The tribute to the post-punk pioneer first appeared in October 2020 on a house in Port Street in the city’s Northern Quarter. Local artist Akse created the mural in collaboration with Headstock, a festival designed to bring together great music with mental wellbeing, in a bid to raise awareness for mental health and to promote Shout, a mental health free text messaging service constructed to help people with their mental wellbeing.

It’s come to light that the iconic Ian Curtis mural on Port Street has been painted over with my album artwork. This is the first time I’ve heard of this, me and my team are getting this fixed pronto. No way on earth would I want to disrespect a local hero like Ian.

MCR

— Aitch (@OfficialAitch) August 16, 2022

The rapper, however, to his credit, was quick to dispel any knowledge of the mural being tainted by an ad for his album, reassuring his Twitter followers of his desire to bring back the original artwork. He stated on the platform, “It’s come to light that the Ian Curtis mural on Port Street has been painted over with my album artwork. This is the first time I’ve heard of this, me and my team are getting this fixed pronto. No way on earth would I want to disrespect a local hero like Ian.”

The repainting of the mural will be done once more by the original artist Akse but in a different location, given that 75 Port Street now reportedly cannot be used anymore. The Star and Garter pub on Fairfield Street, a few streets to the South West of the original location, is now reportedly set to be the new location for the mural after it was revealed that Headstock are applying for planning permission to re-home the magnificent depiction of Curtis on the side of the pub.

The repainting of the mural is without a doubt a victory for Headstock and for the mental wellbeing of the people of Manchester and beyond and will, in turn, delight fans of Joy Division and of Curtis himself, who, after suffering from depression and epilepsy, sadly took his own life at the young age of 23, just before the release of Joy Division’s second album Closer and the group’s first North American tour.

Watch Joy Division perform “Transmission” on BBC music show Something Else in 1979 below:

Close To Home will be released on August 19^th via Capitol Records, and following on from Aitch’s own words to NME in a past interview, where he stated that his first album would “100,000 percent be a proper Manchester album”, the upcoming project has been described as “a love letter to the city that shaped him”.

Speaking with NME, Aitch even stated that he wanted to try to get Liam Gallagher on his next album, saying that he wanted to ask the Oasis songwriter: “why are you not on my album yet?”. When asked by NME if Gallagher would consider working with Aitch, he responded with: “He seems like a nice lad, but I don’t wanna be on anyone’s album.” Even if we’re not going to hear an Aitch x Liam Gallagher collab anytime soon, it has been stated that Close To Home will “reveal a well of hidden depths to surprise, delight and charm”, so we may well be seeing a number of very exciting collaborations.

The first single “1989” samples “Fool’s Gold” by The Stone Roses, and will drop tomorrow alongside a video directed by Kelvin Jones, shot in Aitch’s aforementioned home city of Manchester. The video will go live at 12:00pm (BST), and you can tune in to the premiere at the link below.

Aitch’s prolificacy as an artist has been on full display this year, as he has released three standalone singles, including “Baby” with Ashanti, which was released in March, and two collaborative efforts; “War” with Brighton rapper ArrDee and “Just Coz” with Giggs. “Just Coz”, the most recent of these singles, can be listened to below, alongside its accompanying music video.

Aitch’s beginnings can be traced back to 2015, when a video of him freestyle rapping garnered him some local popularity and received several thousand views on YouTube. His very first single “Back To Basics” was released in 2017, which was followed by the E.P. On Your Marks later that year. The rapper’s breakthrough came in 2018 when he released “Straight Rhymez”, a track that turned the nation’s eyes towards the young rising star.

Aitch has since released two E.Ps since On Your Marks; 2019’s AitcH20, and Polaris in 2020, which saw a collaboration with AJ Tracey and Tay Keith on closing track “Rain”.