April 28th, 1980: Joy Division are in a disused T.J.Davidson rehearsal studio in Manchester filming their video for “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
On this day, 40 years ago, Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris entered TJ Davidson’s Studios and turned on the cameras for the recording of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, the only promotion video Joy Division ever recorded.
The clip was recorded by the band themselves during a rehearsal at T.J. Davidson’s studio on Little Peter Street in Manchester. The T.J. Davidson studios had already housed the band’s rehearsals at the beginning of their career.
The curiosities remain: In the intro to the video the door that opens and shuts has ‘Ian C’ carved into it; reportedly this was the beginning of an abusive message (the rest later erased) carved into the door by a spurned ex-girlfriend of Curtis’ during the band’s earlier work at the studio.
The video is browned out at points, unintentionally, but nevertheless a fitting aesthetic — along with the omission of Curtis’ trademark dancing, which instead is replaced with the frontman strumming on a Vox Phantom VI six string british guitar.
Official video for Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division
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