Ian Curtis mural Akse P19 Shout - Fairfield St Manchester on Star & Garter pub

Ian Kevin Curtis (15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980) was an English singer, songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter, and occasional guitarist of the band Joy Division, with whom he released the albums Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980). Curtis had severe epilepsy and depression and died by suicide on the eve of Joy Division's first North American tour, shortly before the release of Closer On the evening of 17 May 1980, Curtis asked Deborah to drop her impending divorce proceedings; she replied that it was likely that he would have changed his mind by the following morning and then – mindful of his previous suicide attempt and also concerned that his state of anxiety and frustration might drive Curtis into an epileptic seizure – offered to spend the night in his company. Deborah then drove to her parents' home to inform them of her intentions. When she returned to the couple's home at 77 Barton Street in Macclesfield, his demeanour had changed and he informed his wife of his intentions to spend the night alone, first making her promise not to return to the house before he had taken his scheduled 10 a.m. train to Manchester to meet his bandmates. In the early hours of the next morning, Curtis took his own life. He was 23 years old. He had used the kitchen's washing line to hang himself after having written a note to Deborah in which he declared his love for her despite his recent affair with Honoré. Deborah found his body soon after. In her 1995 biography, Touching from a Distance, Deborah recalls finding her husband's body and initially thinking that he was still alive before noticing the rope around his neck. According to Tony Wilson, Curtis spent the few hours before his suicide watching Werner Herzog's 1977 film Stroszek and listening to Iggy Pop's 1977 album The Idiot. Stark notes the significance of this album, as Pop's title was inspired by Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot about the spiritually sensitive epileptic prince who was driven mad