Joy Division was formed in the fall of 1976 in response to the first Sex Pistols appearance in Manchester. Guitarist Bernard Dicken (later Albrecht, then Sumner) met bassist Peter Hook at the show and formed the Stiff Kittens with Ian Curtis on vocals.

Soon they were called Warsaw and made their live debut opening for the Buzzcocks the following May. After adding drummer Stephen Morris, they became Joy Division (the name of prostitution units in Nazi concentration camps taken from the novel The House of Dolls).

A planned first album was shelved when a studio technician added synthesizers to several tracks (later released as Warsaw). The band liked the sound house producer Martin Hannett got on the Factory Records sampler, so, spurning overtures from major labels, they went with Factory for their first album, Unknown Pleasures.

Factory-owner Tony Wilson zeroed out his trust fund to press 10,000 copies of the record, which was received ecstatically by the press, as was the follow-up, Closer. The epileptic, brooding Curtis hung himself in 1980 at 23, followed by the release of the double album Still in 1981. Joy Division's huge sphere of influence runs the gamut of modern rock: from the Cure, Psychedelic Furs and newer bands like Interpol, to Nine Inch Nails and Moby.

Great art grows in stature over time, and nearly 20 years after the band's demise, Joy Division has joined Curtis' heroes the Doors, along with Velvet Underground, the Stooges and David Bowie atop the moody wing of the rock pantheon.

Hannett helped transform Joy Division from the screech and thrash of their early days to the mapping of dark emotional landscapes that characterized their greatest work. The white water rush and straining of Curtis' Bowie-esque upper register slowed and broadened into a majestic doomed baritone of stunning dark beauty.

The Joy Division sound employed Hook's melodic lead bass; Sumner's sweeping, twisting, ringing guitar; Morris' touchy, mechanistic drums; Hannett's synthesizer shadings; and Curtis traversing time and space seeking a hole in the fabric that would lead to peace - a peace he may or may not have found in death.