joy Division back in the day and yet had never spoken with Curtis. But that's really nothing to be embarrassed about. I've spent most my life explaining to people why on 4th April 1980 when I went to see The Stranglers play at The Rainbow and decided it was a good idea to sit drinking in "George Robey" pub rather than go and see Joy Division who were supporting. Hewick closedown his set perfectly aptly with "Haystack" a Martin Hannett produced track which was not page one of New Order it was but the preface.

Soon enough Hooky and the Light were on and any idea that this was going to be a sterile enactment of Closer was swiftly dispatched as The Light limbered up with a gargantuan version of "Dead Souls" with Hook emphatically underlining each cry of "They keep calling me, Keep on calling me" with an outstretched arm pointing off to the back of the venue to where a picture of Anthony Wilson hanging on the wall stared back, wryly amused. The mood was set. Then to "Closer" itself with the opening rippling rhythm of "Atrocity Exhibition" being crunched into our shell like objects. Hook's eyes nervously fidgeted and fretted over the lyric sheet at his feet, but he never totally lost his way, he just clutched his bass to him like a protective shield and ploughed perfectly on. Rowetta (of the Mondays) joined the Light as before for "Colony" and the last track on the album "Decades" which gave Hook a moment to concentrate on his normal bass proclivities.

Not a surprise maybe that from "Closer" section of the set The Light's version of "Twenty Four Hours" was a massively visceral an all encompassing epic outburst of plaintive energy that blasted through every brick and fibre of the building, when the fire in the engine of Joy Division Hook is still in place. But what surprised me was The Light's rendition of the incredibly fragile "The Eternal" which was touchingly recreated in sound and in Hook's vocals.

With "Closer" complete a weight seemed to lifted from the shoulders and the band and circumspect reverence was put on hold whilst flesh skin blood and bone was pumped into "Novelty", "Ice Age", "These Days" and "Transmission" - the power & the glory dormant for so long was given full reign. The Factory started to steam and sweat, the faithfully oscillated wildly. "Atmosphere" brought a moment of pause and recovery with Rowetta taking up the vocal duties once more before "Love Will Tear us Apart" concluded the evening. Peter Hook left the stage vowing to be back the same time next year. Was this a celebration of Ian Curtis the artist, a tribute, a touching humanist commemoration? Yes, it was all three.