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It’s not just because of the subject matter but also the film’s director. Anton Corbijn may be new to feature films but he’s spent the past three decades photographing and filming the world’s greatest and most interesting bands.

Control

As a result, alongside the inevitable Joy Division tracks - Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, Atmosphere and Dead Souls (no room for She’s Lost Control then?) – there are a selection of some of the finest glam, new-wave and punk of the late 70s, from Roxy Music’s slinky 2HB and David Bowie’s anthemic Drive In Saturday to Buzzcocks’ ennui-ridden Boredom and Kraftwerk’s ever impressive Autobahn.

It’s not all classic tracks though. There’s also room for three fresh New Order offerings – Exit, Hypnosis and Get Out – all of which just about shake off their ‘incidental film music’ tags and show a hidden orchestral side to the band, and a cover of Shadowplay by The Killers, which may sound like the ultimate irony, but actually turns out to be pretty impressive.

Yet for all that, the show-stealer, as so often happens, is John Cooper Clarke who, like in the film, pops up for an impromptu run-through of one of his finest odes, the utterly foul-mouthed and monumental Evidently Chickentown.

Anton Corbijn has insisted that his film isn’t a tribute to Curtis. Neither is his soundtrack. What it is is a snapshot of the past that inspired Ian, the present he transcended and the future that is his legacy.