New Order - Oxford 27 March 1986
NME- DISORDERLY CONDUCT NEW ORDER Oxford THE IMPERFECT kiss. Tonight I should have stayed at home and played with my pleasure zone. I believe in the land of New Order, an ice dust island of volatile emotions entwined with electro-wash creepers and rhythmic sidewinding snakes of shake. For myself, I bring in the carrier bag of my mind expectations of the excellence this group are capable of and fears for the indulgences that sometimes crack their crystal citadel of noise into a million jagged edges. Tonight the latter prevailed, and unfortunately, it wasn't even funny. The sub-culture New Order have constructed for themselves - and it is just that, an aesthetic separateness - is now under serious threat precisely because of their dancefloor popularity. They attract a large number of stiffs for whom the band is a soundtrack to mewling and puking. I know that sounds like an elitist statement but it's something that the band are unable to cope with other than by rever...