Cuttings

Dear ZigZag, Although I very much enjoyed the revelations contained in Jayne Houghton's interview with Rob Gretton and Peter Hook of New Order I would like to clear up a few inaccuracies and distortions. First, as a journalist. I can say that I have never had an 'intense obsession' with either Joy Division or New Order. After 1 had seen them three times over an eight month period I told them of my plans to write a book. Despite their being less than thrilled about a book being written about them they saw that it would be in their best interest that it be as accurate as possible. Each member of the band and their manager assisted with corrections, so all the errors that remain are there by their decision. I told them I would avoid invading their private lives and I fulfilled my part of the 'agreement'. Unwanted people do not just walk into dressing rooms or recording studios (whose copy of the 2001 soundtrack did they use when they decided to nick Ligeti...

CRIME PAYS! New Order, Innocent before proven guilty, gassing. Eye witness; Jayne Houghton. Sitting in a mobile greenhouse bound for Manchester. It's 80 deg. and an old dear is telling me her life story all the way there . . . such a glamorous start! New Order's penchant for eating journalists alive, or at the very least being totally uncommunicative doesn't fill me with too much dread ( Liar! You were never off the toilet last night— Writer's Mum ) as I've known Peter Hook for some time. With him is Rob Gretton, New Order's fifth member/manager who has just been to the dentist and spent the afternoon cradling his jaw. We join half the population of Manchester, crammed into the city centre and the one-square foot of grass and just as we're about to start Hookey and Rob remove their T-shirts. Thankfully this casts a lighthearted mood over the whole affair. ZZ: Why no British tours, only unconventional one-offs? H: The reason we play unconven...

OUT OF ORDER MICK MIDDLES carries on his Stateside binge with NEW ORDER THE 737 FROM New York to Washington fills with groans from the rear as Hookey completes his third sick bag. Rob Gretton, New Order manager, and Steve Morris are unconcerned about this and the fact that they are three hours late — the effect of eight Melonball Cocktails carries them away on a separate, astral plane. In Washington, the local promoters are apprehensive and tour manager Ruth Polsky is panicking as Barney and Gillian complete the band's soundcheck alone. There has been no phone call from Rob. Outside the venue (a large Spanish cinema, the only seated venue on the tour) the queue is already 100 yards long — people are becoming increasingly angry at the delay. Ossie (soundman and fifth member) is struggling with a PA half the size of the previous evening's and a venue twice as big. Onstage, an attempted run through of 'Your Silent Face' breaks down for the fourth time. ...

NEW ORDER: "TOWARDS DEFINING THE NEW ORDER" Unquestionably the most successful independent band in the world, New Order are not the easiest of bands to get to talk to. The terrific mustique surrounding them and the public's obsession with pursuing them on record, in print, and in flesh, is only equalled by their desire to remain relatively anonymous. That their success is wholly attributable to their artistic talents and their refusal to compromise is undoubtable: that they are still, in the words of Peter Hook, ’'Four ordinary people" is something few people would believe. And yet, Neil Taylor - tentatively inquisitive - fired some questions at Peter Hook and came away with an image of a man and group very different from how the press (or lack of it) would have us believe. No big showdown, no glorified factory-romanticism, no press fanaticism, just level-headed dedication and at the end of everything an overall feeling of no sell out. "I don't t...

RHYTHMS OF RESISTANCE New Order/Billy Bragg/The Inspirational Choir/ Cabaret Voltaire, artists against apartheid Sheffield City Hall SATURDAY Night Fever for Anti-Apartheid Rock. Two days from a decade of Soweto fire, on one of the warmest nights of the year, the City Hall is packed to sweltering capacity. This is a celebration, not only a condemnation and The Inspirational Choir pick up on that charge. They swing into their performance with the fervour of a Biblical Kop and the wails come a tumbling down. These are the traditional rhythms of resistance, no less valid for their seeming indifference to the urgency of our secular world. The voices rise and dip on a surge of corporate emotion and there's no denying the strange power which holds both crowd and choir together during those split second silences at the close of each song. Music to light the darkest hour. Solid as a rock. Welcome the diminutive mid-field schemer and friend of Mr Kinnock, Billy Bragg. Her...

NEW ORDER  a new ordeal in low~life It’s a dark day in downtown Manchester and New Order, on the eve of their US tour, are insisting show business is a lie. Incensed at this blasphemy and heedless of the danger, MAURICE LOMAS  puts up his dukes and argues. Referee: KEVIN CUMMINS IT WAS a blue Friday. I was in a grey mood. If a black cat had crossed my path, I’d probably have kicked it. I’d had a bad day and I felt like staying home and cheering myself up with a few chapters of Franz Kafka. Instead, I had to content myself with the ready wit and razor sharp repartee of a band called New Order. After three attempts to secure an interview with these crazy swingers, their manager, Rob Gretton, finally arranged a meeting in a downtown watering hole called Hoyts. After ten minutes Barney, the guitarist, appeared, explaining that his comrades would soon come merrily skipping into my life. Barney’s a friendly chap so I tried the direct approach. Why had it been so ...

Bizarre Love Quadrangle Since 1993, original Man sourpusses New Order have been in and out of the tabloids, on and off Prozac and barely on speaking terms. But on New Year's Eve, they'll headline 'Temptation' at Alexandra Palace, This can't mean they like each other, can it? Interview Peter Paphides Photography Trevor Ray Hart 'I'd rather be in bed to be honest. But I suppose this will do.’ Bernard Sumner is not a well man. A 12~hour session with Alex from Blur has taken him from the Groucho to a series of other West End bars and back to the Groucho in time for breakfast. As a result, his features are even paler than his bleached hair, and his horizontal frame occupies three seats in the cellar bar of the Landmark Hotel. As drinking buddies go, Blur's fop-star bassist and the street-smart frontman of New Order seem an unlikely pairing. But since mutual buddy Keith Allen introduced them. it’s been a beautiful, if hazy, alliance: 'I don...