Cuttings

"Are you a good person, or are you a twat?" That's how you should judge people, says BERNARD SUMNER. Whether in JOY DIVISION or the returning NEW ORDER, he's dealt with both kinds. Now the author of a memoir, Bernard meets Uncut to discuss Ian Curtis, scooters, Wishbone Ash, and pointedly, his former colleague Peter Hook. "He likes the attention," says Bernard, "I think he resented the fact he wasn't the singer in New Order". Story : John Robinson |  Photograph : Sheila Rock BERNARD SUMNER MEETS Uncut wearing the all-purpose attire of the downtime celebrity: nondescript baseball cap, dark glasses, neither of which he removes. He drives a black Mercedes sports car - as it turns out, at considerable speed, allowing his passenger to experience the picturesque environs of this semi-rural, footballery part of Cheshire as a rapid montage of looming, ivy-covered walls, concealed entrances and tight turns. The white-knuckle journey to a suitably quiet

DREAMS NEVER END From the tragedy of Ian Curtis's suicide, NEW ORDER emerged as one of the defining groups of their generation. With a new boxset devoted to their debut album Movement due, BERNARD SUMNER, PETER HOOK, GILLIAN GILBERT and STEPHEN MORRIS recall faltering first steps, the mystical Witch Doctors of Zimbabwe, a Hells Angel with a taste for LSD, a run-in with Britt Ekland's brother and a curious incident involving Pink Floyd's stage gear. "It was amazing that we survived, really," Sumner tells Stephen Dalton. Photo by KEVIN CUMMINS Looking back nearly 40 years, Bernard Sumner is weighing up his complex feelings towards New Order’s difficult early days. “When we first started New Order it was both a burden and a blessing,” he explains. “People were interested in us because obviously we were Joy Division, but it was a burden in that we couldn’t be Joy Division. We had to reinvent everything, but we’re not rock chameleons like David Bowie or Madonna. We d

CROWNING GLORY Twenty years ago this month, The Smiths were battling drink, drugs, depression and lawyers. They should have split up. Instead, they created their masterpiece, The Queen Is Dead. On the eve of its 20th anniversary, Smiths biographer and Uncut contributor Simon Goddard travels to Manchester where Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce reveal all about the album of the '80s... and disclose just what it would take for The Smiths to reform. Photography: Stephen Wright I'M ALONE, AND I'M OUTSIDE what used to be Morrissey's house: 384 Kings Road in Stretford, Manchester. A car pulls into the driveway next door. An elderly gent climbs out, takes one look at your man from Uncut and shouts over: "He doesn't live there any more. Him. Smiths." It turns out the neighbour can remember when the young Steven Patrick Morrissey did live there, albeit vaguely. "You never saw him much," he says, which tallies with the singer's mythological