Liam redux

Ian Curtis Memorial Bridge – let's not

There’s a modest campaign on Facebook to have the bridge in the photo renamed as some variant of “The Ian Curtis Memorial Bridge”. It was used in some publicity photographs for a band which didn’t sell very many records in the late 1970s and whose most famous modern acolytes are the Editors, more popularly known…

Liam
1–2 minutes

imageThere’s a modest campaign on Facebook to have the bridge in the photo renamed as some variant of “The Ian Curtis Memorial Bridge”. It was used in some publicity photographs for a band which didn’t sell very many records in the late 1970s and whose most famous modern acolytes are the Editors, more popularly known as “the bloody awful Editors”.

Even the architect who designed wouldn’t be likely to call it a thing of beauty. The marriage of Curtis’ musical legacy and the sheer ugliness of the thing would be certain to prompt a rash of suicides among the vulnerable and impressionable if imageit were ever to bear his name.

It’s an all round bad idea and it might even upset some of the Joy Division purists who’d argue that with a musical legacy like that he doesn’t really need to be commemorated by a brutal piece of municipal infrastructure.

The other photo shows a statue of dead comedian Eric Morecambe who was, in his time, one of the most popular entertainers in Britain attracting TV audiences of 18 million people. With an appeal like that you can appreciate why the town council thought it worth shelling out a few quid for a beachfront effigy. If you can ignore the 1970s racism in the video, there’s a glimpse of why he was so popular.

Curtis wasn’t really in the same ballpark.

 

16 responses to “Ian Curtis Memorial Bridge – let's not”

  1. shug Avatar
    shug

    Eric appropriate, maybe they will fok out some for Ernie as he looks lonely.As for Ian maybe a symbolic key to the city.

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  2. Jez Avatar
    Jez

    The memorial is a good idea only because it made me think of the song “Joy Division Oven Gloves” by Half Man, Half Biscuit. I can imagine Ian Curtis fans standing on the bridge à la Spinal Tap giving it ” too much fucking perspective”.

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  3. Duncan Chapel Avatar
    Duncan Chapel

    I also think that naming a high bridge over a busy road after someone who committed suicide is tempting fate.

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  4. RobM Avatar
    RobM

    I think its a good idea. In fact it could serve to reconcile the ‘vulnerable and impressionable’ to the fact that this is Manchester, it was grim then and it’s grim now. That might inspire some of them to embrace revolutionary politics rather than surer and quicker forms of suicide…

    By the way, I spent 18 moths on the dole in Morecambe- and thats even grimmer than Manchester. Every day is like Sunday.

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  5. pmg Avatar
    pmg

    Nothing grim about Manchester.

    Tamworth on the other hand…..

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  6. RobM Avatar
    RobM

    Don’t get me wrong- I love Manchester and having not lived anywhere near it for 25 years I can harbour sentimental and romantic notions of it. If it is no longer grim then I am disappointed…

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  7. martin ohr Avatar
    martin ohr

    “I spent 18 moths(sic) on the dole in Morecambe- and thats even grimmer than Manchester. Every day is like Sunday.”

    WTF!

    I refer you to my article in June 1992 magazine issue of SCAN (I’m sure you still have a copy) on why Morecambe is brilliant; it concludes with the phrase “If only every day were like Sunday”

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  8. jim Bob Avatar
    jim Bob

    Liam – the facebook group was only started less than 4 days before you wrote another article in your shit blog

    question – do you live in manchester?

    if not – kindly fuck off out of the debate

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  9. Liam Avatar
    Liam

    No Jim Bob I don’t think I will fuck off.

    Would anyone like to offer an explanation of the juxtaposition of Ian Curtis and Eric Morecambe?

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  10. Duncan Chapel Avatar
    Duncan Chapel

    jim Bob, most of the people in that facebook group aren’t from Manchester – I don’t see you telling them to fuck off. Or is your problem with Liam not that he’s not from Manchester, but that you disagree with him and can’t be arsed to think of a reason why?

    I am from Manchester: Indeed, I lived on the corner of Epping Street for a few years. If you google “Ian Curtis Memorial Bridge” it looks like that the ‘campaign’ to name the bridge is aimed mainly at people outside Manchester and doesn’t have any noticeable existence outside facebook and people linking to this page. If you take it that seriously, either think of some better reasons, start a petition or get a letter in the paper. Until then, who should possibly take this idea seriously?

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  11. fiannanahalba Avatar
    fiannanahalba

    This will become a magnet for the suicidal and morose. This isnt in the spirit of Joy Division and their hit song- I Love A Party With A Happy Atmosphere.

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  12. Gayle O'Donovan Avatar
    Gayle O’Donovan

    So you don’t like Joy Division Liam, fine don’t back the campaign but don’t waste your time blogging about it either.

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  13. Liam Avatar
    Liam

    It might look like bragging if I were to mention that I have everything by Joy Division on the original vinyl so I won’t do that.

    The point I was making, and I thought it was obvious even with a bit of ironic distance, is that while entertainers like Eric Morecambe would probably have been really chuffed at having a statue erected there was something in the Joy Division ethos that does not sit easily with municipal recognition.

    What would Ian Curtis’ reply most probable have been to the statement “Ian, one day they’ll name that bridge after you.”?

    I must remember to be more literal in future.

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  14. jim Bob Avatar
    jim Bob

    the idea of people leaping to their death from epping walk just because the name has been changed is ludicrous. Comrade Duncan – if you really did live in Hulme – you’d find the idea preposterous. If people living in Hulme want to change the name of one of their pedastrian footbridges – what has it got to do with Comrade Liam (the miserable sod) or the socialist resistance?

    Maybe we shouldn’t honour people that take their own life? Also the campaign has been going less than one week, six days – how long has your “modest” facebook group been going?

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  15. fiannanahalba Avatar
    fiannanahalba

    Liam i ve got the original free Komakino on the flexidisc, have you?

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  16. Gayle O'Donovan Avatar
    Gayle O’Donovan

    Duncan, the facebook group was up to test the water to see if people were interested and allot of them are from Hulme but obviously it’s facebook so these things spread. We were going to wait until we got a certain amount of people on the group before we took the next step of gathering names for a petition to take it in to the relevant people in the council(Culture Dept.+Planning).

    This is a small local campaign aimed at people in Hulme and Joy Division fans – we think Hulme has a fascinating cultural history and want to celebrate it. Hulme is constantly under assault from the urban sprawl, whats wrong with wanting to preserve some of its identity?

    As for not naming a bridge after him because he commit suicide, well I find that attitude really awful…my own mother commit suicide does that mean we shouldn’t celebrate her life and accomplishments?

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