The best gift for Joy Division and New Order fans is not a print of the two bands. It is a map of seven. I researched and drew this one myself over several weeks, and the detail that still surprises me is where Phil Cunningham's line begins.
It does not begin with New Order. It begins in 1996, on a Marion record, nine years before he becomes a member of the band most people know him from. You only see that if somebody has plotted every credit as a line and let the lines run where they actually go.
The short version. My Joy Division and New Order map plots 21 studio albums across seven band identities, from Unknown Pleasures in 1979 to Music Complete in 2015, a span of 36 years. My research sheet holds 76 named credits, 74 of which earn a line. Bernard Sumner appears on 16 of the 21 albums, Stephen Morris on 15, Peter Hook on 12, Gillian Gilbert on 10 and Ian Curtis on 2. Available as a Giclée art print in A2 and A1, unframed or framed, from £42.00.
Seven Bands Sit on This Gift for Joy Division and New Order Fans
Most Joy Division and New Order products stop at two names. When I built the research sheet for this one, I kept hitting records that clearly belonged on the same network but carried a different band name on the sleeve, so I let them in.
The map runs Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980), then ten New Order albums from Movement (1981) to Music Complete (2015). Woven through those are three Electronic albums, two by The Other Two, two by Marion, one by Bad Lieutenant and one by Freebass. Twenty-one stations in total.
For the fan you are buying for, that is the difference between a poster they already know the contents of and a map they have to stand in front of. The side projects are where the surprises live.
Joy Division and New Order Discography Map
Twenty-one albums, seven band names and 74 musician lines, researched by hand and drawn as a single transit network.
Explore This Art PrintPhil Cunningham Arrives Through Marion, Not New Order
Phil Cunningham appears on six of the 21 albums. His first two are Marion's This World and Body (1996) and The Program (1998), where he plays guitar alongside Jaime Harding on vocals, Tony Grantham on guitar and piano, Nick Gilbert on bass and Murad Mousa on drums.
He then turns up on New Order's Waiting for the Sirens' Call in 2005, on Bad Lieutenant's Never Cry Another Tear in 2009, and on Lost Sirens and Music Complete after that. On the printed sheet, that is a name in six rows. On the map, it is a line that starts on a separate branch and merges into the main route.
Tom Chapman does the same thing from the other direction. He enters on Bad Lieutenant's Never Cry Another Tear in 2009, playing bass on one track, and by Music Complete in 2015 he is a full member. Both of the musicians who filled the gap left by Peter Hook came onto this map through a side project first.
Two Lines Break in the Middle, and Only One Comes Back
Gillian Gilbert's line starts at Movement in 1981 and runs cleanly through to Get Ready in 2001. Then it stops. She is absent from Waiting for the Sirens' Call in 2005 and from Lost Sirens in 2013, and she reappears on Music Complete in 2015. A gap of 14 years, visible as an actual break in the ink.
Peter Hook's line is the other one, and it ends in a way I had to check twice. He plays on 12 of the 21 albums, and his last New Order credit is Lost Sirens in 2013, six years after he left the band in 2007. Those recordings date from the Waiting for the Sirens' Call sessions, so the credit is period-correct even though the release is not.
He is absent from Music Complete. Two years separate those two stations, and the map shows a line simply stopping between them. For a long-term fan, that pair of details is usually the first thing they point at.
Freebass: Where Joy Division, The Smiths and the Stone Roses Share One Station
Freebass released one album, It's a Beautiful Life, in 2010, and it is the single densest junction on this map. Peter Hook plays bass on it. So does Andy Rourke of The Smiths. So does Gary "Mani" Mounfield.
Three bass players from three separate Manchester dynasties, on one record, with Gary Briggs on vocals, Nat Watson on guitar and Paul Kehoe on drums and keyboards. It is the sort of thing that reads as a footnote in a discography and as a genuine intersection on a transit map.
If the person you are buying for is a Manchester obsessive rather than strictly a New Order fan, this is the station I would point them at first.
The Names That Turn Up Once
Branch lines on my maps are the one-off contributors, the musicians credited on a single record. This map has a lot of them, and several are names you would not predict from the sleeve.
| Musician | Album | Credited as |
|---|---|---|
| Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe | Electronic, Electronic (1991) | Vocals, backing vocals, keyboards and synth bass |
| Karl Bartos | Electronic, Raise the Pressure (1996) | Keyboards |
| Guy Pratt | Electronic, Raise the Pressure (1996) | Bass on one track |
| Jimi Goodwin | Electronic, Twisted Tenderness (1999) | Bass and backing vocals |
| Arthur Baker | Electronic, Twisted Tenderness (1999) | Scratching, harmonica and keyboards |
| Billy Corgan | New Order, Get Ready (2001) | Guest vocals on one track |
| Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes | New Order, Get Ready (2001) | Guest vocals and guitar, both on track seven |
| Alex James | Bad Lieutenant, Never Cry Another Tear (2009) | Bass on four tracks |
| Iggy Pop | New Order, Music Complete (2015) | Vocals on one track |
| Brandon Flowers | New Order, Music Complete (2015) | Vocals and mixing on one track |
| La Roux | New Order, Music Complete (2015) | Vocals on two tracks, backing vocals on a third |
A few names cross between branches rather than appearing once. Johnny Marr runs the full length of Electronic, playing on all three albums. Donald Johnson appears on Electronic's first record in 1991 and again on Raise the Pressure in 1996, with Jez Kerr turning up on The Other Two's The Other Two & You in 1993. Ged Lynch is the odd one out, crossing from Electronic to Marion and back between 1996 and 1999.
Two Men Worked on Super Highways, and Only One Earned a Line
I get asked why certain famous producers are missing from my maps, and The Other Two's Super Highways (1999) is the clearest answer I have ever found in a research sheet.
Tim Oliver produced every track on that record. He is also credited on bass, additional keyboards and additional programming, so he plays, and he gets a line. Ash Howes mixed the same album and has no playing credit, so he does not. Same record, two studio names, opposite outcomes.
That is my rule in one album: a producer only becomes a line if the sleeve also credits them playing something. It keeps the map honest, and it is the reason the density you are looking at is musicians rather than everyone who was in the building. Every credit here came off liner notes and session records rather than an algorithm, which is also why it took the time it did.
Which Size Suits the Fan You Are Buying For
The A2 at 420 x 594mm (23 x 16 in) is the sensible first gift. Every station is legible, and the story reads clearly from a couple of feet away; it starts at £42.00.
The A1 at 594 x 841mm (33 x 23 in) is the one I would choose for a serious collector or a milestone birthday. At that size, you can stand and read the individual track annotations on Music Complete, including the string section Joe Duddell arranged and conducted, and follow Gillian Gilbert's break without leaning in.
Both sizes come unframed for someone who likes choosing their own frame, or framed and ready to hang. Everything is printed as a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free. Full details are on the print and frame specification page.
Questions I Get Asked About This Map
Does the map cover Electronic, Marion and the other side projects, or just the two main bands?
All of them. Electronic, The Other Two, Marion, Bad Lieutenant and Freebass all appear as stations, which is what takes the album count to 21 rather than 12.
How far does Ian Curtis's line run?
Two stations. He is credited on Unknown Pleasures and Closer, with guitar and melodica on individual tracks on the latter, and the line terminates there in 1980.
Is Peter Hook on the last album?
No. His final credit on the map is Lost Sirens in 2013, drawn from earlier sessions, and he is absent from Music Complete in 2015.
Is there a New Order map without the Joy Division line?
Yes. The standalone New Order map covers the New Order catalogue on its own, which suits somebody who came to the band through the singles rather than through Unknown Pleasures.
Are the roles shown track by track?
Not on this one. Track-level roles currently appear only on my Rolling Stones Goats Head Soup album map. Here the lines show which musicians played on which albums.
Related Maps and Where to Browse
Given how many of these names cross over, three maps pair naturally with this one. Johnny Marr's presence across all three Electronic albums makes the Johnny Marr and The Smiths map the obvious companion, and Andy Rourke's Freebass credit makes the Smiths discography map the second. For the wider city, the Fall map and the Charlatans map both sit in the same scene.
You can see everything from the city in one place in the Manchester bands collection, or browse the full range in the music art print collection. If you have landed here looking for a gift and want the version with all 21 stations on it, the Joy Division and New Order discography map is the one, in A2 or A1, unframed or framed, from £42.00.
