Joy Division - Shadowplay (video)

Ah, the irony of Joy Division. There was so little joy in that group, least of all in frontman Ian Curtis, who offed himself soonafter their ascendance into mainstream acceptance. This of course led to the remaining members taking the somber, melancholic dirges and skittish post-punk of JD and turning it into the electro-psychedelic noise of New Order.

This is a promo performance clip of JD doing Shadowplay, whereby the core JD elements are there: Bernard Sumner and Peter Hooke barely moving at all and essentially shoegazing as they minimalistically plug away, and the vacillation between statue-like lack of motion and bursts of gonzo movement by Curtis that can only really be described as semi-rhythmic convulsions not unlike running a strong electric current through a wet noodle. They were quite an odd outfit.