Ian Kevin Curtis (July 15th, 1956 – May 18th, 1980) was an English singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the post-punk band Joy Division.

His love of music had developed from an early age, his teenage heroes were David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Velvet Underground. The first step on his musical career was a job at Rare Records, a shop in Manchester city centre. This helped to expand his musical interests.

Seeing the Sex Pistols perform in Manchester in 1976 had convinced Ian that he too could make it on stage. Ian had made abortive attempts to form a band with his friends in Macclesfield. His break came when he got to know Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook, who were trying to do the same in Salford but lacked a singer. When Ian ed them to enquire about the vacancy, they were happy to forces with him. The band history page tells the story of how things developed from there.

As well as being Joy Division's vocalist, Ian Curtis also wrote the song lyrics. Many of Joy Division's songs were written in the house in Barton Street, and Ian had a stock of notebooks into which he jotted ideas as they came to him. Many people assume that his lyrics must reflect his own feelings and problems, but perhaps they just reflect his talent for writing a meaningful song.

Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979 and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980.

Ian had a volatile personality, and could show different sides at different times and with different people. He could sometimes be angry and spiteful, but more often was easy-going and generous. Although his health, his career and his personal life all brought many pressures, Ian is usually recalled by those who knew him as a fun-loving person, albeit a slightly eccentric one, with a good sense of humour.

In January 1979 Ian was diagnosed as epileptic. Although his fits varied in frequency and intensity, epilepsy was an ever-present concern from then on. Not only did Ian have to take regular medication, which seemed to make his mood swings more extreme, but fits could be brought on by strobe lighting in some of the clubs. His frenetic stage style mirrored the epileptic fits he suffered. Ian's experience of epilepsy in himself and others inspired him to write She's Lost Control. Ian was also a heavy smoker, possibly another sign of the stress he was under.

Curtis took his own life on May 18th, 1980, on the eve of Joy Division's first North American tour, resulting in the band's dissolution and the subsequent formation of New Order. Curtis was known for his bass-baritone voice, dance style, and songwriting filled with imagery of desolation, war, emptiness and alienation.

While Ian Curtis was clearly unusual in many respects, the popular "doom and gloom" image left by his suicide and by some of his songs is not recognised by most of the people who knew him. Although some people now only his suicide, we Ian's key contribution to a talented band and to a musical era.