New Order

[androidgeoff]

tutti
frutti

Excellent show. We were all exhausted the next day

[Wolkenkrabber]

Released on 12" in Japan.

[Joslyn]

New Order have released Complete Music. A double album with all the extended versions of the trucks from Music Complete.
This one is the one to buy.

[Wolkenkrabber]

This is happening. Saturday night, the "Other stage". Announcement soon.

Source?

That ties in well with Underworld being busy on the Saturday...

Um, here. (you buying that?)

[Enjoyed]

Hmmm. Headliners could be pretty accurate. Pretty bummed to be missing LCD.
I'll wait for the official official announcement though to start getting really upset.

There's really not that much this year. Which is good as I tend to pair each day down to three acts I really want to see any way. But still, I'd like the choice.

[Fine Time]

Going  to  see  these  tribute  bands  at  my  local  live  music  venue  tomorrow  night  ,  should  be  good.  I've  seen  Transmission  before  ,  so  I  know  i'll  enjoy  them  ,  but  will  be  excited  to  see  and  hear  the  New  Order  tribute  for  the  first  time  ,  hoping  for  some  songs  off  Technique  ,  especially  Vanishing  Point.

       

[Fine Time]

Quick  Post  Gig  Review :  True  Order  are  a  seriously  good  New  Order   tribute  band  ,  if  they  ever  perform  in  your  area  check  them  out  ,  they  played  so  many  great  songs  from  New  Order's  back  catalogue  and  performed  recent  single  ' Singularity '  ,  . . .   they  ended  with  Temptation  ,  .  .  .  awesome !!!

[Wolkenkrabber]

People On The High Line isn't my fave song on the current album, but I gueess it has a catchy vibe that might work as a single.
The first of the remixes is HERE. I think there will be more mixes to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caIKPSadWi0&feature=youtu.be

[Wolkenkrabber]

^ All the remixes of POTHL are out now. These remixers may not be in their prime, but I like the fact that Hybrid and Planet Funk have tried to do something different with it. Especially as it was one of my least favourite tracks on the album.

[ThePumisher]

New Order releasing their own beer

http://www.nme.com/news/new-order/95571

[Enjoyed]

That Hybrid remix is great.

[ThePumisher]

People On The High Line

[Wolkenkrabber]

Fritz Von Runte was allowed access to the masters for the whole Music Complete album. His resulting remix album is available for free download. May be of interest to one or two of you.

[WhiteNoise]

I wrote up a huge review of the New Order concert in April for an English class I was in, and I can't believe I never posted it here. 10 months late but maybe you'll enjoy.



This washed over me. I was not in the most alert of states for this show, thanks to (we'll say) a lack of sleep and a very empty stomach, which isn't a lie – I'd eaten nothing since the bowl of cereal I quickly shoveled down at 9am. And I had been on my feet all day, snooping about downtown Chicago, and rushing to Bucktown where a custom shirt I'd designed the night before (hence the lack of sleep) was being printed. So despite my eagerness, part of me didn't realize how much I was experiencing in the moment.

New Order probably doesn't mean the same thing to me as it does to many people. To some, they're icons, and heroes, the ones who wrote the soundtrack to many teenage nights alone and far from it, nights that aren't coming back except on moments like these. To me, well. I wasn't there for any of that. I've only ever given a damn about them since 2009, when I heard a recording of the The Chemical Brothers playing part of Temptation live. Temptation drew me in, became a mainstay  – it was rock music I'd never heard anything like before – but the rest of their music was elusive. They became one of those bands I began appreciating more with age, coming back to every few months, and as I began binge-ing on their music in the week before the show, something in my 19 year old self started understanding in a way my 13 year old self absolutely couldn't. As much as I love them, though, New Order's always going to be my favorite band's favorite band. Like how you love the music your parents played you, it's for reasons that are at least once or twice removed.

This was why the crowd watching here was so damn good. All ages of people were here – kids were brought along by their 20 to 30-something parents, who still looked like they were entrenched in their high school's alt scene, similarly aged hipsters with beards and beanies and Joy Division shirts, people my parents age who looked like they were there when New Order happened, and even older – we met a couple on the metro in their upper 60s, who claimed to have been there since the beginning, and were reeking of youthful excitement to see them live for the very first time. The vicarious experiences of everyone in the room were enough to make the youth in the room wistful and nostalgic, and the more experienced dance like it was 20 years ago.

It was cinema when they took the stage – the combination of Wagner's Das Rheingold (Vorspiel), a thousand oceanic lights drenching the historic theater in heavenly patterns, and a few thousand more voices and cheers was breathtaking. The band took the stage, with roars of approval, and as the recorded orchestra faded, the band launched into Singularity, the lead single from their latest album. Complete with visuals of punks against the Berlin Wall, it's a strong opener, that they tear into without mistake. And everyone's sitting. For only specific artists would I want to attend a sit-down concert, and New Order is far from being one of them. Yes, it's a seated venue, I shouldn't be complaining – but it's more than a little frustrating that I have to be sitting for this.

Jarringly, after Singularity, the band goes right into Ceremony. Ceremony is a classic, a favorite, something you wouldn't blow so early on in the setlist, you'd want to save it for later where it would have some serious impact. So this was downright bizarre to hear so early in a show, when the crowd still isn't warmed up. A few people stood – one woman sporting a green shirt with the Ceremony sleeve art on it was jamming away a few rows back – but it was the combination of a few people deciding to make this their moment with the song, many people wanting to but feeling awkward about standing in front of anyone sitting, and a few people looking rather bored, that gave the song a strange atmosphere. It was like listening to a favorite song without paying attention to it, and only realizing it was on once it's over. To make things weirder, Academic followed Ceremony. It's a really simplistic and standard rock song, easily one of the most forgettable tracks off their latest album, and it didn't live up to the prestige that Ceremony half-delivered. In a strange way, actually, it was underwhelming in a way that fit the unexpected placement of Ceremony, and at the very least, segued nice. I was having a good time, but this wasn't the concert I imagined.

After the fact, I learned that Academic was a very recent addition to the setlist, and that Regret – one of my favorites, and an underrated classic – took the place of Ceremony after the Chicago date. Regret's a wonderful song and in my opinion, does a much better job of bridging between Singularity and Academic. I almost think I'd rather hear a set without Ceremony just to have more cohesion in that intro setlist, but for what it's worth, I'm extremely glad I got to hear Ceremony played live. I can't say it beats hearing the original March recording though, live it felt too fast and too organized.

Their 2001 comeback hit Crystal was next, happily. I really enjoy the song, and wasn't expecting to hear it, as I wasn't sure it was still considered part of their popular canon. The piano breakdown was very immersive. The backing vocals were pre-recorded, however – New Order has never had a female singer as a member of the group (unless you count the 3 or 4 times Gillian's spoken or sung on various tracks), but they've used session vocalists frequently, and I thought they might be touring with some backup singers to fill in those parts. I was a bit disappointed, as in my mind, this hurt my chances of hearing Nothing But A Fool played out live.

I should probably take a moment to talk about Nothing But A Fool, and by extension their latest album. Music Complete is easily their best album in ages – in some ways the most confidently 'New Order' work they've ever released, an album by a band that's doing exactly what it wants to, and knows how to do it. This is saying something exceptional, considering it's the first album without distinctive bassist Peter Hook, who had been with the group since the very beginning. Thanks to disagreements between him and Bernard Sumner that had been with the band likely ever since they started pursing a more danceable sound, Hooky left the band on very acrimonious terms. Hook's signature sound of high-bass sounds frequently used as a lead instrument was a defining part of many seminal New Order tracks, and many didn't believe the band could continue without him. Music Complete is something of a triumph then – as someone else put it, "without Peter Hook, this album is so much better than it has any right to be!"

And Nothing But A Fool, track 8 on the record, is one of the best songs they've ever written. It's up there with Temptation, Bizzare Love Triangle, etc. It combines a barren (almost spaghetti western) guitar soundtrack, an electronic Krautrock beat, soulful disco backing vocals, simple uplifting rhythm guitars and string arpeggios that could put U2 to shame, and a confidently vulnerable performance from Bernard to create an 8 minute masterpiece of music that couldn't have be made by anyone but New Order at the top of their game.

And those backing vocals are key part of the song. My fingers are crossed as the band ends Crystal and moves on into Restless, a song about excess enhanced by its obvious yet ambiguous music video, on display on the large screens in the background. Not to say the band wasn't enjoyable to watch – they were exactly as I expected them to be, in some ways more confident on stage than I'd ever expected. Stephen Morris, drum nerd, is gleefully pounding away at his kit and the sequencers surrounding him, Gillian Gilbert is resolute and deceptively shy, attending to her keyboards with quiet grace, and Bernard, in all his middle-aged glory, is honestly energetic on stage, engaging the crowd and delivering flawless vocals on top it all. Even Stephen Cunningham and Tom Chapman had presence, 'new guy' Chapman taking the stage and the applause as much as you'd expect the venerable Hook to have done in his heyday. Not that I had the best view sitting in our balcony seats, but I don't need to count their wrinkles to enjoy seeing an amazing band in 3D for the first time.

I mentioned everyone sitting, and nearly everyone still was. Those who were standing seemed to be mostly younger fans, those who came as a group for a party, while most of the 30 and up crowd were not on their feet – either they'd been like that the whole show, or had promptly sat down once Ceremony ended. It seemed the new album, and honestly most of their work since 2001, didn't do much for them, in spite of how over the moon I was about it. I was starting to worry I wouldn't have a chance to properly get my boogie on.

Luckily, I wouldn't have to worry about this for long.

[WhiteNoise]

(continued)

This concert's surprises were not limited to the strange opening set, and they got better as the show progressed. The next was the band launching into Love Vigilantes, a jangley upbeat song about a soldier coming home to find his wife recently dead on the floor, clutching a telegram reporting his death overseas. The song is a bit of a fan classic, it's the lead song off Low-Life and features a shockingly country sound that absolutely doesn't set the pace for the rest of the album. For the intro Bernard broke out the old melodica, a ridiculously old electronic flute synthesizer, to enormous cheers throughout the theatre. The crowd sang along to the song louder than before, and the mood finally felt like it had broken into "concert" mode, as if the first 5 songs had been warmups. The band's performance was spot on to the original, hardly a note off.

This led into an even bigger shocker. As Bernard held on to the melodica, a vintage sequenced synth riff started, motorik drums kicked in, and that silly little Kraftwerk ripoff from Power Lies and Corruption began in all its glory – Your Silent Face. This is a deep album cut, nowhere near a single, and I was blown away they were playing it! I've now learned that it's a song they've made a tradition out of playing live, it being another fan favorite, but in the moment I was convinced I was hearing something special – them playing the one weird tune off the album I love the most. The visuals were serene show-intro-style shots of the Earth passing by, the melodica was a hit again, and Bernard's "why don't you piss off" lyrical moment was met with cheeky whoops from the audience. Still, there were few standers – while these were hits with the 'original fans', they weren't the sort of songs you'd get up for.

Appropriately, the next two songs absolutely were: Tutti Frutti and People on the High Line. These two tracks seamlessly bridge into each other on the album, and couldn't be more disco if people tried blowing them up in the middle of a baseball stadium. It was a very smart choice to play the electronic Your Silent Face before this, as the concert had launched from post-punk and new wave rock to full on dance. Musically, the band was in fine form, improvising from the original song more so than they had done with the more traditionally instrumented songs at the start. And lyrically, Tutti Frutti read like a love letter to the fans (so much that I'd expected it to be played as the final song). People on the High Line, a mantra of passion and determination, flowed seamlessly out of Tutti Frutti and brought the funk in thanks to Cunningham's impressive guitar skills. The combined energy of the songs was commanding, the performance had truly entered its stride, and yes... most of the balcony was still sitting down.

I go on and on about people not standing - a big reason is that I'm just used to getting a little embarrassingly funky at shows. Dance moves you've never seen before are born when I'm getting down. And as much as I want to dance, I can't go about being rude to the people behind me, blocking their view with my sick moves. So I'm trapped in my seat, boogieing as happily as I can, but my lack of freedom is becoming frustrating.

My Footloose situation is not the main reason I keep mentioning the sitting. Here's why. As People on the High Line segues into its outro, without stopping the beat, elements from a new song start working their way in. At first they're unrecognizable – a new song, perhaps a remix of sorts, it doesn't sound like the build to any song we're all familiar with. But then it clicks, and I remember where I've heard that bassline before, and where that drum pattern is from, and I start grinning, because I know exactly what's coming. The 16th measure of this buildup reaches its end, signalling that it's about to loop around again, and as it does, Bizarre Love Triangle's lead synth burst into the mix as bright and clear as the day it came out.

da-da-duhda-da-duhdat-da-da

Like magic, the room roars up in applause, and the whole balcony is on its feet cheering in the space of 15 seconds – all for a single melody. It was incredible. The transition from a bunch of old fogeys passively accepting the new tunes to a mass of people cheering on a beloved aged hit was unbelievable. And it certainly wasn't that people went from quietly hating the new material to loving the songs they were raised with, but it was almost like we went from opening act to headliner, that the band we all wanted to see finally appeared, right at the moment the catchy melody started playing. Regardless of petty preferences, the whole crowd was finally on the same page again, dancing, and the positive energy was tangible. The performance of the tune was strong, an updated and live version of the Shep Pettibone 12″ remix (hardly different from the original except in length).

In the 7 minutes after BLT (obviously it's also a sandwich), I found myself falling in love with a song I barely knew. It had a haunting and beautiful 3 note sustained bassline, a perfect beat, bright synth sounds and the lyrics... the lyrics to Waiting for the Sirens Call, of all things. Waiting for the Sirens Call was a late-in-life and not very successful single from 2005, that most distinctively was extremely guitar driven. This version was a thousand times better. I unwittingly found myself "oohing" mostly in tune with the bassline and experienced a strong and pure out-of-body feeling that I hadn't felt since hearing Tycho perform A Walk at last summer's North Coast Festival. Much later, I found out that the version of the song was the Planet Funk remix of the tune, allowing me to come back to that experience... though of course, it was still better live.

Next was the last song off the new album they would play (forgoing Nothing But a Fool entirely, to my dismay, but that's okay – they haven't played it live anywhere apparently), Plastic. A sarcastic ode to the modern popstar and musically, a near homage to Donna Summer's I Feel Love, Plastic is a solid tune... but a bit of a letdown after the BLT call to arms and its surprisingly fantastic followup. The song is nice but it did feel dated in spite of being new, and didn't sound all that like New Order, a product of following the Moroder blueprint a little too closely. It was powerful enough to keep the dancing going into the final three song knockout, which absolutely brought the show home: The Perfect Kiss, True Faith, and Temptation.

The Perfect Kiss, New Order's first great single after Blue Monday (Thieves Like Us is too kitsch, and Confusion is just silly) and a personal favorite (thanks its unique instrumentation and incredibly clever and emotional lyrics) became the next highlight. It was a song I could confidently sing every word to, catch every beat, and the band themselves were particularly into it. The song's loud pre-chorus shout of "let's go out and have some fun" became a self-referential cheer for the night we were having.

This lead into a cryptic remix of True Faith, which I was unable to identify until visuals from the infamous music video started appearing in short distorted clips on the screens. True Faith is easily their most popular song, yet it's never been a favorite of mine, always a bit too serious for me to enjoy. But this live version (I still don't know if it's based on an existing remix) brought forth a better side to the song and took me away with it, and I was honestly enjoying it for the first time in my life.

Finally, the outro, back into a beat, and I could feel it in my bones, almost fearing, knowing, what song was going to come on next. It started unrecognizable like the classics before it, but it was about damn time for the song to be played, and the song's soul couldn't hide from me. Finally, Temptation! and I'm pushed into that realm of immersion where you partially forget you're at a concert, and it's just you and the song. I remember being loud, oohing and delivering lines with far more gusto than was called for, and grinning like mad. What a party. When the song broke into its breakdown before the final build, Bernard yelled "come on!" and the crowd began oohing the melody in unison. It was beautiful, and the opposite of what was asked for (the green/blue/grey eyes lines), which ended up extending the breakdown as the band rolled with the change, conducting it back into the build that was intended.

And that was it. Over the moon, ready for more, hit with Temptation, I watch the band leave the stage.

Thankfully, we were wise enough to see the house lights hadn't come on. Within minutes, the band retook the stage for a final encore. Starting with Atmosphere, they turn the encore into a small ode to Joy Division, bringing cheers from many Joy Division enthusiasts (and purists) throughout the theater. I have to say I wasn't into it as much, likely due to a lack of familiarity with a lot of Joy Division songs. Their songs were always a bit too dark and unrefined for my tastes. Still, Atmosphere's falling star synths and procession-like coolness was a treat for the ears.

Love Will Tear Us Apart naturally followed. It's a good song, but dare I say it again, I'm not a massive fan of this track. It's happy and sad and very very simple, good to dance around to, a classic but no masterpiece. I guess I had to be there. The visuals on stage were various shots of old Joy Division artwork, a picture or two of Ian Curtis and a few related words and messages – it was cool, and felt mostly sincere until towards the end of the song when "Joy Division Forever" appeared in bold letters across the screen. A good part of the crowd went nuts, and I stand there rolling my eyes a bit, mood killed. Come on. An ode is fine, but this is fetishizing. Just change the band name back to Joy Division if it's that important.

Things picked up again with the real final song of the night, (you guessed it), Blue Monday Green Thursday! In honor of St. Patrick's day, the band launched into a renamed rendition of Blue Monday (I guess the lighting guys didn't get the tip, as the show was still in blue). I was told by a few other people that it was a bit of a letdown to end on. Apparently people are a bit sick of Blue Monday in general and want it out of the setlist. Whatever, for me it was an absolute blast to end the night on, with the same catharsis you get from jamming to your favorite embarrassing song from your high school days at a wedding. Morris played the song standing up using the original drum synthesizer, and every catchy drum pattern brought the song higher and higher.

And like all things have to for some terrible reason, it ended as soon as it began. The Manchester musicians bid their final farewells and left for the green room, signalling goodnight to a good night. I grin to Geoff next to me, and nearly fall down the stairs, realizing then just how fast the concert had gone, just how much it had washed over me, just how tired and out of it I was... He makes a comment about not getting to eat since breakfast, and it clicks. We walk with Bosco to the train station, then catch a metro back to the apartment, where we chow down on chinese chicken, rant and reminisce about how awesome Temptation was live, and I catch three hours of sleep on a couch before dashing to the bus station, eyes red, shirt smelling, and mind dancing with burned images of legendary dance rock, hardly remembering that they never played Nothing But A Fool.

Damn it, they played Love Vigilantes and Academic, and NOT Nothing But A Fool??!? Okay, if I were drafting the setlist... where would I put it... maybe as the encore start...



I hope this makes up a little for a certain North Coast review still not being finished 

[Enjoyed]

Wonderful!

Thanks so much for sharing.
It truly felt like I was there watching the show unfold in front of me.

Wonderful!

[Wolkenkrabber]

Just had a speed-read. You definitey put some time/thought into this.

When I first heard Das Rheingold I felt a little deflated. Not because it wasn't beautiful but because I realised New Order had borrowed from it for All Day Long. I liked to think NO had written the full majestic track themselves.

And then Peter Hook mentioned that NO had borrowed from Hot Chocolate's Emily - for Theives Like Us. Peter Hook knew Errol Brown a little bit as Hot Chocolate were also Mancunian, so he bumped into him one day and said: I've borrowed your riff for my bassline, and according to Hook, Errol replied "Good for you Hooky!"

riff at 0.12

riff at 3.23

[Wolkenkrabber]

And Nothing But A Fool, ... is one of the best songs they've ever written....And those backing vocals are key part of the song.

Denise Johnson (of Primal Scream fame) and Dawn Zee (from the Get Ready era) who did the backing vocals on NBAF did perform with NO at their Warehouse Project gig in Manchester, 2015. But it seems not on that song. I believe Denise also went to their Castlefield Bowl gig in Manchester as a punter and commented on twitter that it was weird hearing her backing vocals coming back at her from the speakers. But not on NBAF. I got the impression from Bernard in a "Music Complete" interview thet he didn't think it would work live. Maybe he's right; a long track from the new album might have "lost" a large section of the crowd. I agree with you about the song though, I'd take it over Academic any day.

This led into an even bigger shocker... – Your Silent Face.

You may wish to browse through Setlist FM.

Appropriately, the next two songs absolutely were: Tutti Frutti and People on the High Line.

We were lucky enough to get Ellie "La Roux" Jackson on vocals when they did these two on the UK tour. But TBH I would have been happy with just one of them. I was getting bored by the end of "High Line".

Bizarre Love Triangle's lead synth burst... an updated and live version of the Shep Pettibone 12″ remix

It's basically the Richard X Mix:

Tour Visual 1:

Tour visual 2:

This lead into a cryptic remix of True Faith

It's a bit of a mish mash, with elements of Shep Pettibone's 1987 remix, but most obviously the 1994 Perfecto mix:

Finally, Temptation! .... I remember being loud, oohing...

The oohing used to be more prominent when (a) the crowd was younger and (b) there was space for people to "ooh" (see Temptation Live in Glasgow on youtube). They've filled that space with Lou Reed's Street Hassle. It works well with the track, but I think it discourages crowd participation. Is that a good thing? Open for discussion perhaps.

Joy Division songs. Their songs were always a bit too dark and unrefined for my tastes

Ceremony is a classic, a favorite

Ceremony was written and demo'd by Joy Division

Love Will Tear Us Apart naturally followed. It's a good song, but dare I say it again, I'm not a massive fan of this track... no masterpiece

I shall be dispatchng a team of highly trained ninjas accross the Atlantic to beat this opinion out of you forthwith.

when "Joy Division Forever" appeared in bold letters across the screen

Yes this was cheesy as fuck. Playing into the cult-y thing that they supposedly don't encourage.

Apparently people are a bit sick of Blue Monday in general and want it out of the setlist. Whatever, for me it was an absolute blast to end the night on,

As Bernard says himself, people are entitled to hear this song, especially if they haven't heard it live before. But those of us who have seen NO a few times are a bit tired of it. I understand why they play it though. I have the WAV parts to BM '83 on my laptop courtesy of Peter Hook incidentally. No fade out.

[satur8]

Great write-up, Whitenoise. I enjoyed your perspective and the details.

I didn't know they play Planet Funk's remix of Waiting for The Sirens Call live. It's a personal favorite of mine (and I'm an old school fan from back when 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' was NOT a well-known song).

[Bosco]

Incredible memory, research, and detail, Whitenoise.

I really need to be careful what I say and do around you in the future. Because if this is any indication of how well you soak in information, something might comeback to bite me in the ass. 

Furthermore, thank you for putting posting that version of "Waiting for the Siren's Call" remix. That really was the my favorite part of the show outside of "Temptation".