Cuttings

TANGLED UP IN BLUE They play live infrequently and seldom give interviews, but NEW ORDER have steadily built up a massive following which kept their single, "Blue Monday", in the charts. Frank Worrall cornered singer and guitarist Bernard Albrecht and demanded answers. For once, Bernard obliged. Behind the lens: Kevin Cummins IT'S one o'clock in the morning at Manchester's Hacienda Club - and all's not well. A beleaguered-looking Rob Gretton, manager and joint owner of the club, sips another beer and replies simply but honestly when I ask how well the club is pulling in the punters. "Terribly," he sighs. "Bloody terribly!" You can sympathise with the man. While he and New Order, who, of course, he also manages, have ploughed vast lumps of cash from their staggering record sales into the club, most Mancunians don't seem to give a toss. It's outrageous really. Before the Hacienda, they would be constantly bemoaning the lack of clubs i...

WE WERE ONLY BEING BORING ELECTRONIC  GLASGOW BARROWLANDS WHAT IS more important - music or love? Ask the couple who wander into the Celtic FC-obsessed pub before the gig. She’s wearing the Smiths shirt. He’s got the New Order one. Is this a cultural coupling of titanic proportions, or just a marriage of convenience? The jury has left the building. So the crowd screams a screechy scream every time Barney Albrecht indulges in a spot of ravey wiggling. So the crowd crows further when Johnny Marr gives out nonchalant homeboy-style flicks of the wrist. So the boy looked at Johnny, and then at Barney, and then at their four knob-twiddling mates and wondered, well, are the Gods taking the piss, or what? The kids want Electronic. Wide-eyed with wonder and desperate to dance, they need Electronic to plug the vacuum the Mozzer, Revenge, The Other Two and the bloke in the Buzzcocks have all failed to fill, In spite of the occasional thrill. The fact that The Smiths have as much to do with El...

Aloof New Order Mystique, controversy and tragedy have all played a disproportionate part in the rise of New Order (left), whose enormous success, and the zealous following they inspire, appears to contradict all the conventional wisdom about the making of pop careers. The keynote for New Order is anonymity - even aloofness. They eschew pop-paper interviews and glossy photo-spreads - even their live performances are infrequent. No photographs of the group ever appear on their record sleeves, nor even credits. The cover of their most recent album, Power, Corruption and  Lies, f eatured only a solitary painting of a vase of flowers, not even the record's title or catalogue number. All this reflects the group’s proclaimed intention to present music 'without any of the peripheral rubbish around it’- a manifesto which has only sharpened the esteem in which they are held by their audience. An unmistakably earnest air pervades New Order, and it is a further paradox that '...

NEW ORDER "WE'RE JUST NICE PEOPLE" Eh? What about all that Doom and Gloom? asks Adrian Tierney- Jones. When New Order appeared in 1981 from Joy Division (whose lead singer Ian Curtis had committed suicide the previous year) their image was Indie Doom and Gloom. Things changed in a big way with the worldwide disco hit 'Blue Monday'. Now they’re one of the biggest live concert draws in the UK and their LPs (of which ‘Brotherhood’ is the latest) sell by the lorryload. Backstage at a sold-out Royal Albert Hall the group come across as friendly, dry-witted Mancunians, totally unaffected by the obvious awe some of their fans hold them in. Singer Bernard ‘Barney’ Sumner was relaxed enough to chat away until a minute before they went on stage at this prestigious venue. . . How have New Order changed? "'Well we wouldn't be happy with doing the same sort of thing always. I hate repetition. I hate to write the same song twice, no four times, twice is alright. Th...

NEW ORDER  PUBLIC IMAGE LIMTED  THE SUGARCUBES IRVINE MEADOWS AMPHITHEATRE, CALIFORNIA THE HORRENDOUSLY-TAGGED "Monsters Of Alternative Rock" tour that will wend its way across the Northern US and Canada settled down for two nights in the No Man's Land between Los Angeles and San Diego. Irvine Meadows is a one-road-in, one-road-out kind of place where there's no public transport for the 15,000 punters (this is California - everyone drives), so it takes almost as long to get out of the car park as it does to watch the show. Just think about it: could three more divinely complementary bands be on tour together? A four-and-a-half hour, three-decade dancefest: PiL's tribal death disco that started twitching in the '70s and won’t keep still; the '80s synthesized sonic swathes of New Order; and The Sugarcubes' perverted pop for the '90s. The sky was turning orange and pink as The Sugarcubes strolled onstage. Wait a minute - that's two of the colours ...

"WE'VE GOT THIS FAR AND WE CAN"T EVEN PLAY!" So says New Order's Bernard Sumner. Dave Rimmer isn't saying anything. "Uuuugh! Who did that ?” bellows New Order's Bernard Sumner, nipping swiftly to another table in the pub. "Who farted?" He giggles, then accuses. "It was you, Rob. wasn't it?" "No," hurls back Rob. their manager, "it was you !" "We're feeling very accessible this year," Peter Hook is telling me meanwhile. "Accessibility. That's our catch-phrase." New Order? Accessible? Well, why not? Today is the morning after they recorded that TOTP , playing "Thieves Like Us" live. How did it go? "It's really weird," shrugs Hooky, "but the other groups come up and apologise for not playing live. They're alright at Top Of The Pops . Nice people." "We re a bit of a pain in the arse for them, I suppose," mumbles Bernard, almost apologet...

They hardly ever do interviews, and when they do, things don’t usually go that well. They can be unpredictable, uncooperative and sulky. So what’s all this about shoving snowballs up girls’ skirts? Chris Heath wonders if he’s talking to the right group. . . "We used to sit at the back of the class and copy off the people in front,” giggles Barney. "We used to flick ink onto Mr Alkyard, the teacher’s back when he walked past.” “And we used to get the swot,” sneers Peter, “take his bag off him, sit on him and take his homework." They both burst out laughing at the thought of all the daft things they used to do together at school. But wasn’t all this a bit, ahem, nasty ? Peter shrugs his shoulders. “Survival of the fittest in the jungle, isn’t it?” he says, and they carry on reminding each other of more of their antics. "Flicking first years’ ears was good fun,” he announces with the air of a connoisseur. “And shoving snowballs up girls’ skirts.. .just the normal thin...

MORRIS DANCING I AM writing to let all New Order/Joy Division fans know that Steve Morris is dead. I have all the evidence to support my claim. On the cover of 'Low Life’ he is looking the opposite way to Barny, Hooky and Gillian. Furthermore, he has been dead since before 'Power, Corruption And Lies’ as the outer sleeve has flowers on it and the inner bag is black as a mark of respect. You can also see Barny, Hooky and Gillian kneeling in the trees on the cover of Prefab Sprout's 'Steve McQueen’ LP. And furthermore, Paddy McAloon is praying for his soul in the ad for 'Couldn’t Bear To Be Special’. Lastly, ‘Elegia’ is a funeral hymn to his memory, and 'Sooner Than You Think’ is about early death. I hope I have been of service to the many NO/JD fans who did not previously know this. As Barny says ' In the end you lost your friend ’. More evidence which has recently come to light is that the message on the 'Power Corruption And Lies LP’ is 'Murder’, wh...

PUNK POLITICO THE METAMORPHOSIS of Liverpool's Derek Hatton into latter-day punk anti-hero was finally achieved on Saturday night, when New Order, The Fall and The Smiths staged a benefit gig, 'From Manchester With Love', at Liverpool's Royal Court, in aid of the councillors' Legal Appeal Fund. But Morrissey and Johnny Marr spoiled the Deputy Leader's Valentine party by choosing at the final curtain not to appear on stage with local combo The Lloyd Collection. With the mikes turned off. The Fall away and gone, and only Bernard Albrecht of New Order actively joining in, Lloyd's attempt at 'Maggie's Farm', sans Hatton, trailed off into a spasm of gobbing, can and bottle-chucking, effectively scuppering the grand political finale. Earlier, Hatton, self-consciously dressed down for the occasion in blue leather jacket, open-necked shirt and cords, pronounced himself 'dead made up'. And well he might, the Manchester bands' presence alone en...

MANCHESTER ON THE MERSEY Manchester bands flock together to save Liverpool’s council. Anna Martin wonders where the Liverpool bands have all gene. Kerstin Rodgers wonders where her spare film is. Two big groups, New Order and The Smiths, have both put their best side forward for the staging of the ‘Support Liverpool Labour Council’ Benefit, which has been organised in support of the 48 Labour councillors who have been put in court by the Official Receiver. As we wait outside, one smart-mouthed Scally quips that the benefit is actually to raise money to pay for the Royal Court’s electricity bill! GERM WARFARE At 7.55pm precisely, and with a minimal amount of stage elaboration/decor New Order take to the stage like germs to an open wound—fierce and assaulting. Bassist Peter Hook strikes his ‘guitar-hero’ pose and the band battle on relentlessly. Although not what you might describe as much to look at on stage, New Order save themselves with the classic ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. And song...

The Eternal Ian Curtis was "all things to all men". Even the people closest to him couldn't agree about him. Interviews by Richard Boon, former manager of the Buzzcocks. Kurt Cobain (In July 1993) I stayed away from Joy Division, because I’d heard a few of their songs and I knew that I would really like them. The stories that I’d heard about the band, I knew that’s the band to listen to out of all of them. I’m just waiting. I’ve always felt there’s that element of gothic in Nirvana. Bono The holy voice of Ian Curtis... They were an original of the species that later became goth. Never mind. Courtney Love When you hear a great song it touches your life. It affects you, it’s like a scent, it reminds you of something. You fuck to it, you feel blue to it, you feel great to it. It’s like Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control — that song meant so much to me when I was younger. Malcolm Whitehead Video director (The Birthday Party, The Fall, Cabaret Voltaire, etc) I filmed them in re...

JILL FURMANOVSKY JOY DIVISION, 1979 It was the first and only time I photographed Joy Division. I was shooting for one of the music press, and after the gig I went into the dressing room and took a few snaps. Nobody took any notice of me. It wasn’t like there was a bodyguard at the door. The band at that time were doing quite well, but they weren’t selling out stadiums or anything. It was probably a gig of less than 1,000 people. Ian Curtis was quite a cheerful fellow, not gloomy at all. They were just starting out and they were having a good time. It’s not posed. I’m a fairly discreet person. I’d say, "Do you mind if I take a few snaps?” I never spoke to Ian. I’m a photojournalist at heart. They do their thing, I do my thing. When I started shooting, I was only 18 and a nubile young lady. I used to wear baggy black clothes as a disguise. I was trying really hard to be a professional photographer in a fairly male-dominated industry and I didn’t want to be mistaken for a groupie.

Torn apart Joy Division and the death of Ian Curtis Joy Division were the most crucial of all the post-punk bands. But, on the eve of their first US tour, lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide. Within a year, they regrouped as New Order to become one of the key acts of the Eighties. Now, two decades on from their live debut, Joy Division release a definitive box set, and original members Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner talk about the rise and demise of Manchester's greatest export before Oasis. By Dave Simpson Futurama, Queens Hall, Leeds, September 1979. "The world's first science fiction music festival" - in an oversized tramshed reeking of beer and glue. But the future hasn't arrived yet, so people mill around, waiting for it to happen. Suddenly, a besuited 30-ish-year-old who, it turns out, is Granada Television presenter and fledgling record company boss Tony Wilson, emerges onstage to announce "The awesome Joy Division". The awesome who? A b...