1996 08 New Order Vox
Mancunian City Blues
Apart from a new Electronic album, everything's gone quiet in the NEW ORDER camp. Through the NME archives, we look back at this seminal band's career, from their early days as proto-miserabilist JOY DIVISION to their reinvention as dance culture's elder statesmen, Here are the young men...
Research by Ian Fortnam and John Perry
FROM SPIKED hair to where? When punk rock degenerated into a sad cliché, many of its second-
generation protagonists had to reconsider their tack and embrace a brave new world.
One such combo were Warsaw. And so, in 1978, Ian Curtis (vocals), Bernard Dicken (AKA Sumner/ Albrecht) (guitar), Peter Hook (bass) and Stephen Morris (drums) changed their name to Joy Division, developed a minimalistic sound and hijacked the musical zeitgeist with one of the finest albums of the decade, ‘Unknown Pleasures'.
Those who witnessed their live shows were stunned by vocalist Ian Curtis, whose jerky, spasmodic choreography and disturbing vocals dominated the band's aural atrocity exhibition. From the beginning of their career, the NME was transfixed by the band’s revolutionary style, and reported enthusiastically on their every move.
Despite their career being in the ascendant, Curtis was sinking deeper and deeper into debilitating bouts of depression - he suffered blackouts on stage and and one occasion an epileptic seizure - and the band’s punishing workload was simply aggravating his ever-worsening condition. On May 18, l980, on the eve of an American tour and at his creative peak, Ian Curtis hanged himself.
The band’s posthumous output - the heartrending single ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart' and lyrically harrowing album ‘Closer’ - were to surpass all expectations, and the full tragedy of the loss of the unfortunate Curtis finally hit home.
The remaining members continued as New Order. But with their first single, ‘Ceremony', they seemed to be merely extending the Joy Division legacy, and it wasn't until 1983's ‘Power, Corruption and Lies' that the band forged their own identity. Their new sound found them experimenting with cutting edge keyboard technology and even bringing echoes of (the then taboo) sound of dance music into the insular indie arena. Their vision was fully realised with the release of ‘Blue Monday' - the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time - a masterful fusion of digital dance music and understated vocals.
New Order continued to shine during the '80s, working with a succession of name producers Arthur Baker. John Robie and Stephen Hague). but by the turn of the decade, rumours of a split in the ranks were fuelled by a series of extra-curricular activities from all four members.
Bernard Sumner hooked up with Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys and ex-Smith Johnny Marr to record as Electronic. Peter Hook chose to rock out with Revenge, and Morris and Gilbert recorded an album as The Other Two.
So, have we heard the last of the Sumner whine? Apparently not. Electronic have finally delivered their long-awaited second album, so what better time then to plunder the NME back issues and
retell the fascinating tale of Joy Division and New Order?
June 3, 1978: Joy Division are reviewed for the first time by Paul Morley at an unnamed Manchester
venue. "They’re a dry, doomy group who depend promisingly on the possibilities of repetition, sudden stripping away, with deceptive dynamics, while they use sound in a more orthodox hard rock manner than either The Fall or Magazine. They have ambiguous appeal"
September 9, 1978: Under the headline 'Merciless joy-bringers' Morley reviews the band live in
Manchester, and notes: 'Their music is mercilessly attacking, it rotates, persists, repeats, always
well balanced. Ian Curtis on voice, reacting to the musk as if on a hot plate, discovers the scope within tonal limitations."
January 13, 1970: lan Curtis adorns the cover of the NME. smoking a fag and wearing his trademark mac. The feature inside, 'New Stirrings On The North West Frontier', finds NME (again) waxing lyrical on the burgeoning Manchester independent scene, Joy Division are seen as the city's brightest hope.
July 14, 1979: In a review of ‘Unknown Pleasures', Joy Division's starkly compelling debut LP, NME
describes it as "an English rock masterwork. Listen to this album and wonder, 'cos you'll never love
the sound of breaking glass again. This band has tears in its eyes. Joy Division's day is closing in."
August 11, 1979: 'Take No Prisoners, Leave No Clues' is the heading for NME’s first Joy Division
interview. Ian Curtis, ostensibly riding the crest of the 'Unknown Pleasures’ wave, is feeling nostalgic: "I used to work in a factory and I was really happy because I could daydream all day. All I had to do was push this wagon with cotton things in it up and down. But I didn’t have to think. I could think about the weekend, imagine what I was gonna spend me money on, which album I was going to buy... You can live in your own little world."
November 17, 1979: In the midst of the unquestioning acclaim, a dissenting voice is heard. Mark
Ellen reviews the band as they support the Buzzcocks at The Rainbow: “Close up, Joy Division are
quite intriguing, from a distance they’re oppressive as hell. I remember Wire wearing the same
regulation grey/black threads 20 months ago and playing a set that was almost as excruciating."
April 19, 1980: The strain begins to show as an unwell Ian Curtis is helped offstage after just five
numbers at The Moonlight Club. But Neil Norman raves all the same: "They are not only a band with a future, but also a considerable present. Joy Division convince me that I could spit in the face of God."
June 14, 1980: After six weeks of industrial action, the NME is back on the shelves. An emotional cover story reports the suicide of Ian Curtis on May 18. Paul Morley and Adrian Thrills try to make some sense of the tragedy: "When we listen to past and future Joy Division records, the myth takes on new shape and stature. Our memories add to the myth. Ian Curtis' own myths, the myths he dragged up from the deep and tuned to our reality, inspire it. The myth gets stronger. Ian would love this myth."
June 28, 1980: Paul Rambali makes 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' his Single Of The Week. There is an air of inevitability about his decision. "You knew this was going to happen. I make no apologies. It's impossible to suppress the legend that will enfold this group like the magnificent gothic shrouds of their music. The title is more poignant than you could guess. The sleeve looks like a tombstone. It is a tombstone."
July 19, 1980: Charles Shaar Murray reviews 'Closer', Joy Division's 'posthumous' second album: "It would be demeaning to all concerned to treat 'Closer' as some sort of elaborate musical suicide note. 'Closer' is as magnificent a memorial (for Joy Division as much as Ian Curtis) as any post-Presley popular musician could have. Aren't you glad to live in the kind of times that make people produce music like this?"
February 14, 1981: The remaining Joy Division members (plus Gillian Gilbert on keyboards) have reformed as New Order. They make their British live debut at London nightclub Heaven, but NME is hesitant: "Their sense of occasion got in the way. New Order are incomplete. The (mainly Albrecht) vocals are boyish, fragile, uncomfortably mannered, the music is so delicate it desperately needs perfect sound quality. It was a relief to get it over with."
February 28, 1981: Chris Bohn reviews New Order's debut single 'Ceremony': "This goes on to fulfil all expectations. A stunningly effective, simple instrumental intro, based around a characteristically melodic Hook baseline sets the premonitory mood for Albrecht's beautiful, fragile vocal. A painfully shy, revealing single - its first words sum it up best 'This is why I get so nervy/ Define it all - a different story...' Indeed it is."
March 12, 1983: The ever-contrary Julie Burchill reviews the remarkable 'Blue Monday' in tandem with the latest Ruts DC single. Apparently: “it's a bit like Harold Robbins writing a book called War
And Peace. It calls itself a double A-side. but it’s a double B-side’
May 7, 1983: Paul Du Noyer gets to grips with the second New Order album, 'Power, Corruption and
Lies'': "The new sound is vigorous and exhilarating, brisk and stripped of undue preciousness. New Order are simply getting on with it."
May 18, 1985: New Order finally emerge from the confines of the recording studio with 'Low-Life', their third album. Richard Cook likes what he hears: "'Low-Life' is celestial: it seems to gaze down from heaven. The sound is all ice and glass and brittle bells. When Albrecht sings it's a sound that's so human, in the midst of pop's throng of digital voices, it seems unearthly."
November 16, 1985: In the 'Out Of Order' cover feature by Cath Carroll, Peter Hook volunteers: "Everyone thought that Ian [Curtis] was incredibly 'deep'. He wasn't. Most of the time he was a complete tosspot. Well, not a tosspot, but an average bloke."
world ', that they ate soup in China which was "sort of dishwater with a bit of privet in it" and that the band always carry their own teabags with them when on tour.
July 18, 1987: Reviewing the latest glut of singles, David Quantick comes across the current offering from New Order - 'True Faith' c/w '1963': "Both these songs emphasise the fact that what instruments New Order play and what words they sing are of the slightest relevance, since the records are quite simply excuses for reassembling minor chords over huge rhythm tracks, and thereby tugging your heart out."
December 12, 1987: Neil Taylor makes 'Touched By The Hand Of God' his Late, Great Single Of The Week: "New Order are the thinking man's Pet Shop Boys. Albrecht and Co are producing their best records as their career as a band wanes. This is the perfect single. The perfect single for New Order to split up on."
December 19, 1987: James Brown interviews the band in Dusseldorf, and finds Peter Hook in modest mood: "We're the only respected band in music, mate. We're the only truly independent band, we're the only ones that do things because we want to do them. There isn't anyone comparable to us. You must know that." Stephen Morris, meanwhile, casually dispenses with the legend surrounding their earlier incarnation: "Joy Division? We were four guys who used to get pissed a lot. And then you find out that this guy who used to get pissed a lot is some sort of intellectual genius.”
January 7, 1989:James Brown goes to Manchester and witnesses scenes of euphoria at G-MEX: "The love flooding back towards the stage can't all have been created by Ecstasy, Dynasty or Fantasy. It seems that New Order make such exciting and fulfilling music that devotion is unavoidable. Never have I seen so many people watch so much music that continually challenges and breaks through the quality barrier.”
January 28/February 4, 1989: A massive two-part interview with New Order in Buenos Aires. Bernard Sumner reveals the secret of the band’s ongoing success: “If someone asked me to play a scale in E minor, I wouldn't know what the fuck they were on about.”
Peter Hook seems intent on belittling The Smiths and specifically Johnny Marr. “With most bands," he says, “if you take the vocals away, the music that remains is diabolical, and I think that applies very strongly with, for instance, The Smiths."
The January 28 issue also carries a review of their new album, 'Technique', which reflects the feel-
good atmospheres of acid house and balearic beat. “This record reveals a talented, unmysterious
foursome, unafraid to face the fact that they too can have a good time. And this is a very fine time indeed."
November 11, 1989: Peter Hook's hard-rocking side-project, Revenge, is the subject of a cover feature by Steven Wells. The party line is that Hooky has not left New Order, and Dave Hicks, Revenge’s guitarist, speaks very highly of his new boss: "He’s hilarious. He gives us free drugs. He’s a fucking half-breed viking twat."
December 9, 1989: Bernard Sumner has teamed up with Johnny Marr as Electronic. Reviewing their
debut single. Getting Away With It’ NME calls it: "The most complete pop record of the week, by an
infinite margin."
May 19, 1990: NME announces "the last straw for Joy Division fans" as New Order team up with the England national football team to record 'World In Motion', the official song for the 1990 World Cup.
August 18, 1990: Presenting "The first supergroup of the '90's", NME encounters Electronic, in Los Angeles, where the band play their debut did (with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of The Pet Shop Boys) at Dodgers Stadium as support to Depeche Mode. Barney explains how he initially hooked up with Ex-Smith Johnny Marr: "We were in the toilet, having a slash, and I just said to him: 'Do you fancy making this album?' He said yeah. With both our outside things, Hooky and I have been accused of just having hobbies, but the truth is that when I started in Joy Division, that was a hobby."
Meanwhile, Gillian and Stephen are working on their project, wittily titled The Other Two. A single, 'Tasty Fish', is released in October '91.
April 10/April 17, 1993: After a long silence, New Order return to the cover of the NME for another mammoth two-part interview.
Following Factory Records' collapse into bankruptcy, the band have signed to London Records and are about to release their sixth album (and their first in four years), 'Republic'. Peter Hook expresses his regret at his former label's demise: "I was very sad about Factory, it was one of the saddest moments of my life, actually - apart from when he died, what was his name?"
August 21, 1993: "Is this the end of the road for New Order?" asks the NME's cover line. The band are about to top the bill at the year's Reading Festival and Betty Page wonders if it will be the band's final performance. Barney keeps the kids guessing "If we were going to split up - and nobody's mentioned it to me, we haven't discussed it - we'd announce it in advance. I can't say at this stage whether it's the last show."
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