Meet the Joy Division tribute band returning to Macclesfield this September
By Alex Greensmith
30th Aug 2024 | Local News
Meet the Joy Division tribute band set to rock Macclesfield as part of the town's first-ever Joy Division Day.
Birmingham-based Joy Division tribute act Transmission - The Sound of Joy Division will perform at Cinemac Live this September.
The four-piece will take to the stage on the evening of Saturday, from 7:00pm to 10:30pm.
Joy Division were a post-punk band with two members from Macclesfield.
Frontman Ian Curtis lived in multiple homes around the town, and attended King's School, before settling on Barton Street for when he would pen the band's best-known song Love Will Tear Us Apart.
44 years since his death, Macclesfield will come together on September 7, to welcome music tourists from far and wide to take part in Macclesfield's first-ever 'Joy Division Day'.
As well as an 'Ian Curtis Tour' of the town, the Midlands-based tribute act Transmission - The Sound of Joy Division will perform at Cinemac Live, on Roe Street.
Roe Street is just a few minutes walk from Ian Curtis' final Macclesfield home.
Macclesfield Nub News reached out to Transmission - The Sound of Joy Division for a chat about the band, who are performing at Macclesfield's Cinemac Live for the second year in a row.
Like the original band, Transmission - The Sound of Joy Division has four members.
Paul Tibbetts is lead singer and guitar, and a founding member.
Chris Haughton on drums is also an original member.
Rob Shinfield plays bass guitar and does backing vocals. He joined the band in 2018.
Lyn Forbes completes the line-up on keyboards and percussion.
Paul and Rob kindly spoke with Macclesfield Nub News, ahead of their upcoming Macclesfield gig, for which tickets are just £6.
"The band started in 2006. Myself and the original bass player were always in bands together," said Paul.
"We were always writing songs, but had writer's block for a bit. We thought why not give a Joy Division tribute a go
"We were always messing about playing their riffs for a laugh, but we had never thought about giving a tribute band a go. So we thought, let's have a real good go at it."
"I remember Ian Curtis' death, I was 16 at the time," said Rob.
" The only song I knew at the time was Love Will Tear Us Apart.
"It was never one of my favourites. At the time I thought it was all a bit of hype.
"But then a few years later, a friend of mine was raving about Joy Division.
"He gave me a tape and one of those was [the song] Dead Souls, and I fell in love with them from there really. Fast-forward to six years ago, I joined Transmission The Sound of Joy Division as the bassist.
"One of the nice things about being in a tribute band, is you can chat to people about the gig. And how they got into the band, it is great sharing stories."
The band's first gig in Macclesfield was at Strummercamp in 2008.
In 2015, the year when keyboardist Lyn joined, they performed at The Nags Head on Waters Green. In September 2024, they will play their third gig at Macclesfield's Cinemac Live.
"It is a very special to play Macclesfield for obvious reasons with the connections of Ian Curtis, and Stephen Morris," revealed Rob.
Paul admitted he was surprised when he first play Cinemac.
"I wasn't expecting there to be seats," he confessed.
"It was a great gig and we enjoyed it, and can't wait to do it again soon.
"We do a mix of replicating Joy Division's studio and live performances to our sound.
"A lot of the JD songs when you take away the Martin Hannett production, a lot of them are great songs to dance to.
"Surprisingly, we see people dancing at our gigs, but I don't think people really danced at Joy Division gigs back in the day."
Rob added: "When you see a lot of seats, you worry they are going to sit and maybe not get involved."
"But there is that standing space to the front of the stage at Cinemac and a lot of people got out their seats and started dancing.
"And to play Macclesfield again on 'Joy Division Day', we feel honoured, we want to say a really big thank you. The sort of publicity it has given us is incredible."
From 1976 to 1980, Joy Division recorded just 53 songs, so a good chunk will be performed by Transmission. Rob went onto recall the first time he fell in love with Joy Division.
"I remember putting the needle on the record, the very first time I heard Disorder on record, it put this cold feeling straight through me. It was brilliant, it was like something I had never heard before," remembered Paul.
"It is classed as post-punk now, but I couldn't explain the feeling. My favourite tracks are Shadowplay, Disorder, Digital, and Transmission obviously. Atmosphere is amazing. New Dawn Fades is up there as well."
"Chris our drummer was really keen to support the charity. We thought it was a great idea," said Paul.
"We are doing a special charity gig in Belfast later in the year, with all proceeds going to the charity.
But like with the upcoming day set to celebrate of the actual band, the tribute act are keen to celebrate the light within the band's perceived darkness.
"Joy Division is more uplifting to me than a pop song," proclaimed Paul.
"You can draw strength from it when you feel down," added Rob.
"Some think it is quite doomladen. I think it is quite uplifting."
"This Joy Division Day in Macclesfield is a really good thing, hopefully it will be a success and be repeated every year.".
The band takes their name from the song of the same name, with an added subheading to reference what you can expect on stage.
"Performing some of the more danceable ones we go for the heavy live sound," explained Rob.
"For ones like Atmosphere and Decades we try to stick to the studio sound."
"Joy Division fans know what they sound like live, so we try and but a mix of both together, explained Paul.
"I don't think it would work if you try to replicate live exactly how Unknown Pleasures sounded on the album.
"One thing we don't do live is anything theatrical. We don't dress like the band, we don't do the dancing.
"We personally find that a bit disrespectful to do that.
"We have had people who said 'I shut my eyes and it sounds like we are in 1980 at a Joy Division gig'. We really respect that, that is what we want from what we do."
"We don't want people to think we look like Joy Division."
It is not known if the surviving Joy Division members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris will be in attendance for the events of Macclesfield's Joy Division Day. (For which you can read more about HERE.)
Going forward, the tribute band would like to play a gig in Salford, a place other than Macclesfield that is closely tied with the band.
Furthermore, Transmission - The Sound of Joy Division have a trip to Europe to look forward to.
"We have had loads of career highlights. We have played all over Europe, including Rome and Venice. We are touring Germany next year with 13 dates," concluded Paul.
"We've also played The Cavern Club in Liverpool."
"We've toured Germany every year I've been in the band, apart from COVID. The response over there to Joy Division is brilliant," Rob also said.
"They tend to lean towards thinking it [Joy Division] is more gothic over there.
"This Sunday, we are playing Heaton Park, before Oasis!"
Transmission - The Sound of Joy Division take to the stage in Macclesfield on Saturday, September 7.
Once again, to get tickets for this Macclesfield tribute concert, please click HERE.
Macclesfield: You can find more about the performers on their website and Facebook.
Click the play button on the YouTube videos throughout this article to listen to Transmission - The Sound of Joy Division.
See Also: Meet the Macclesfield man behind new Joy Division tour of the town
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