The sad and strange events that link the 1980 death of a young Northern lad with two US rock stars
By Analogue Ink
He died, alone, in the kitchen of his Macclesfield terrace at the dawn of the 1980s, but search the internet for Ian Curtis and you will find that fans of the Joy Division frontman have never forgotten their hero. Aged just 23, and with a young wife and year-old baby daughter, Ian killed himself by hanging. The ceiling clothes dryer, an old-fashioned pulley thing, was the method. A complex personality and marital problems combined hideously with late-onset epilepsy that was uncontrolled and that caused physical and mental anguish and embarrassment. The drugs didn’t work for Ian, and despite his deep, self-critical and often unbearably bleak lyrics, depressed persona and a previous suicide attempt, his sudden death on the eve of a US tour — and of real fame — took his family, friends and fans by surprise. Part of the myth of Ian Curtis, the element that continues to be unnerving, is that someone could be on the road to self-destruction while others around them are oblivious to their pain until it’s too late.
Fast-forward to 2017 and to the US, and two other frontmen take the awful decision to end their own lives. This is, of course, horribly upsetting, but when Chris Cornell of Soundgarden died in May a coincidence was noted. Suffering from depression and substance abuse, he died alone in the bathroom of his hotel room in Detroit in the middle of a tour, leaving behind a wife and children. The date of his death? The 18th May, the date that Ian died all those years before. The Net quickly noticed this dreadful link, and people rightly capitalised on opportunities to explore the need for people with mental health issues to seek support. These men’s lives couldn’t have been more different — Chris was American and at 52, over twice Ian’s age , for a start — but in death they became forever associated with each other.
And now we hear that Chester Bennington of Linkin Park has killed himself. Another death by hanging. From all accounts, he was alone in his home in California. His wife and six children were not in the property when he died, and he was found by his housekeeper. 41-year-old Chester was known to have been deeply affected by the death of Chris, who had been a very close friend, and Chester died on the 20th July, what would have been Chris’s 53rd birthday. Chester had been open about difficult times, of experiences with alcohol and substance abuse and also of sexual abuse as a child. But his decision to end his life by hanging, just prior to a scheduled tour, adds another element of uncomfortable coincidence to this sad and unsettling tale.
The 20th July is just five days after what would have been Ian Curtis’s birthday. Chester the place is just 43 miles from Macclesfield, the place of Ian’s birth and also of his little gravestone. These are tenuous links. But there is another, more unnerving association.
Chester Bennington’s last ever gig was in the UK, in the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, on July 6th. Ian’s last gig was also in Birmingham: in the spring of 1980 Joy Division took the stage at High Hall for what would prove to be their final concert. The date was May 2nd.
Guess who played Birmingham Symphony Hall on May 2nd, exactly 36 years later? Chris Cornell.
