Electric Ballroom in Camden Town [Solex1001_CC BY-SA 3.0]

Where to be:

An Irish Shindig: A night of Irish Music and Celebration, featuring Mundy, The Reels and Jessica Sweetman.
September 25 at the Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High Street, NW1. 7pm. 18+

THE Ballroom’s place in Camden Town’s music scene stretches back to the 1930s, and it’s fitting that what was once an Irish music dance hall should play host to one of the biggest names in Irish music – the singer-songwriter Mundy.

Perhaps best known for writing and performing the track To You I Bestow, which featured in the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, Mundy is a triple-platinum selling artist.

He is joined for this one-off night – which is raising funds for the charity Icap which supports the Irish community in Britain – by vocalist Jessica Sweetman. Sweetman has mastered the unenviable task of opening for Van Morrison on 12 separate occasions, and her vocal range covers everything from jazz through to country.

Joy Division – from left: Stephen Morris, Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook

Artist to check out: Joy Division

ON Sunday I watched Control for the first time, the black-and-white biopic following Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis up until he took his own life in May 1980, aged just 23. I’d highly recommend giving it a watch, despite it being a sad film about a man suffering from depression, part of a band making famously melancholic songs.

Formed in Salford in 1976, Joy Division had an extraordinarily short existence. Their first record arrived in 1978; and Curtis’s death came on the eve of the band’s first American tour less than two years later.

Yet in that brief period they created a sound that became hugely influential. Peter Hook’s unusually melodic basslines often carry the songs, while Stephen Morris’ precise drumming, Martin Hannett’s production and Curtis’ intense vocals gave their music its recognisably cold atmosphere.

The remaining members went on to form New Order, whose fusion of post-punk and electronic dance music deserves a column of its own. Still, it’s hard not to wonder what Joy Division might have become.

Record to check out:

Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart

STICKING with Joy Division, it feels right to revisit one of the most recognisable British singles ever made.

You may roll your eyes at a recommendation to listen to  Love Will Tear Us Apart. You have probably heard it hundreds of times, but classics are classics for a reason.

From its opening moments, the song has a strange contradiction at its heart. Its melodic bass and bright instrumentation make its melody infectious, while Curtis’s detached vocals and lyrics tell a much sadder story of a relationship falling apart.

He died before the single was released in June 1980.

Overplayed? Perhaps. But still worth acknowledging, appreciating and listening to.