RIP Ian Curtis

The graffiti squad are cracking down, and they are cracking down on 'graffiti' which has been around longer than I have been alive!

According to Stuff.co.nz the "Ian Curtis RIP" tag was painted on the Wallace Street wall in 1981 in memorial for the Joy Division singer. 28 years later, granted, it had become slightly defaced over the years, is now gone. This image was posted by Stuff:

Last night as I walked past the wall however, it was very much black out there:

It is a shame, and even Wikipedia has updated it's mention of the wall in the Ian Curtis wiki:

"A wall on Wallace Street in Wellington, New Zealand, had the words "Ian Curtis Lives" written on it shortly after the singer's death. The message is repainted whenever it is painted over, and another wall on the same street now bears the message "Ian Curtis R.I.P. Walk In Silence" along with the dates "1960 - 1981" (sic). Both are referred to as "The Ian Curtis Wall". However on Thursday 10th September 2009, the wall was painted over by Wellington City Councils anti graffiti team."

I notice too, that the stencils on Taranaki St where these stencils are have have a bit of a makeover. Goneskis. Interestingly the stencils which I have shown in this post are still there, it was the large stencils/graff art (one of

which were a bunch of skulls which I missed taking a photo of dammit!) that have been painted over, including this one (which I stole from @thomasscovell's twitpics - sorry Thomas):

Yeah, the wall is now very much grey. Suck.