Cuttings

Mancs again THE OTHER TWO SUPERHIGHWAYS London ★ ★ ★ New offering from New Order duo FIVE eventful years have elapsed since Steven Morris and Gillian Gilbert delivered their debut collection of mellifluous but somewhat anodyne disco-pop. New Order split and regrouped. Bernard Sumner found acclaim with the occasionally sublime Electronic. Peter Hook exorcised his past with Revenge and Monaco. Dance music evolved almost beyond recognition. And now the self-effacing duo are back with another collection of, ahem, mellifluous but somewhat anodyne disco-pop. Ho hum. It’s 1992 again. Welcome to the placid house revolution. Ironically, the most obvious reference point here lies not in Steven and Gillian’s illustrious past but rather with Dubstar, the armchair electro-pop trio sometimes dismissed as pale New Order copyists. Not such a damning comparison in the grander scheme of things - Dubstar can be classy operators when they try - but hardly inspired parameters for two members of

NEW ORDER formed in the aftermath of lan Curtis’ suicide and the demise of Joy Division, and went on to become the most culturally significant British band of the past 20 years. But their career was always fraught with drug excesses and internal arguments that bordered on open warfare, and they finally split in 1993. For five years, they didn’t even speak to each other. Back together at last, they look back on their years of trauma and achievement in this definitive interview with Paul Lester AND NOW, FOR THE VERY LAST TIME - JOY Division!" It is July 16, 1998, and Alan Wise local comedian and former manager of Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico - is onstage at the Manchester Apollo, having just hailed the arrival of New Order. Eighteen years, two months and two weeks after Joy Division’s last ever concert, his announcement is, all things considered, both comical and possessed of mythic significance. Would it mean as much to introduce Oasis as The Rain? Electro pioneer Arthur