Control at the Cornerhouse

To the Cornerhouse for a double bill of musical and cultural indulgence. A seminar (part of In The City) followed by Control, the film about Ian Curtis. The panel discussion featured punk spokesman and talking head John Robb, musical historian CP Lee, Terry Christian, a bloke from Channel m and the producer of Radio 4's Front Row. Terry was very well informed, at times funny, but then lurches back into default idiot savante who has to be more plebian than anyone else. CP Lee I could listen to all day with his amazing stories.

Control was an awesome film. Apart from the obvious historical and musical points of interest it was an incredibly powerful film, beautifully shot, about the unbearable pressure of a young man terrified by his future and unable to face up to the choices he has to make. We've all been there.

When the closing scene drew to its inevitable conclusion and the hum and the drum roll at the beginning of Atmosphere kicked in, my throat did swell. Not just because it took me back to that memory at Tony Wilson's requiem mass as that sad sad procession started to that same sad sad song, but also as the screen filled with the image of the smoke billowing from the chimney at the same Macclesfield crematorium where we lay our friend John Flint to rest in 2003.