Cuttings

SUB-CULTURE HA!  PRESENTING THE DARK SECRETS OF NEW ORDER. THEY SMILE, BERNIE GOES TO KINKY CLUBS AND THEY MIGHT EVEN SOUND LIKE MIKE OLDFIELD. CAT-O'-NINE-TALES: NANCY CULP PHOTOGRAPHY: JOE SHUTTER I was intrigued to say the least. A group I disliked intensely at best, despised with a volcanic ferocity at worst, requested my presence in Manchester to interview them. The gauntlet was well and truly thrown down. How could I resist the challenge? What, Nancy The Knife turn down a chance to confront those I considered to be the most inept, witless bunch of po-faced nonmusicians on the planet? NEVER! So it was, with admirable stoicism, that I did my research and spent an entire weekend drowning in the complete New Order back catalogue. I alternately hooted in hysterical laughter at the unbelievable lyrics, or fell asleep as Boring Bernie droned his way through yet another slab of angst, doom and despondency. I even began to wonder why I’d said yes, and had to be bodily restrained from ...

THE BOY IN THE BUBBLE  Finally -- yes, finally! -- Morrissey speaks -- cautiously, immodestly, pompously, arrogantly, defensively... Stuart Bailie probes Steven Patrick's balance of innocence and insanity, and discovers that, although the Smiths have once again swept the polls, their leading light conceals a surprising shyness and insecurity. Persona portraits: Patrick Quigly . Morrissey/Marr photo by Jo Novark. It takes all number of hitches, provisos and cancellations, but eventually our first interview with Morrissey in a year and a half is finalised. Indeed, sometimes along the way it seemed that negotiating for global disarmament would have made an easier, more thankful task. And then by way of a final dramatic flourish, we encountered a photo session that was unusual even by Morrissey standards. The transparencies which arrived (most of which were later vetoed by the singer) showed him pancaked and pouting, with a 'tattoo' pencilled on his forearm. The plan, ap...

DO THESE PEOPLE LOOK SERIOUS? WARNING: this New Order feature contains no soul-baring semantics or deep 'n' doomy description. It does, however, have rather a lot of jokes and some handy information about fishing and spanking. 'They have hours of fun.' says Eleanor Levy. Photography: Joe Shutter IT SEEMS years my petals, positively years. A darkened dance floor, a soft, vaguely droning voice bemoaning how badly a man can be treated. A sharp Arthur Baker production. 'Blue Monday' ringing out. Ah, those fair days when New Order finally became household names to Top Of The Pops’ viewers everywhere. 1983 — and 'Power Corruption And Lies' is released. The last New Order album — consolidating the strong following that's accompanied the band since the emergence of Joy Division. The images of acne-ridden youths in long macs that accompanied them then have never really been shaken off, despite the fact that New Order, if classified at all, are far more a danc...

Order, please DID YOU know that New Order think half their lyrics are garbage? That Peter Hook reckons their gigs are good for getting drunk and picking up girls? And that Bernie thinks Joy Division were four dumbos from Manchester? Will you ever be able to wear a long black coat and listen to 'Thieves Like Us' again? Read on... • AN AUDIENCE WITH BERNIE HOW DO you normally put together songs? Well, we rehearse three times a week We just jam. and put the jam down on to tape We'll use a minute of it to write a song around... say. a bass line, or a synth line Who writes the lyrics? I write about 60 per cent of them. There seemed to be quite a difference in the way you wrote between ‘Movement’ and 'Power, Corruption And Lies'. What sort of changes of attitude did you go through? Personally, when we wrote 'Movement', we were still in a state of shock from Ian dying. I think that was part of the reason for the way 'Movement' turned out. The other reason i...

FROM MANCHESTER WITH LOVE Manchester’s most enduring musical export since Freddie And The Dreamers has come of age. With the release of ‘Substance’, Roger Morton takes a wander through the life of New Order , from their previous incarnation as Joy Division to the Pernod-drinking, Bermuda shorts-sporting chart band of today On the TV screen, brightly costumed bubble figures are bouncing and fighting along in time to a glorious surge of yearning synth-pop. It’s the jolly surreal video for New Order’s chart hit ‘True Faith’, a serviceable piece of coasting techno dance which would do nicely enough for a weekend drive through the countryside. Once upon a time, when New Order were a different group called Joy Division, Bernard Albrecht/ Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris and their singer; Ian Curtis made the sort of music which many people thought could only do nicely for driving down a dark tunnel into a brick wall. Anyone old enough or bored enough to remember Joy Division might...

IT'S TIME THE TALE WERE TOLD... Johnny Marr's departure signals the end of the first chapter in the history of the Smiths. As Morrissey, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce prepare to carry on without him, this month will see the release of their fourth studio LP, ‘Strangeways Here We Come', Nancy Culp, who spent nine months as the group's press officer in 1984, looks back on their glittering career In the present climate of overnight pop success stories, the Smiths’ rise to fame looks positively Rip Van Winklean in comparison. But back in late 1983, when they burst forth on ‘TOTP’, in a shower of gladioli, with the vital This Charming Man’, they were proclaimed as being something of an overnight sensation. Yet the Smiths were formed back in 1982, at a time when the charts were dominated by Dollar and their ilk. It took them precisely one year to break the hold. Right from the start, there was a strong myth perpetrated about the strange Stretford lad Morrissey ...

WHICH MEMBER OF NEW ORDER LOVES BALLROOM DANCING? Come again? Alright, do any of New Order listen to George Hamilton IV? Have any of them ever heard 'Walk On The Wild Side'? And what is it about Steven's cardigan? You thought New Order were deadly serious - oh brother, are you in for a surprise Story: Stuart Bailie Photography: Joe Shutter Why don't we just kick off with the obvious here, and find out why New Order have called their fourth, and latest, album 'Brotherhood'. Peter Hook obliges with the explanation. "Recently, all of us have been through a little bit of adversity in one way or another. But the thing was, we decided to stick together with Factory and with the Hacienda, and everything. So we thought it was quite a nice idea - what 'Brotherhood' represented. Actually staying together. Which is what we've done, against all odds really. "Nearly all of us, including the road crew and everyone we've been associated with...

BLUE FAITH Over 200 weeks in the top 200, more than 800,000 12 inch single sales, five years in the chart...  And now New Order's 'Blue Monday' is back - 1988 style.  At the recent San Remo pop festival, Francesco Adolphi met Barney Sumner and Peter Hook who reveal 'we're not hip'  Bernard Albrecht and Peter Hook are sitting in the bar of one of San Remo's trendiest hotels. New Order embracing the rock 'n' roll carnival that is the San Remo pop festival? Surely not. Perhaps they've realised that San Remo is the only way to reach 20 million Italian viewers ... "The reason we are here," Peter Hook announces forcefully, "is that we as a band have never done play-back and when we were asked to play San Remo, we said that we wanted to play live. They said no, so we answered 'well, we won't do it!'. "But our record company implored us to play and we thought, 'well, we've never done p...