Playlist: May 18th (in three stories)

May 18th was the date of two tragic events - both of which are marking their 45 year anniversary in 2025. One has a musical connection, the other does not (but because this is a playlist, I will force some loose musical references in).

The Musician:

Ian Curtis is now rightly seen as one of the most important frontmen of the British music scene in the punk / post-punk era. As the lead singer and songwriter of Manchester pioneers, Joy Division, his actual moment in the spotlight (during his lifetime) was all too brief - a few tv appearances in 1979 and 1980, one charting album and a couple of tours. His fame is almost that of a martyr, an enigmatic reputation that has only grown and grown since his tragic death. He was battling depression, epilepsy and a failing marriage at a time when his band were making a breakthrough - their celebrated first album, Unknown Pleasures came out in 1979, the second, Closer, was due soon, as was a North American tour. But in the early hours of 18 May 1980, at his home in Macclesfield, Ian Curtis took his own life.

The Volcano:

Photo: Austin Post

Meanwhile, five thousand miles away, events that had begun back in late March, were reaching a tumultuous climax. On 20 March 1980, the area around Mt. St. Helens (which lies almost half way between Portland and Seattle) was hit by a 4.2 magnitude earthquake. One week later a steam vent opened up - and throughout April, the mountain started to bulge.

On 18 May, a second, large (5.1) earthquake hit the mountain, causing the north face to collapse, triggering the largest debris avalanche ever recorded. Magma spewed out, turning into horrific pyroclastic flows which flattened everything across 230 square miles. Rapidly melting ice and snow formed dangerous lahars, which travelled for miles down several adjacent rivers - three million cubic metres of material was carried 17 miles down to the Columbia River, destroying bridges and logging camps in its wake. Ash clouds reached 16 miles into the sky. By the end of it all, at least 57 people had been killed, and the mountain was about 400m shorter than it had been before.

There is a bit of a personal connection here. One of the USGS geologists stationed in the Cascades at that time, Don Swanson, is someone we got to know a little, several decades later. He had been due to work up at one of the USGS's observation posts that morning, but swapped his shift with fellow scientist, David Johnston. Johnston was right in the line of fire when everything started just after 8:30 that morning, and so sadly, was one of the first to die.

The Playlist:

I am not wanting to trivialise either of these events, but they are both worthy of commemoration with some loosely themed music.....

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Act I: Ian Curtis

Joy Division: Transmission

Photo: Kevin Cummins

Transmission was first recorded by this legendary post-punk band in 1978. But it was then re-done the following year at a faster tempo, becoming their first single. The journalist Greil Marcus noted in his The History Of Rock 'n' Roll in Ten Songs, that "'Transmission' is not an argument. It's a dramatization of the realization that the act of listening to the radio is a suicidal gesture. It will kill your mind. It will rob your soul."

Joy Division: Transmission (Official music video - live on tv)

Half Man Half Biscuit: Joy Division Oven Gloves

It does perhaps break up the more serious tone, reflecting on Joy Division's greatness and Ian Curtis's sad loss, to cut to this classic take down of how bands can be tied into such mundane merchandising. It is perhaps the most iconic tune by Birkenhead's masters of sardonic indie rock, Half Man Half Biscuit, with Joy Division Oven Gloves featuring on their tenth record, Achtung Bono. The song is also remembered because of a Facebook campaign in 2010, when BBC 6 Music radio station was threatened with closure. The campaign was a protest, with the aim to try and get the song into the UK charts - to number six. In the end, it only made it to 56, but 6 Music is still broadcasting, so perhaps played its own little part in that.

HMHB: Joy Division Oven Gloves (Fan video)

Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart

Well, it's maybe an obvious choice, but the fact that it is still regularly played 45 years later, by people of many generations, shows how important this song is. Never has such a bleak song been so utterly compelling - a tragic song about a tragic subject (Curtis' marital issues and his battle with epilepsy), released in tragic circumstances, a month after his suicide on May 18th 1980. Despite that, it somehow engages the listener with its driving guitar, crashing drumbeat and droning keyboard riff. It was re-recorded no less than three times before belatedly earning them their first big hit, with the band finishing that stage of their career with his death. They had always said they would change the band name if anyone left - and so by 1981, they were New Order.

Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart (Official music video)

New Order: Ceremony

This song was written during the Joy Division days, but in the aftermath of Ian Curtis's death and the subsequent changes in the band to become New Order, this would instead become the first single released by this new iteration. Bernard Sumner recalled that it was written by Curtis, just a few weeks before his death - he felt that Curtis was trying to heal himself through music, but "unfortunately, it didn't work." Because the only surviving Joy Division versions of the songs were all live or rough demos, all had lyrics that were only partially audible. So, Sumner had to play it through a graphic equaliser to have a go at working the lyrics out. New Order also re-recorded and re-released it later in 1981, once Gillian Gilbert had joined the band.

New Order: Ceremony (Live in New York City, 1981)

The Volcano: Mt. St Helens

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Cascade

Tenuous connection alert - Mt. St. Helens is in the Cascades mountain range....

The fifth studio album by Siouxsie & The Banshees, A Kiss In The Dreamhouse, saw the post-punk outfit start to shift their direction, with more strings and experimentation, taking on a more psychedelic air. While they didn't do much writing in the immediate aftermath of the success of predecessor, Juju; Cascade was one of three songs they had ready by the time they went on a Scandinavian tour in spring 1982. The resultant album provided a dichotomy - as Garry Mulholland would later note in Uncut, band dynamics were becoming an issue as the album was recorded, and the "stunningly beautiful music" on it, was actually a product of "addiction, stress, old, sick love and new, dangerous love, money woes and a darkness that would eventually claim three lives." At their best, Siouxsie Sioux, Budgie, Steven Severin and John McGeoch were about the best post-punk line-up there ever was - in the video below, The Cure's Robert Smith admirably steps into McGeoch's shoes.

Siouxsie & The Banshees: Cascade (Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1983)

U2: Volcano

Photo: Interscope Records

Songs Of Innocence was U2's thirteenth album, the one infamously released onto Apple products for free whether their owners wanted it or not! They considered it their most personal album of all, with themes taking the band back to their youth of the 1970's, touching upon the bands that inspired them like the Ramones and the Clash. Volcano is from the perspective of a young Bono addressing his older self. It references the losses he experienced, especially that of his mother (aged 14) - as he wrote in the album booklet, "My mother died that year, so did my grandad. After grief comes rage…the molten lava that turns to rock if it can... this kind of fire in the belly cannot sustain. If you're lucky, it burns out before it burns you out."

U2: Volcano (Live on Later With Jools, 2014)

Eruption: I Can't Stand The Rain

We focus on the band name this time - and how could we ignore Eruption? They were a British soul-disco band of the 1970's and 80's, fronted by Jamaican singer Precious Wilson, and who were put together by legendary German producer Frank Farian, who also was the mastermind behind Boney M and Milli Vanilli. On their debut album, also called Eruption, was included their version of Ann Peebles' classic I Can't Stand The Rain, which was also released as a single, reaching number 5 in the UK and 18 in the US.

Eruption: I Can't Stand The Rain (Appearance on Musikladen. 1977)

Goblin: Love Theme from Mt. St. Helens

Where do we start with this? St. Helens was a made for cable tv movie by Ernest Pintoff, which charted the events of the 1980 eruption from its beginnings in late March to its cataclysmic ending on 18 May. It premiered on 18 May 1981, the first anniversary of the eruption. In perhaps a first for this site, we feature an Italian prog-rock band, the wonderfully named Goblin, who had a run of making film scores in the 70's and 80's for Italian directors (but also several for horror specialist, George A Romero). Tucked in amongst all of those, was the Love Theme for St Helens. The tune will not live long in the memory...

Goblin: Love Theme from Mt. St. Helens (Audio with montage of films stills)

The B-52's: Lava

For a few years of the late 1970s and early 80's, The B-52s were the biggest band in the college town of Athens, Georgia - until those pesky R.E.M. lads came along and took centre stage. They quickly gained a following with their brand of quirky, hook-heavy indie pop - and their 1979 self-titled debut album was full of it! While their most famous hit, Rock Lobster, closed side one - Lava suitably burst forth at the start of side two, throwing out famous volcano names as they cheekily likened "my love's eruptin' like a red hot volcano." It name checks Krakatoa, Mauna Loa and Pompeii, but there is no mention of St. Helens, as this was recorded a year before that eruption occurred.

The B-52's: Lava (Live version from Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, 1980)

The Birthdays: Jack and Mark and Rick and Martika

It turns out that 18 May is also a big day for birthdays (who knew?), with a plethora of random musicians you have probably long since forgotten about, all born on this day. There's Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo (1950), top session noodler and Yes man, Rick Wakeman (1949), guitar slacker Jack Johnson (1975) and Toy Soldier singer Martika (1969). Happy Birthday to all of them - and anyone else silly enough to have a birthday on this day.

The Beatles: Birthday

This predominantly McCartney penned song (although credited to Lennon-McCartney as usual) opened up side three of their iconic 1968 eponymously titled LP (a.k.a. The White Album). The band and crew had been at McCartney's house watching the 1956 rock n roll film The Girl Can't Help It (Jayne Mansfield) before heading back to Abbey Road, where they knocked the song out. McCartney would recall that they just decided to make something up on the spur of the moment, he and John then came up with a riff, and it was done the same evening. Lennon would later refer to it as "a piece of garbage." The song is also noteworthy because, as George Martin was out of the studio at the time, so recording was overseen by his young assistant, Chris Thomas (who would go on to work with Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, The Pretenders and Elton John).

Ringo Starr's Allstar Band: Birthday (Live at Ringo's birthday bash, 2010 at Radio City Music Hall - you get 50% of the Beatles + Joe Walsh [The Eagles] and Rick Derringer [The McCoys})

Altered Images: Happy Birthday

This was the only song on their debut record, also called Happy Birthday, that was produced by the in-demand Martin Rushent (Human League, Buzzcocks, The Stranglers), as the rest was mostly done by Steven Severin of The Banshees. In October of that year, it provided them with their biggest hit, reaching UK number two - what a joyous song!

Altered Images: Happy Birthday (Official music video)

Simple Minds: Hunter & The Hunted

This is in here because it's my favourite version of my favourite song off of my favourite LP of all time, New Gold Dream. This was Simple Minds at their live best (sadly long before I ever got to see them) - brooding, atmospheric, mesmerising - Kerr prowls the stage jumping and darting, while Burchill stands behind firing off bursts of colour, augmented by McNeil's waves of lush keyboards. Meanwhile, Forbes stands still, yet his hands are a fluid blur across his bass, and Gaynor somehow shows restraint, propelling the song along while never overpowering it.