Cuttings

INTERVIEW: CHRIS HEATH It's easy, looking back, to see how New Order became so mysterious, to see why they've managed over the years to give so little away. Back in the late '70s when the three male members were in Joy Division no-one wanted to talk (or listen) to them, and when eventually they did achieve a small measure of success it was to singer and lyricist Ian Curtis that journalists flocked. He danced on stage as if repeatedly jolted by an electric prod in his spine and wrote dark brooding melodramas that he refused to explain — people automatically assumed that he was the group's genius. The other three, whatever they were called, were by and large treated as the able backing musicians, the channel through which Curtis' genius was allowed to explode (never mind that, even then, they wrote all the music). Their silence was only hardened when Curtis died in 1980 — hanging himself one evening in circumstances which no-one has been able to, or more likel

ONE NATION UNDER A GROOVE Uneasy in the charts, uneasy out of them, NEW ORDER remain an enigma. On the release of their "Brotherhood" album, Ted Mico takes to the road and discovers bliss in confusion. Photos: Tom Sheehan NEW Order are a good rock 'n' roll band. Discuss. New Order are just a good rock 'n' roll band. Decide. New Order are just another rock 'n' roll band. Dispute. New Order are . . . ". . We're a little more than that!" Sorry. Let's start that sequence again. New Order are little more than that "You've forgotten the 'a'! Disgusting. 'A' little more than that!" Sorry. But that's New Order all over (again). A missing letter, a few lost words, and a mountain of mislaid paragraphs. There's always a missing link. There's always a lie between phrases. There has to be to keep the band alive. Some music refuses to be contained within idle propositions and meek

ALL ABOARD THE BROTHERSHIP Not baited and not bearlike, NEW ORDER emerge from the shadow of past misunderstandings and smile benificently upon ROY WILKINSON. They manage to convey their new sense of adjustment and quite a bit besides while remaining evasive, but RUSSELL YOUNG still pictures bared souls  THREE QUARTERS of New Order are sitting in their extremely nice, extremely comfortable Manchester rehearsal rooms, autographing album covers and waiting. They're waiting to do an interview (something they never used to do), waiting to set out on tour (another thing they never used to do), waiting to release a single, ‘State Of The Nation' (any moment now) and waiting to release their fourth album, ‘Brotherhood’ (for the end of September). The album makes me quite willing to cash in all my superlatives in one fell swoop and wish l could afford a compact disc player (my poor old hi-fi can't handle it at all ), but right now I’m just watching Bernard/Barney Albrecht/

SHOCK OF THE NEW "You don't have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude" - Prince "I have no attitude without a cigarette " - Lou Reed "I wouldn't mind being a thief" - Bernard Albrecht Temptation, confusion, disillusion. Experience, true colours, and the meaning of life, before and after drinks. NEW ORDER answer, CHRIS ROBERTS questions, PETER ANDERSON sees music as art IN A Newcastle hotel bar with an attractive chandelier the Grace Kelly of pop ventures a “Hullo” better late than never. Hook volleys a “Hullo” back and Albrecht goes “Wheeeuuurrr”. He tries again, and manages “Aaaarrrhhh”. A publicist with a brain to match his legs buys us Scotch. Grace is nicely confused. Two men carry six television sets out of the lift and stack them neatly on the stairs. A hunchback lopes past. The two men reappear with three more television sets. We go to The Tube . Kelly’s eye fixes on a door which all the children can go in through. GILLIA

HOME ECONOMICS NEW ORDER ARE 'THE WORLD'S MOST SALEABLE CULT BAND'. HOW, AND WHY, HAVE THEY MAINTAINED THEIR STATE OF INDEPENDENCE IN THE FACE OF CORPORATE TEMPTATION... By Dave Hill Photographs by Steve Speller Filed in a cabinet somewhere in the North of England - or maybe just deep in the imagination of one of its signatories — there lies a piece of paper which effectively proclaims: “New Order owns the music and Factory owns nothing". It is signed by two significant people. One is Rob Gretton, New Order's manager since they were Joy Division. The other is Tony Wilson, Mancunian motor mouth and media mole, a man with a head full of concepts and a telephone in his car. Pray silence, seekers after knowledge, Mr Wilson is about to hold forth. "In 1977, when I was a journalist doing TV programmes about it, I thought that independent record labels were about not being a nursery for the majors. But by '78, when I had my own label, we were a nurs