If Your Mother Says “Here, I Got You Something Autographed By Ian Curtis,” Check It Out

noah | October 6, 2009 9:45 am

Former Joy Division bassist Peter Hook has admitted to basically running a forgery business involving the purported autograph of the band’s late frontman Ian Curtis, although he blames his scheme working on fans who didn’t fact-check Curtis’ date of death: “I did have a reputation for doing Ian Curtis’ autograph for a long time… There’s some guy who had [the Joy Division EP] An Ideal For Living and it was signed by all four members of the band and dated. I went in and said, ‘Have you not noticed that the date is after Ian died?’ It was me, I did them as a joke!” If you’re a record collector who has an “autographed” copy of a Joy Division album (and you’ve just had a mini-anxiety attack), now would be a good time to compare the signature above, which was apparently obtained in 1978, with your personal copy. Sorry to burst any record-collecting bubbles! [Clash Music via The Daily Swarm / Allegedly real autograph of Ian Curtis via Joy Division History]