Cuttings

FROM DESPAIR TO WHERE? Hundreds of stars have over-indulged in order to sustain rock’n’roll's central tenet: Live fast, die young. Far fewer have taken the extreme decision deliberately to end their own lives with a bullet or a rope. Fifteen years after the death by suicide of Ian Curtis, the Joy Division singer’s ex-wife has written a book about his life. Why, asks Deborah Curtis, have no lessons been learned? In September 1979, a Manchester group called Joy Division showcased their latest single, 'Transmission', on BBC2's new-wave show, Something Else . The opening camera shots panned in on the members of the band, finally stopping on the ghost-grey frame of the singer, hunched over the microphone, his pale blue eyes half-closed in concentration. As the song went on, Ian Curtis became more animated, jerking his arms and knocking the microphone stand to the floor. No language just sound, that's all w...

THIS YOUNG WILL RUN AND RUN LOOKED LIKE WE'D LOST HIM FOR A WHILE BACK THERE, WHAT WITH THOSE RATHER ‘ODD’ ALBUMS AND THOSE CRANKY PRO-REAGAN SPEECHES. BUT NOW GOOD OL’ NEIL YOUNG IS BACK WITH A CRACKING NEW ALBUM AND PLANS FOR A 180-TRACK (!) COMPILATION. NICK KENT CAUGHT UP WITH HIM IN PARIS. NEIL YOUNG’S manager Elliot Roberts told me: “He’s doing interviews now because he’s got things he wants to say. There’s a lot of things going on in the world right now he wants to talk about.” But Neil Young thankfully kept his new supposed “caring humanitarian global” opinions to himself for this interview (“1 ain’t nobody’s ambassador of good will”). He looked awesomely tall, wearing an extraordinary long coat made from a multi-coloured horse-blanket that looked like Young had won it from a Red Indian wino in a card game. On anyone else, the effect would have looked disastrous, on Neil Young it looked ... well exactly how you would expect Neil Young to look. Overtly eccentric and very, v...

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE Ragged Glory ( Reprise ) LIKE BOB DYLAN (HIS CLOSEST CREATIVE COUNTERPART) Neil Young likes to keep his audience on its toes. For every critically acclaimed ‘classic’ that is punched out he will usually follow it up with a more relaxed offering, a set of rough sketches that sound equally ingenious as his more full-blown projects such as ‘This Note’s For You’ and last year’s stunning ‘Freedom’. This LP is one of those... a rock ’n’ roll reunion with his old partners Crazy Horse, a band that he has worked with sporadically since the early days of his solo career. 1987’s ‘Life’ (the last record they worked on together) was, for many, a disappointment. It had its moments but somehow the natural flow of the players was bogged down with an ‘environmentally conscious’ concept that weighed heavily upon their collective shoulders. ‘Ragged Glory’ is thankfully free of all inhibitions with both Young and Crazy Horse enjoying each others’ company, content to simply hor...

BONA CONTENTION MORRISSEY COULD PROBABLY HAVE DONE WITHOUT THE LAST YEAR, AND THERE’S A BEEN A FEW NONE TOO KIND HACKS AND HACKETTES WHO SAY WE COULD DO WITHOUT HIM. THE MUCH MORE SOLICITOUS LEN BROWN SHARES A CUP OF ROSY WITH THE HERO OF BED-SIT LAND WHO IS QUITE HAPPY NOT BEING PART OF THE MANCY CROWD, NOT PLAYING WITH JOHNNY MARR AND NOT HAVING A WHIPPET. PICTURES BY KEVIN CUMMINS AND PENNIE SMITH. WHEN I FIRST MET MORRISSEY, SOME 30 MONTHS ago the selected venue was the scene of Oscar Wilde’s arrest at Chelsea’s Cadogan Hotel. Our second discussion, in late ’88, centred on the desecration or decoration by Smiths’ fans of Oscar’s tomb in that Parisian boneyard Pere Lachaise. So I was naturally astonished, having been summoned by Terrace Stomp (sic) himself to Reading, not to find him tethered to Wilde’s slop-bucket in cell C33 of Reading Gaol. Instead, we tracked him down to the sleepy, rural Tudor pile that is Hook E...

ELECTRONICALLY TESTED FRONTSTAGE / BACKSTAGE REPORTS FROM CLUBS AND CONCERTS AROUND THE WORLD. THIS MONTH: LOS ANGELES. WHERE ELECTRONIC PLAY THEIR FIRST-EVER GIG — WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THE PET SHOP BOYS. IS THIS THE RETURN - ARRGH! - OF THE 'SUPERGROUP' ? REPORT: DANNY KELLY. PICTURES: KEVIN CUMMINS SITUATED SOMEWHERE BETWEEN HOLLYWOOD AND DISNEY World (and related to both!), the Dodgers Stadium - Los Angeles’ shrine to baseball - is literally fantastic. Part spaceship, part cathedral, its 60,000 scats are housed in brilliantly floodlit stands that tower endlessly into tile evening sky. Tonight those seats arc packed with an excited, predominantly female throng awaiting the arrival of Depeche Mode, the biggest British band, bar none, in these parts just now. But before that they'll see something that'll one day seem rather more important: the live debut of Electronic... Brainchild and plaything of New Order’s Barney Sumner and genius about town John...

DRIVNG AMBITION New Order have a new album, Republic, and a new record company, though their confidence was dented by Factory's crash. But as Hooky says, 'We're still on our feet'. So what forces them on? By Steve Malins Photos by BARRY MARSDEN Designer Ben Kelly may have dreamt of a chic, industrial-styled watering hole for Manchester's drinkers. But the reality of the Dry Bar is less enticing. "It has the atmosphere of a bus station", states New Order's Stephen Morris, who's invested a lot of money in the place over the years. "You wouldn't believe how much it cost to achieve that effect. And because of this ridiculous design concept the beer pumps lose about a gallon of the stuff every time they're used. They look nice but they're chucking money away.” As Morris pulls out a £10 note for another round of drinks, a bear-like, slightly grizzled Peter Hook stares in disbelief. "You haven't been paying, have you?...