Ian Curtis: Last News

Ian Curtis's home town is to hold a Joy Division day for the first time, celebrating the hugely influential post-punk band. Fans can learn more about the band and their lead singer, who died in 1980 aged just 23, at a series of events in Macclesfield on September 7.

Oasis: The Masterplan, featuring a host of previously unpublished shots of the Gallagher brothers.Having been behind the lens at the beginning of the band’s career, the new book gives fans a never-before-seen look at the brothers over “twelve months of seismic change that cemented the identity of Oasis”, per a press release.As the former NME photographer, who has shot everyone from Ian Curtis to David Bowie, detailed on threads recently, he was brought along in their breakthrough early nineties years: “I was commissioned to photograph them with various lighting, locations and styles, for Creation Records to see what suited them best.Charting the “just-bought-at-Affleck’s Palace attainability of their look to the Brother-sponsored Man City Shirts”, the book promises to show how the band developed the signature sound and style that came to typify the UK indie scene.Out tomorrow (March 27), you can check here for stockists and exclusives. It also comes with contributions from Noel Gallagher, who shares his thoughts on football, fashion and his memories of their formative years.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Shooting is underway in Rome on Anton Corbijn’s thriller “Switzerland,” starring Helen Mirren as American crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, with Alden Ehrenreich (“Oppenheimer”) and Olivia Cooke (“House of the Dragon”) confirmed to have joined the cast. The hotly anticipated film – which takes its cue from Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels – marks the first feature in more than nine years from the Dutch photographer-turned-director.

New Order have released a new ‘Blue Monday’-themed t-shirt in support of mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), for the third year running.The shirt comes in honour of Blue Monday – the third Monday in January deemed the “most depressing day of the year”.It marks the third time New Order have teamed up with CALM in honour of the day – having previously released ‘Blue Monday’ t-shirts in 2023 and 2024. In October last year, they also joined forces with the charity for World Mental Health Day for a suicide prevention video.This year, the shirt features the original synth used to write the 1983 track, alongside the lyric: “I find it so hard to say what I need to say”.Commenting on the limited edition t-shirt, New Order said: “Starting a conversation with somebody could be the most important conversation that person ever has.

Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher has shared the one album he heard that made "all heaven break loose".

Shaun Ryder biopic Twisting My Melon – in which he was due to star as the Happy Mondays frontman – has been halted due to creative disputes.Speaking to NME, the SAS Rogue Heroes actor revealed that he had laid down vocals for the Mondays’ Madchester anthems in preparation. “We even started recording some of the tunes like ‘Step On’ in the studio, so the train had left the station.

Happy Mondays have spoken to NME about the scrapped Shaun Ryder biopic and plans to get “back at it” with music in 2025. Watch our interview below.Before their “hysterical” appearance with Rita Ora during the ceremony went viral, Ryder and Bez from the indie icons caught up with NME on the red carpet of the MTV EMAs on Sunday (November 10) – held at the Co-Op Live arena in the band’s native Manchester.Asked about how 2024 had been for the Mondays, Ryder replied: “Quiet, because we kind of knocked it on the head in 2024.

Four decades after their last single was released, the iconic band Joy Division continues to have a significant influence.

Oppenheimer, Maestro, Elvis and King Richard all picking up Best Picture nominations at the Oscars in recent years.Reddit user samx3i prompted the discussion on Thursday (August 15) after watching 1984’s Amadeus, another major Oscar winner that told the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s rivalry with Antonio Salieri.“Incredible film if you haven’t seen it, and if you think you need to be a huge Mozart fan to get the full benefit of it, you do not (although it couldn’t hurt),” they wrote. “No sooner than Amadeus had ended did I immediately start thinking, “I wonder if there are biopics near as good regarding other great composers?”The post then asked others to recommend other great films in the genre, and people were not slow in coming forward.Films about the lives of musicians were common suggestions.

Peter Hook led an emotional applause tribute at the Star and Garter to the pub's popular landlord Andy Martin, a fortnight since his untimely death. Manchester music legend Hook was performing a special Joy Division set at the historic pub as a fundraising gig for the Headstock charity.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have shared ‘Song For Amy’, a song they wrote for the new Amy Winehouse biopic ‘Song For Amy’ – listen below.The delicate, orchestrated track features over the opening credits of the film, which is out in UK cinemas now. Elegant strings underscore Cave’s deeply felt vocals as he sings, “You say that it’s time for us to call it a day / But I will love you anyway”.Listen to ‘Song For Amy’ below:Director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back to Black tells the Winehouse story in a feature film for the first time.

Back To Black tells the story of Amy Winehouse in a feature film format for the first time – and ahead of its release next month (April 12), we’re publishing three special movie posters exclusively on NME. Check them out below.Following Amy from her teenage years, growing up in north London, through her meteoric rise to Grammy-winning sensation in the 2000s, Back To Black (in cinemas April 12) stars Industry actress Marisa Abela in the lead role, alongside BAFTA-nominated actor Jack O’Connell, who plays Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, and acclaimed actress Lesley Manville as her grandmother Janis Levy.

Kurt Cobain in Manchester, commemorating the 30th anniversary of his passing.Headstock, which is based in Manchester, intends to work with the street artist Akse to create the mural on the side of The Bred Shed – a music venue just off the city’s Oxford Road. The venue is a short walk from where Nirvana played their only two gigs in the city, at the site of the current University of Manchester Students’ Union.Readers can donate to the crowdfunder here, with the organisation aiming for a total target of £3,500.The mural would be designed to raise awareness of the mental health text message support service, Shout 85258, with the charity’s logo and text number printed large on the artwork.Cobain took his own life on April 5, 1994 at the age of 27.Headstock have worked on a number of previous music-themed murals, including the famous image of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, which was infamously painted over in 2022 to make space for an advertisement for Aitch’s debut ‘Close to Home’.The mural was later reinstated at a different location – the Star and Garter pub on Fairfield Street, close to Piccadilly Station – also overseen by Headstock and Akse.In 2021, Headstock also curated a mural honouring the late Keith Flint from The Prodigy, who had died two years earlier.

Twisting My Melon has been halted due to creative disputes.In 2013, ITV announced it was planning to serialise the Happy Mondays frontman’s autobiography Twisting My Melon. Eventually, Jack O’Connell (Skins) was announced as the lead actor in 2019.The film is written by Matt Greenhalgh, who also wrote the script for the Ian Curtis biopic Control, John Lennon‘s origin story Nowhere Boy, and Amy Winehouse‘s Back to Black.Greenhalgh was set to direct the movie as well, however a creative disagreement with the film’s American funders has stalled progressed on the film. In the latest edition of Classic Pop (via Music News), Ryder said: “Matt Greenhalgh wrote the script and was gonna direct.“So we got the money, half-English, half-American and Matt fell out with the Americans.

Manchester music legend Peter Hook is to play an intimate gig at an iconic Manchester pub in aid of mental health charity Headstock. The Joy Division founding member will play a set of the band's classic songs at the Star & Garter pub - which is now famously home to a stunning mural of Ian Curtis.

The Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst has spoken to NME about exploring the origins of goth for his new book, how his former band were part of the genre all along, and how the likes of David Bowie, Joy Division and Nine Inch Nails shaped the scene.In his far-reaching new book, Goth: A History, Tolhurst explores the music, literature and art that shaped the genre, as well as the band he co-founded with Robert Smith in 1977. “Despite our passionate insistence that The Cure was not a goth group,” Tolhurst writes in the book, “The Cure was very much a goth group.”Speaking to NME from his home in LA, the musician laughed off The Cure’s insistence not to be termed a goth band.

Ian Curtis mural in Manchester has been recreated in a new location, following the original being covered up last year.The original portrait of the Manchester music icon was located on the side of a house on Port Street since October 2020, however, outrage was sparked from Joy Division fans last August, when it was replaced with an Amazon Music advert, promoting Aitch’s debut ‘Close To Home’.Now, after promising fans that the mural would be arriving back in the city, a replacement has popped up in a new location. It comes after councillors granted listed building consent for the new artwork to be located on the side of a pub close to Piccadilly Railway Station.The new mural has been created by an artist named Akse P19, who added the finishing touches to the piece over the weekend.

Joy Division‘s Ian Curtis is set to return to Manchester one year after it was painted over with an ad for Aitch‘s debut album.In August 2022, the landmark painting of the Manchester legend – located on the side of a house on Port Street in the city’s Northern Quarter from October 2020 – was covered to make space to advertise Aitch’s debut ‘Close To Home’.The Manchester rapper quickly promised that he and his team would make things right after learning of the situation.It’s come to light that the iconic Ian Curtis mural on Port Street has been painted over with my album artwork. This is the first time I’ve heard of this, me and my team are getting this fixed pronto.

Wandering through Manchester city centre, the same faces follow you around.

A mural of the UK’s Eurovision hopeful Sam Ryder has been unveiled at Manchester Airport. It’s the work of iconic local artist Akse, who’s been behind a host of other murals across the city.

Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris, and Gillian Gilbert of New Order spoke today (March 15) at this year’s SXSW and discussed becoming musicians, the evolution of their sound and growing up in Manchester.The trio were keynote speakers at the annual tech and marketing festival, in conversation with Will Hodgkinson, rock and pop critic of The Times. Andy Burnham, Mayor of Manchester, introduced the keynote, calling New Order “the ultimate Manchester band” before adding that it was “a big statement”.The band kicked off their chat by discussing how they weren’t necessarily “anti-musicians” but they were “anti-success”, with Sumner pointing to growing up working class before “punk came along” giving him the chance to express himself, without being a virtuoso. “I didn’t want to be famous, I didn’t care about that at all.