#Closer song cover series

Well, the image wasn’t staged, it was in fact a beautifully carved tombstone, situated in the Staglieno cemetery in Genova, Northern Italy. I don’t know to this day whether they were real or not - some of them you thought, he’s set that up - that’s just models, covered in dust.”

#Closer song cover series

He later told Mojo magazine: “Bernard Pierre Wolff had done a series of photographs in a cemetery in Italy. Peter Saville, the designer who had worked with Joy Division on the cover of Unknown Pleasures, revealed that the photos came from a very trendy art magazine called Zoom that had been lying around his studio in London. These variously included the Three Marys - the mother of Jesus, Mary Magadelene and Mary of Clopas - and even John the Apostle, Joseph and Nicodemus, depending on which version you look at. 'It'd been a good idea at the time,' recalls Steve Morris, 'but, after Ian died, it became yet another of those awful coincidences.'īut what was the cover showing, exactly? It appears to be an image of what’s known in religious art as “The Lamentation of Christ” - the prone figure is Jesus after he has been taken down from the cross (you can tell by the halo) and the other figures are people who were present at the crucifixion. It was only Factory’s shambolic release schedule that delayed the record getting to the shops - by that point, the tragedy had occurred. The album artwork had been created and approved by the band weeks before Curtis died. Stuart Freedman/In Pictures via Getty Images The Appiani Family Tomb In The Staglieno Cimitero Monumentale, Genoa, Italy. And that’s how it was, the three surviving members - guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris - would become New Order, alongside keyboard player Gillian Gilbert.īecause Joy Division had an album cover showing a group mourning a dead associate, Factory were accused of poor judgement by some Joy Division followers, who were shocked when they saw the sleeve in the shops for the first time - the cover was literally a wake for the departed singer. Lead singer Ian Curtis had killed himself at his home in Macclesfield, Cheshire on 18 May and the band were no more - they’d agreed yers before that if any one member should leave the group, the Joy Division name should be retired. Released in July 1980, Closer was a posthumous work. Joy Division - Closer album artwork by Peter Saville. Dressed in sober black and white, the cover artwork features the title of the album written in a font that looks like it’s been chiselled into marble, while a monochrome photograph appears to show four cowled figures grieving around a man lying on a bed.