Joy Division

That evening of 27 December 1978, at the Hope and Anchor in Islington, there were no more than thirty people in the room. They had no idea they were witnessing a historic performance: the first London show by Joy Division. And yet the Hope and Anchor, located at 207 Islington Upper Street, in a Victorian building a stone's throw from Highbury & Islington station, was one of the most important venues for the punk and alternative rock scene in the English capital, having already hosted the Damned, the Stranglers and many others. Within its walls, the famous video for "One Step Beyond" by Madness would later be filmed.

Among the thirty lucky attendees who had paid the 60p entry fee was photographer Jonathan Crabb, who during the Covid-19 lockdown rediscovered and shared five previously unseen shots from the gig, which had until then lain buried in a box of negatives (you can see them here).

It wasn't a memorable performance: the Manchester band did what they could on stage, given the equipment available and the state of health of Bernard Sumner, who had the flu and had been dragged out of bed to play in a cold, damp basement with no heating. According to the band's own account, the cost of the petrol for the trip from Manchester to London was £28.50, against a fee for the night of £27.50.

The journey home was just as difficult - as also recounted in "Control", Anton Corbijn's evocative film about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. In the car, the mood was bleak, with talk of people leaving the band. Bernard was trying to warm himself under a sleeping bag when Ian grabbed it off him, and after a struggle wrapped it tightly around his own head so that Bernard couldn't get it back. Shortly afterwards Ian suffered his first epileptic seizure: his bandmates took him to a nearby hospital, and the following January he was diagnosed with epilepsy by a specialist at Macclesfield District and General Hospital - the prelude to an ordeal that would mark his life forever.

Accounts from the time - reported on the website joydiv.org - range from fascination to disappointment. Deborah Curtis described the experience as "depressing", noting that "the small audience hadn't been enough to spark the euphoria needed to fire up the band", while the band's bassist, Peter Hook, spoke of "about twenty people in a horrible, uncomfortable place". The page recalling that historic and dramatic Joy Division evening also includes a rather brutal review by Nick Tester, who described them thus: "They stutter about the stage wearing long, sullen looks. The singer, Ian Curtis, seems intensely irritated, but says nothing between songs except to signal that the band is tuning up between numbers... This portrayed torpor is alienating, but not for provocative or creative reasons. I found Joy Division's tedium a blunt, empty instrument, comic in its superfluous rage." And he concluded: "Perhaps it was an off night, but Joy Division's lack of a lively approach could be improved by a sharper, more coherent musical method. Joy Division could be a good band if they placed more emphasis on balance than on pose." Critical foresight, in short, was not exactly at home that night.

And yet, something was already coming through powerfully. Crabb recalls the magnetic, unsettling impact of Curtis: the nervous movements, the eyes rolling back, an intensity that clearly set him apart from the rest of the band. "He stood out from the rest of the band - the arm movements and the way his eyes rolled back were frightening. The band had a bleak sound and used pads for the electronic drums, which was quite a unique thing at the time. In short, I knew I was in front of something special", the photographer recalled.

The set included tracks like "Wilderness" and "Shadowplay", songs that would find their finished form a few months later on "Unknown Pleasures", the debut album by Joy Division.

Looking back today, that London debut appears as a fragile, uncertain yet decisive moment: the transition from a still-raw post-punk outfit to a band destined, before long, to revolutionize rock with a landmark album. More than forty years on, Crabb's photographs don't just give us the grainy image of a minor gig, but capture the very instant a legend began to take shape, amid hardship, failure and insights that were already indelible.

The band went back to the Hope and Anchor a few months later, but for Crabb that first gig would also be the last he'd see. "A little over a year later, and after one of the most fascinating records in the history of music, Ian Curtis took his own life and the story of Joy Division was over. For me, at that moment, the same thing happened to post-punk."

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28/01/2026