DEXYS DEBUT AT NO.1 IN THE UK, MACCA’S QUIRKY SOLO RETURN, JOE STRUMMER ARRESTED – AND THE TRAGIC DEATH OF IAN CURTIS
STEVE O’BRIEN
02 The South African government bans Pink Floyd’s single Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) after Black children adopt the song to protest against their inferior education.
03 Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band begin a six-week run at No.1 on the US albums chart with 11th long-player Against The Wind.
03 Dexys Midnight Runners hit No.1 in the UK for the first time with Geno, a song written about US soul singer Geno Washington.
09 I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats wins Best Pop Song and Outstanding British Lyric at the 25th Ivor Novello Awards.
19 Ringo Starr and girlfriend Barbara Bach are involved in a car crash at a roundabout on the A3. Coincidentally, the accident occurs just half a mile from where Marc Bolan was killed three years previous.
16 The Human League release their second LP, Travelogue. It is the band’s last album to include founding members Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware.
16 Paul McCartney releases the entirely self-recorded long-player McCartney II.
21 The Clash’s Joe Strummer is arrested in Hamburg, Germany, after smashing his guitar over the head of an audience member.
28 Westlife singer Mark Feehily is born in Sligo, Ireland.
18 Joy Division singer Ian Curtis was just 23 years of age when he hanged himself on 18 May 1980. His body was discovered by his wife Deborah after she returned from her parents to the couple’s home at 77 Barton Street in Macclesfield. According to Factory Records boss Tony Wilson, the singer had spent his final hours watching Werner Herzog’s 1977 film Stroszek and listening to Iggy Pop’s 1977 album The Idiot. Curtis played his last gig with the band just 16
