NME - Manchester declares 'Republic'

Manchester declares 'Republic'

NEW ORDER’s first recordings for three years will be released on their own ‘Manchester’ label, which has been set up as part of their new deal with London Records.

A new single ‘Regrets’ (out April 5) will christen the label, which will be exclusively for “New Order and their friends”, according to bassist Peter Hook. The band are currently remixing the B-side, ‘Mixed Regrets’, at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios. An Andy Weatherall mix has already been completed.

It will be followed in May by a 13-track album ‘Republic’, New Order’s first since ‘Technique’ in February 1989. In a sleeve designed by Peter Saville, tracks include ‘Regrets’, ‘World (Price Of Love)’, ‘Avalanche’, ‘Chemical’, ‘Liar’, ‘Everyone Everywhere’ and ‘Techno 2’. The new material was recorded entirely at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio in Bath and produced by Stephen Hague before the collapse of Factory Records, said Hook.

He told NME: “it was a bit of bad timing really, if it had been released in time, Factory probably wouldn’t have gone down.” Hook confirmed that the band are among Factory’s major creditors.

There are also plans for a series of live dates in June and July, probably preceded by a brief appearance at the Northern Ireland benefit Peace Together in Dublin in May.

Hook said: “We have been asked to headline every festival this year, which is great considering this is our comeback. It's like we’ve never been away. We’ll play as many dates as we can get Bernard to do,” said Hook.

Hook denied suggestions of a rift between Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert. “The fact we are playing together scotches these rumours,” he said. “We are a lot happier now we have got the Factory problems behind us.”

FACTORY RECORDS’ receivership is expected to pay back less than £850,000 of the massive debts built up before the label’s collapse in November.

Virtually none of the money owed to bands and artists is likely to be paid back according to receivers Leonard Curtis. Only “secured” debts - banks, VAT and Inland Revenue - will be paid off.

NME has obtained official papers which show that Factory had debts of £3.5m when it went into receivership on November 23 last year, after 12 years and one month in business.

The company's assets, including the Hacienda club and a 50 per cent share in the Dry Bar, were estimated to be worth £1.3m when the label went down.

The label owed £355,324 in outstanding payments to its artists, according to a finance statement. Advances paid out by the label were unrecouped by almost £400,000. Nat West Bank alone was owed £770,000.

Receiver Leonard Curtis were due to update creditors at the accountants” Manchester HQ on Monday.