Cuttings

THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN HOOK The members of New Order are beavering away at solo projects and the gossips are thundering. John Robb meets bass brute Peter Hook to discuss tension, 'Technique' and the truth about the Hacienda bar. Photo by Richard Haughton IN THE gloomy darkness of a Bury studio, hit by a sudden power cut, New Order bass beast Peter Hook is starting to bear an uncanny resemblance to James Anderton. The similarity between the hulking, Viking brute bassist and Manchester's top God cop can be attributed to both men's bristling beards and no-bullshit philosophy. But, fortunately for us, Hook treads a far more agreeable path than the police chief. This year, the world's biggest bumbling pop outfit have built on their megabuck successes of 1983, when remixes of fusty old material were launched chart wards like primed ballistics. The reapparance of that old carthorse, ’Blue Monday', in the chart meant a happy bank manager and the consolida

WORKING CLASS CLASSICS They may be one of the most influential bands of all time, but New Order still have to graft to earn a living. Newsnight presenter Jeremy Vine - who was once a teenage fan - finds out why She sits, she pants, she licks her lips. She jumps up and down as New Order's bassist thumbs an opening bar of their classic Atmosphere. But when the band launch into the funkiest number from their new album, she flounces off the stage and barks at them. Not that Mia, the bass player's cocker spaniel, is any guide to the difference between the music then and now. After so many hours in rehearsal, camped a metre from the amps, the poor animal is probably stone-deaf anyway. But her choosiness says something about the market New Order is resurfacing into: being the sacred remnant of the even more sacred Joy Division doesn't count for much in the land of Boyzone and Atomic Kitten. Make the wrong move, you're dogfood. So when I arrive to see them preparing

"LET'S FACE IT, BIRDS ARE THE DRIVING FORCE...” NEW ORDER DENY EVERYTHING (Part Two) Can this blunt ejaculation by NEW ORDER'S Barney really explain the impetus behind the planet's most popular cult? Drunk on 'Technique' and Mao Tse-Tung’s best bitter, DANNY KELLY and the fantastic four consider confusion, imitation, television and motivation. Pictures: LAWRENCE WATSON. Our story so far: to avoid being interviewed in Buenos Aires, the erratically brilliant, brilliantly  erratic pop group New Order have financed a military coup in Argentina. Undeterred, the intrepid journalist has trailed them to a classy Chinese eaterie in a part of Manchester where armed-force insurrection is proscribed in local by-laws Here New Order continue to treat all questions with their habitual mixture of Peter Hook's ebullient certainties, Bernard "Barney' Summer's knowing, mischievious mock-caution, and Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Moms' polite evasiveness

THE DREAM THAT NEVER ENDS Touched, perhaps, by the hand of God? Certainly NEW ORDER can seem to do no wrong. Fiercely independent and singleminded, they’ve cruised through the ’80s on a fuel of unswerving critical devotion and ever-greater mass popularity. 'Technique’, their long-awaited new LP, will shoot them to still loftier peaks. An exhausted DANNY KELLY emerges from an epic in-depth interface ( that's a Chinkie and a chinwag - Ed ) with the band’s fine line on Bolshie builders, Acid parties, subsidised slavery, surviving mistakes, soundtracking synchronised swimming and working with Frank Sinatra. And that’s just Part One! Order border: LAWRENCE WATSON. In my dream it's May, 1980, and Ian Curtis is late for a Joy Division practice. Hands buried deep in the pockets of that baggy mac, his purposeful walk comes to a sudden, startled stop. From the rehearsal room he was headed for comes a music of awesome rhythmic power and dizzying contrasts between shining light a

WHICH MEMBER OF NEW ORDER LOVES BALLROOM DANCING? Come again? Alright, do any of New Order listen to George Hamilton IV? Have any of them ever heard 'Walk On The Wild Side'? And what is it about Steven's cardigan? You thought New Order were deadly serious - oh brother, are you in for a surprise Story: Stuart Bailie Photography: Joe Shutter Why don't we just kick off with the obvious here, and find out why New Order have called their fourth, and latest, album 'Brotherhood'. Peter Hook obliges with the explanation. "Recently, all of us have been through a little bit of adversity in one way or another. But the thing was, we decided to stick together with Factory and with the Hacienda, and everything. So we thought it was quite a nice idea - what 'Brotherhood' represented. Actually staying together. Which is what we've done, against all odds really. "Nearly all of us, including the road crew and everyone we've been associated with

PRINCESS OF WAILS BJORK Debut (One Little Indian/All formats) LET'S ADMIT it, the Sugarcubes resided in a border town south of Obscure and just north of Wacky. They juddered and lurched like difficult children, throwing toys against walls, scratching non-existent itches. They were the Euro B-52's. But there was, above everything, that voice, an alien screech that coughed up puffin feathers, cracked, screeched and soared like nothing you'd heard before. Five years on and 'Birthday' still sounds ridiculously stark and extraordinary because of it. But, then, as you found yourself consumed by its strange beauty, in walked Einar The Irritant barking a bizarre psycho-babble rap, bringing even the most goo-goo eyed back down to earth with an ugly bump. It should, therefore, come as some relief to find Bjork left to journey alone without the ideas of a group cluttering up the landscape.  The surprise, though, is that she has fashioned an album as elaborate, u

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?&q