Unknown Pleasures at 40: The Life, the legend and the legacy of Ian Curtis, Joy Division's lead singer

Four decades ago Joy Division released their debut album – within a year, their troubled frontman had taken his own life. David Barnett visits Macclesfield to see how its local legend is remembered

Joy Division in concert at the Electric Ballroom, London, in October 1979. Curtis died by suicide seven months later (Rex)

A wet Thursday in May, and I shelter from the rain in the lee of Macclesfield’s crematorium, evidently looking a bit lost because I am approached by a gravedigger called Karl, who looks me up and down and hazards, “Ian Curtis?”

“We get all sorts here looking for his grave,” says Karl cheerfully as he guides me along the path that wends through the headstones a short way into the cemetery. He points at a small memorial stone set into a kerb on the path. IAN CURTIS, it says simply. 18-5-80. LOVE WILL TEAR US APART.

There is a bunch of drooping red roses, a pot containing little more than twigs, and sprays of pale blue blooms. A painted pebble announces that the Chaos Crew loves Ian. There’s a pair of aviator sunglasses with a plastic cigarette balanced on them. A framed piece of paper bears the lyrics to Joy Division’s 1980 hit, and possibly their best-known song, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. Half of the felt-tip lines have run into a psychedelic rainbow in the rain. It looks strange; just like the Anton Corbijn-directed biopic Control, it seems that Ian Curtis’s story should be told in black and white.