More than 40 years ago, one of Greater Manchester's most seminal bands of all time recorded its anthem tune in Oldham as we look back at Joy Division's close links to the borough.

Joy Division, initially formed in Salford, has gone on to earn cult status over the years having left behind a legacy that is highly revered today - almost five decades later.

 

Murals dedicated to the lyricist and vocalist, Ian Curtis, have cropped up all over the region, including his hometown, Macclesfield, in commemoration of the frontman and the band's lingering influence in the Manchester music scene.

But did you know that Joy Division's seminal and platinum hit, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', was initially recorded in Oldham's-own Pennine Sound Studios on January 8, 1980?

After the band performed its Peel Session version of the song in November 1979, Ian Curtis with fellow band members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and producer, Martin Hannett, took to Ripponden Road to record the tune for the first time with the B side, 'These Days'.

'Love Will Tear Us Apart' was inspired by Curtis' failing marriage to his wife Deborah - and as a cynical reaction to the 1975 Neil Sedaka song, 'Love Will Keep Us Together'.

Sedaka's upbeat tune, which includes the lyrics "love, love will keep us together", is darkly twisted in the Joy Division song which repeats, "love, love till tear us apart".

It was eventually released as a non-album single on June 27, 1980, though the final track we hear today was actually recorded in Strawberry Studios in Stockport in March 1980 - the same place Sedaka had recorded the song just years before - with a more "Frank Sinatra" style vocal, according to Deborah's 1995 book, 'Touching from a Distance'.

 

 

The promotional video for the track was then recorded on April 28, 1980, tragically just three weeks before the frontman took his own life at the age of 23.

Curtis' gravestone in Macclesfield Cemetery is even engraved with the song as its epitaph. 

Although the Curtis's came from Macclesfield, Deborah revealed the couple did live in Chadderton on Sylvan Street for some time in her biography about her husband, though she wrote life "wasn't easy" as Oldham "had a peculiar atmosphere".

So difficult was it for them to fit in that the pair eventually moved back to their hometown.

Still, the version of the song that was played live before his death was similar to the one recorded in Oldham and photographs by Daniel Meadows and Alan Hempsall that captured the iconic moment live on today.

On the 40th anniversary, Mr Hempsall said: "I can't believe it's 40 years ago. Rest in peace, Ian Curtis.

"Remembering you? How could we forget?"