Cuttings

VORSPRUNG DURCH TECHNIK For Joy Division's three surviving members, the suicide of Ian Curtis should have marked the end. Then came a new dawn of technology, Ecstasy and redemption. The incredible fall and heroic rise of New Order, by Roy Wilkinson. High in the rolling Cheshire greenery, a familiar bass line sounds out. The location is a farm-cum-studio just outside Macclesfield - a sturdy, stone-built construction sitting close to both the village of Pott Shrigley and Tegg’s Nose Country Park. To admirers of contemporary popular music, the title of the song that’s echoing out over the hillside is even as distinguished as such piquant north-country place names, “love,” goes the song, “love will tear us apart again.”  There are further unmistakable clues to today's music-makers. In the driveway sits a Mitsubishi Shogun 4X4 jeep. The number plate features bold, personalised lettering: H100 KYS. And, as the bass player’s brazenly self-ref...

BARNEY RUMBLES AND SCENIC RAMBLES New Order main man Bernard ‘Barney’ Albrecht scrapes the sleepy dust from his eyelids and spins a long yarn. Mick Middles takes another swig of the magic potion, leans back and falls over. Photos by Steve Wright. Preamble . "I wanna tell you about maa two dogs, 'cos, 'cos they are luvlee." Beer breath exploded in my face. I step away from the bar in careful avoidance of the unsteady arm which I know is about to extend round my shoulders. If there is one thing I detest more than a violent drunken slob, it’s a friendly drunken slob. Unfortunately, this latter category are the only humans stupid enough to brave the terrifying frost on this most unromantic of Stockport evenings. On nights like this, all the cloth cap cliches you may wish to throw at the life of a northern town . . . will be gratefully accepted. They are all true, tonight. Like our football team, we have no defence. I’m not in here for drunken conversation. Merely for a mo...

 

Come and join the BARNEY ARMY NEW ORDER  GREATER MANCHESTER EXHIBITION CENTRE THE CRASH-FREE 125 that cuts it's steely way through the black heart of England towards Manchester Picadilly is overloaded with soldiers. An army on leave, they clot the exits, passages, and seats, resting on kitbags, draining McEwans, reading The Gunner , dozing, and jumping when nudged. They are accompanied down the track by the infantry of another force, armed with wild eyed stares, Walkmans, lager, and intent on dodging the fare. They are The Barney Army, bent on getting ‘Shellshocked’. Her Majesty’s boys are returning to their wives, parents and children, so the BA want to see their wife and child. However, their family is the musical brilliance of New Order, which is very special because (like the doomed conscript in ‘Love Vigilantes’) it might be the only family they’ve got. Outside the G-Mex centre the Barney Army are laying down their litres of vodka,...

STATE OF INDEPENDENCE CONFUSION REIGNS AS NEW ORDER CORRUPT THE USA. BY MICK MIDDLES, PIX BY KEVIN CUMMINS 'You just can't believe me when I tell you what you mean to me'. (New Order, 'Confusion') "Hello shitheads." (Pete Hook addressing audience in Washington) THE WEEK the image cracked. Two days before New Order arrive in New York — and you can feel it. The anticipation this band generates is phenomenal, unrivalled. Understandable maybe, if a general lack of activity prevails in these preceding days, but quite the reverse is true. This is a big week. Just about everybody seems to be here. A dreadful 48 hours of brash and unashamed ligging is taking place in and around the New York Hilton under the false monicker of 'New Music Seminar 83.' If British record company employees turn your stomach with their proverbial "'Tastic, 'tastic, must have lunch" attitudes, then the Americans caricature this into something totally grotesque. A...