Still, even not having met him, listening to the music of Joy Division after his death was upsetting. Factory is a label that tells the story of independent thought and of inspiration coming from unusual places,” states Hicks.

They run the gamut from falling in love at first sight, then the marriage going wrong and the infidelities, then him desperately trying to get me back,” says Reade, who is currently looking for a publisher for them. I think that was the biggest thing that killed the Roses; they lost that impetus, and for band that had done everything together – rehearsing day in day out, touring – they were just hanging around, and when you hang around you start to moan, and you start to find fault with people. However, the planned UK tour in April was cancelled outright, and then in June, they pulled their Glastonbury headline slot. It is this kind of emotional honesty and willingness to give an uncensored version of events that makes Torn Apart such a compelling read. After passing his Eleven plus exam, Wilson attended De La Salle Grammar School in Weaste Lane, Pendleton, Salford.

He almost had too much empathy - he even felt sad for Adrian Thrills, an NME journalist who was denied an interview at one of the later Joy Division gigs. Later that year, the band started proceedings to extricate themselves from Silvertone/Zomba, as a result of irregularities in their original contract. I heard John had a pretty terrible drug habit, and that was becoming a debilitating thing; he’d become paranoid and insular, didn’t get out of bed or leave the house for days on end, and he would decide that he was gonna give it all up to become a painter, which is what he ultimately did.

From its figurehead Tony Wilson through to the male-dominated bands that found fame on the label, Factory Records is sometimes seen as the epitome of a muso lad fest.

Local funk DJ Mike Shaft became their mentor, playing 52nd Street demos on his Piccadilly Radio shows. Wilson may not have been the most pleasant of men, yet she avoids wrapping herself in a martyr's cloak, admitting that there were faults on both sides.

He played a minor role (playing himself) in the film, A Cock and Bull Story (2005), in which his character interviews Coogan.

Hooky (Peter Hook) came in and remixed the whole track; it felt like a drastic haircut and sounded a bit disco when he’d finished. The band limped on for another six months before their final, disastrous appearance at Reading Festival in August 1996, when the emotionless guitar-playing, sub-standard vocals and overall poor sound was met with boos from the disappointed crowd.

The album still sounds as fresh and new as they day it came out, but I think that’s more a telling indictment of rock music today and the way it is – it hasn’t really moved on from there. People were probably “on one”, as they used to say in those days, so they probably enjoyed themselves anyway. I think most people in Manchester’s initial introduction to the Roses was when we saw their name graffitied all over the place. She was railing against Wilson for leaving her alone with the depressed Curtis the whole time; the responsibility was too much for her to cope with alone. Now I find you can get tummy tucks and cosmetic surgery on the NHS but not the drugs I need to stay alive.The biggest hit from the album was "Tell Me (How it Feels)" which, in the winter of 1985, reached No. It still really saddens me what happened with the Roses, because they were, or they should have been, one of the great pop phenomenons who went on for years and made ten albums, you know what I mean? Paul Morley's book From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson quotes Wilson as nearly falling asleep on the programme but waking up to hear one of the guests attacking him for naming his band Joy Division. Plus who knows whether he was terrified that if he divorced Deborah, he would never see Natalie again. I saw them live in London's Lyceum in February 1980, and was a big fan of their music, but for me, Curtis remained a shadowy figure - an enigmatic performer whose crazed trapped moth dance mesmerised; a haunting poet whose lyrics and songs could raise goosebumps; and a man with many personal problems including severe epilepsy and a complicated home life.