Already embellished by film and book, Martin Hannett’s story oozes idiosyncrasy enough to evoke the word ‘legend’. Anyone who has listened to Joy Division will naturally want to know more about the man, the sound and what it was that made him so unique.
Whether you’ll find the answers within this ‘biography’ is a matter of some debate. It began as a hybrid fiction-biog and was tugged towards the latter during editing. Now we find a curiously dark account, with little fiction remaining. It’s attractively penned, though. Sharp, who was fleetingly acquainted with Hannett through his onetime band Durutti Column, spent some dizzying days gaining a first hand experience of the producer’s hedonistic lifestyle. Some good Hannett stories arrive courtesy of CP Lee, Tony Wilson and A Certain Ratio, all of whom appear to have found inspiration from this difficult ‘magician’ (Wilson’s word).
Nowhere do we meet Martin as anarchic youth, or sense his mood as a downbeat pub-band bass guitarist, though. He arrives in a state of wayward genius, ready to impart his wisdom to Buzzcocks and Slaughter & The Dogs. It soon descends into mild farce, which isn’t too far from the truth, though something beyond the caricature of a big man wheeled across the Ha�ienda dancefloor in a shopping trolley would have been nice.
