From Manchester With Love - 08 February 1986
NME - THE SOUND & THE FURY FROM MANCHESTER WITH LOVE Liverpool Royal Court AND SO THEY came, grumbling down the East Lancashire Road - three container trucks full of drums and wires - with love from Manchester. So here we are. Listening to the psychotic violence of Peter Hook's bass leading us into 'The Perfect Kiss' and several hours of dark satanic pop in aid of the 49 Labour councillors up before the beak. New Order do what they've alway done. Switching on their machines they play Joy-less tunes for metropolitan cathedrals, so careless, so uncomplicated, so uncalculating, that splintered symphonies emerge just when they’re concentrating most intently on pleasing nobody but themselves. "Fuck off", requests the bald-headed Barn before scraping away at his guitar, his ear to the fretboard, his face contorted in a “I’m sure this is out of tune" fashion. I'm happy for them. New Order have jumped all over the carefully shorn privet h...