I collect, I reject: Looking for somewhere to store your Joy Division oven gloves?

Ian Curtis' kitchen table is up for sale on eBay.

At the moment, it's over £6,000, which means its already three times the original budget of the ruinously expensive Factory Records boardroom table. And with five days to go, it might wind up costing more than that table eventually did...

Bookmarks: The Durutti Column

Hardformat lovingly unpacks the packaging of the first Durutti Column album:

For some of us this album approaches the status of a secular holy relic because, in addition to the beauty of the object and the music, Vini Reilly states that Joy Division were paid by Tony Wilson to assemble the sandpaper sleeves to earn some extra money. In another report, Ian Curtis allegedly did most of the work while the other three sat watching television in the next room.

ContactMusic reveal something surprising about James Bond

Here's something I didn't know - Atmosphere and Octopussy share a common creator:

Ian Curtis wrote James Bond? Then how come there was no Bond girl called Joy Division?

(By the way, if you're interested in Hefner's claim, James Bond was created in 1953 and the first Playboy club opened in 1960. The clubs which Hefner stole the idea of "bunny girls" from, though, The Gaslight, opened in 1953, so it's possible Flemming and Hefner both stole the idea from the same place.)

Love will tear up the stone - again

Someone has pinched Ian Curtis' headstone from his grave. Not quite as bad as what happened to Gram Parsons, certainly, but still incredibly disrespectful.

Something to listen to: Joy and Saints

Radio 4 has been overflowing with things to use your ear/speaker combinations for.

First - available until Tuesday teatime - Robbie Williams and Jon Ronson's Radio 4 programme detailing their visit to a UFO conference. It's hard to dislike Williams in this, it has to be said. Although it might have been a better programme without his presence and his desperate "I want to believe" refrain, it was interesting to hear Williams' conviction that being shunned by all your friends because your mother has told everyone you're an Indigo Child is like being a multi-millionaire who can dictate the winner of the British Comedy Awards.

Also available until Tuesday is Great Lives, Simon Armitage enthusing over the late Ian Curtis. And up until Monday, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow sees Tracy McLeod exploring the Girl Groups of the 1960s.

Permanently, now: T Bone Burnett pops up on the Today programme.

Away from Radio 4, Planet Claire plays host to a St Vincent session. [via Largehearted Boy]

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

The Creative Review Blog transcribes a conversation between Peter Saville and Dan Fox:

DF: But in a sense you had the autonomous space of an artist for ten years – a degree of liberty that is very similar to that of an artist.

PS: Complete liberty… Strangely out of disinterest. It was New Order’s disinterest and agreed policy of disagreement that allowed it. When Ian died, the natural hierarchy which would have naturally formed in Joy Division… because that’s what happens in bands, at the beginning everyone’s equal, y‘know, if you’ve got a van you can be the manager… that’s how it is. But once they enter the music business, a proper manager is put in place and it’s, “The drummer’s not very good, is he?” and “We’ve got someone else with a drum kit…” The natural hierarchy crystallises around the central figure which is usually the writer/singer and that’s what would have happened had Joy Division signed to a record label or a proper record company, and had Ian survived. He would have gradually, even against his own free will, turned into a Jim Morrison-type character and that’s who you would be working for if you were doing a sleeve or taking a photo or whatever… you’d be working for that person.

Wired's Listening Post carries a lengthy email from MP3Tune's Michael Robertson, placing the lawsuit against his service in the context of the RIAA battle:

While the lawsuit says "EMI" I think the RIAA is advocating this legal fight
as much as any individual label or entity. The RIAA is the music industry's
association with a focus honed on suing seemingly every new technology that
comes along (this last decade at least) . This is what happens when you have
a staff of attorneys -- they want big, long legal fights so they can bill
their clients. The problem with suing every new technology and/or company is
the opportunity to use that new technology in a positive manner is lost. For
example the RIAA sued the first portable MP3 players. The RIAA lost -- not
just the lawsuits, but the chance to leverage an exciting new technology
(MP3 players). It also lost the ability to partner with innovative companies
for increased sales and revenues. By suing every new technology, the music
industry is missing the opportunity to use innovation to dramatically grow
its business in exciting new ways.

... while the Lefsetz Letter responds to Jay-Z's insistence that iTunes doesn't sell his album because he's selling albums, not tracks:

Why does the music industry want to exclude the casual user? We need the people scared away from trading to consume. We need the people who want legal files to be able to pay for them.

Instead of this hissy fit.

Where IS your album available Jay? We’ve got to go to our nearest physical retailer? Where exactly is that? There’s no record store in my neighborhood. And I’m not going to Best Buy for one disc, my life’s too short and I don’t need a refrigerator.

Oh, I get it, I’m supposed to go on Amazon, where you’re breaking Apple’s monopoly. By selling unprotected MP3s.

Is this about money or art? Is this about the whole album or getting people to pay for the entire album?

Hook thrown by the clappers

Peter Hook gives two cheers to the Ian Curtis biopic. But not literal cheers, though:

"I really enjoyed it... But it was like having your heart stamped on. The weirdest thing was at the end, when it really hurt and everybody started clapping. It would've been nice to have a dignified silence."

Still, at least it wasn't a trumpeted announcement about back-catalogue now being sold in the foyer.

That's probably being held back for the general release.

Wood Pops

Had we been casting about for someone to play the role of Iggy Pop, we're not sure we'd have alighted upon Elijah Wood as being the most obvious choice. Ewan McGregor, maybe - at least we all know what to expect when the cock gets unleashed, as it surely must in any Pop biopic.

Apparently, The Passenger has been signed off by Iggy; the production team are the same crew whose Ian Curtis film, Closer is wowing them in Cannes right now.

Curtis, sea: Cannes plans

The Ian Curtis biopic is to get a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this year - precisely the sort of glittering, star-bejewelled occasion Curtis wasn't known for at all.

Gigwise reportsthe premiere will be:

attended by members of U2, Depeche Mode and the band formed from the ashes of Joy Division, New Order

They might want to rethink the use of a metaphorical "from the ashes", since Joy Divsion ended comprehensively with the actual funeral of the lead singer.