Category: New Order

I do like to make things tough for myself with these imaginary albums.  I should stick to bands who came and went in a flash leaving fans with 20-30 songs in total instead of a body of work that stretches back across four different decades during which time their sound changed and evolved somewhat. Or maybe I should take Tim’s advice from yesterday and go with the 11th band/singer that pops up via random shuffle…

I thought I’d better get this piece in just to show I’m not totally relying on the very welcome guest contributions.  But I have made one slight adjustment to make life easier on this occasion by introducing a one-off rule that I must have a vinyl copy of the songs which means, for this particular compilation, that anything post 1990 is ruled out as everything since then is on CD….but having said that, there’s not much would have made the cut in any case.

I was a fan of Joy Division and was pleased that the rest of the band decided to keep things going after the suicide of Ian Curtis but I initially changed my mind after the first time I caught New Order live which was early 1981 at the now demolished Plaza Ballroom on the south side of Glasgow.  To be frank, they were a shambles and the songs didn’t sound anything the way I expected. It almost felt as if Curtis was irreplaceable as a singer, as a presence and as a songwriter.

And then a couple of months later, the debut single was released and I knew that everything was going to be OK, albeit there were wobbles along the way with the debut LP in November 1981 being a bit more patchy than I’d have liked with not many tracks being as good as the debut and follow-up singles from earlier in the year.  But from the release of Temptation in May 1982 through to hitting #1 with World In Motion exactly eight years later there were few who could match the Mancunians in quality.  Here’s my, sure to be controversial, imaginary album:-

SIDE A

1. Age Of Consent (from Power, Corruption & Lies, 1983)

The patchiness of the debut album made me nervous about how good or otherwise the follow-up was going to be. New Order hadn’t disappointed on the singles front and musically were taking things in all sorts of directions.  I put the needle into the groove of the opening track on the new album and was completely blown away to the extent that I thought the rest of the LP to be a bit of a letdown.  But after another two or three plays I realised that it was a really good album….but its opening track was an exceptional piece of music and all these years later I still think it is the greatest piece of indie/pop/dance ever written.

2. The Perfect Kiss (12″ single, 1985)

There was a recent brilliant observation from a reader that Soft Cell always seemed to make tremendous 12″ records which they then edited down to a more manageable form for release in 7″ format or as an album track.  I have absolutely no doubt that this is the case with The Perfect Kiss.

There is not a single second wasted on the full near nine minutes on the 12″ which includes all sorts of weird sound effects including frogs croaking and sheep bleating and is the sound of band brimming with confidence and self-belief. The album version on Low-Life and indeed the even shorter 7″ version are both great bits of music but the full version is just majestic.

3. Lonesome Tonight (b-side to Thieves Like Us single, 1984)

Hooky’s bass lines are behind some of the greatest New Order moments and there’s few better examples than this of him driving a song along and almost challenging his band mates to come up with something as classy and as cool as the notes he’s hitting.  On this much under appreciated song they more than succeed.

4. Temptation (12″ single, 1982)

Having slowed things down a tad with the last song its time to take listeners to the pinnacle of the New Order sound, with what I have long said is the greatest ever 45 in the history of the pop single.  (It’s just as well that Age of Consent remained as an album track as I’d have found it impossible to choose between the two).

Whoever it was that came up with the wiki entry for the song has written something extremely astute by saying that the 7″ version is a more structured version with a commercial synthpop feel while the 12″ is more chaotic with the emphasis on electronic rhythms rather than melody.

I love both versions and regard them as completely different songs, almost to the extent that I considered including each of them on this imaginary album.  But in the end it is the 12″ version that always wins the day…it never fails to put a huge smile on my face whenever I hear it and there’s a real special sensation when John Blain Hunt airs it at his Little League nights as I close my eyes and shake my thang on the dance floor imagining that it is the early 80s all over again and I am resplendent in my raincoat, 28″ waist skinny jeans and bouffant held together by a ridiculous amount of hairspray looking like the perfect blend of Bunnymac, Edwyn, Barney and Moz. Dreams Never End.

5. Run (album version, from Technique 1989)

I love every single second of Technique and consider it to be the band’s most consistent LP in terms of quality – a view that isn’t widely held among the other big fans of the band of my acquaintance.  Run is one of the most outstanding songs on the album and rather bravely the band went for an edited single release in due course in which about 45 seconds are chopped off and by editing down the dreamy instrumental finish to the song and replacing it with more of the re-recorded vocal with Barney’s voice given more prominence than the original mix.  It’s a decent enough mix and does a job of giving us enough changes to think of it as a new song altogether but it’s not a patch on the original.

SIDE B

1. Love Vigilantes (from Low Life, 1985)

This was a band who specialised in providing the wow factor with opening tracks on their albums.  Even the disappointment that was Movement had a belter of an opener in Dreams Never End (although the Peel Session version of the song was/is better) and I’ve already said my tuppence worth about Age of Consent.  In later years, Paradise, Fine Time, Regret and Crystal would all get their respective LPs off to a great start with only Who’s Joe on the 2005 LP Waiting For The Sirens’ Call being a letdown in this respect.

But Love Vigilantes is something else altogether; a ghost story delivered over a jaunty upbeat indie tune that seemed to take a glance over to Robert Smith at The Cure and deliver a ‘beat that’ challenge (which to be fair he just about did shortly afterwards with the release of Inbetween Days, the best New Order song written by someone else!). As my dear friends from Canada would say…..awesome.

2. True Faith (12″ single, 1987)

The sheer brilliance and crossover appeal of this record can be seen from the fact that it reached #4 in the UK when, other than Blue Monday and Confusion (both of which sold well with dance fans), the band had struggled to make much of impact sales wise in the single market.

True Faith is an extraordinary record that admittedly benefits from the input of uber-producer Stephen Hague who had previously helped to refine the sounds of Pet Shop Boys in a way that maintained their credibility while making them huge pop stars.  But there is evidence that the song itself is a belter as seen by the fact that it was given an extensive indie dance remix by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osbourne in 1994 and that version of True Faith also went Top 10 in the UK.

Oh and the original release was also accompanied by an amazing promo video.

3. Ceremony (7″ single, 1981)

The one with the bronze cover, although I could have just as easily used the 12″ version with its dark green cover with gold writing as the two versions are identical.

The songwriting credits indicated that this was a Joy Division song and eventually we would get to hear their take on things with an Ian Curtis vocal via its inclusion in the Heart and Soul box set released in 1997.   But back in 1981, it was an indication that New Order were determined to carry on as best they could and even although it was clear that Barney wasn’t anything like as good a singer as Ian the powerful delivery of the music more than made up for it.  I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat when I first listened to this record and whenever I have heard it in a live setting ever since it has had the same impact.

It was interesting that just six months later the band, having recruited Gillian Gilbert as a new member, felt it appropriate to re-record Ceremony and re-issue it as a single, this time in 12″ form only in a cream and blue sleeve. It was a marginally shorter version in length and sounded more New Order than Joy Division.  If that had been the only version it would be considered a very fine record, but it’s not a patch on the first version.

4. Blue Monday (12″ single, 1983)

This song was in and out of this imaginary album on at least ten occasions.  I had settled on the running order for 9 out of the 10 tracks but just couldn’t make my mind up on what to put in as the penultimate track on Side 2.

Contenders included the 7″ version of Temptation, Love Less, Your Silent Face, the album version of Sub-Culture, As It Is When It Was, Cries and Whispers, 1963, Bizarre Love Triangle and Vanishing Point.  But it is impossible to ignore the claims of what was and still is one of the most groundbreaking bits of music that has ever been recorded.

I had a short-term relationship in the summer of 1983 with a girl I had met on the dance floor of Strathclyde University Students Union.  I was a regular at that venue but this girl wasn’t, and after a couple of dates it was clear things weren’t really going to work out, not least because our musical tastes were so different. She was real disco diva who had only gone to the Student Union to keep a friend company but had taken a shine to me on account of my constant dancing and she assumed I was someone who would have been happy going along to any club or venue. But I’ll always remember that she was an even bigger fan of Blue Monday than I was which says all you need to know about the crossover appeal of this piece of music.  It is a genuine classic.

5. Leave Me Alone (from Power, Corruption & Lies, 1983)

It just somehow seems appropriate that,having started things off on this compilation with the opener from 1983 album which once and for all determined that New Order would do their own thing and not be mere JD copyists,  it should close with this lovely little underrated number.

So there you have it folks.  My imaginary New Order album of 10 songs.  It has a high number of singles on it but then again this was a band who, together with their much-loved and much missed manager and their equally much-loved and much-missed label owner, knew a cracking tune when they heard it and wanted to get it out to as wide an audience as possible.

mp3 : New Order – Age Of Consent
mp3 : New Order – The Perfect Kiss (12″)
mp3 : New Order – Lonesome Tonight
mp3 : New Order – Temptation (12″)
mp3 : New Order – Run
mp3 : New Order – Love Vigilantes
mp3 : New Order – True Faith
mp3 : New Order – Ceremony
mp3 : New Order – Blue Monday
mp3 : New Order – Leave Me Alone

Enjoy.

The first in what will be a recurring series featuring CDs or tapes which came with music papers or magazines.

I’ve rarely found that a free CD has even been worth the cover price of the magazine, but I’ve often found that at least one and maybe as many as two or three tracks make it all worthwhile. But then again, given that a magazine will have a very broad appeal across its readership, it is very likely that the two or three tracks which I most enjoy will be hated by the person who drops into the newsagent after me and picks up the next copy from the shelf. It’s not ever intended to appeal entirely to every single reader.

A CD however, will stand a better chance of higher acclaim if it is devoted to a particular genre of music or has been compiled as a tribute to a band or a particular record. having said that, most tribute albums tend to feature a wide range of artists offering their particular take on a hero(es)/heroine(s) of theirs and so will often run into the similar problem as any promotional CD simply aiming to highlight the new sounds from that particular month.

The series however, is opening with something which should have stood a better chance of being a critical success than most.

Power, Corruption & Lies Covered came free with the February 2012 issue of the monthly magazine MOJO  here in the UK.  The editor-in-chief penned these words:-

“There was definitely a change in style. Movement sounded like Joy Division, but Power Corruption & Lies is the first New Order record. That marriage of electronics and rock is a distinct, very unique sound.”

So said Peter Hook discussing New Order’s landmark 1983 offering with MOJO’s Ian Harrison in the summer of 2011. During the intervening three decades the album’s influence has grown considerably, impacting on a new generation of musicians and pointing the way towards further explorations in sound and texture. This exclusive MOJO compilation is proof of that, featuring a reworking of the entire album as well as including a re-recording of the seminal Blue Monday 12-inch and a selection of bonus tracks from that time.

From The Golden Filters to Fujiya & Miyagi via the likes of S.C.U.M, Errors and Destroyer and on to K-X-P, each artist was hand-picked by MOJO but given a free hand in terms of recording their own interpretation of each track. We believe that the results offer up a new set of perspectives on a collection of songs whose power continues to resonate and we invite you to dig in to a new generation of artists whose work is equally inspirational.

I’m a huge fan of New Order and was thrilled beyond belief when I first played PC&L. This was partly down to the fact that it was such a superior album to the band’s debut but mainly as it continued in the vein of the great singles that had been released over the previous 18 months, not least Temptation.  And in the album opener Age of Consent the band had written and recorded what I thought was their ultimate masterpiece and which, more than 30 years on I still consider to be the case, albeit I think that in Low-Life and Technique they would go on to release better and more enduring albums (although Comrade Colin violently disagrees with me on that one)

This particular CD intrigued me as I wanted to see what the new crop of bands made of it all with Errors being the only outfit I was familiar with beforehand. I came away a little bit underwhelmed by the whole thing mainly as I felt that the few songs which had originally enjoyed any semblance of a rock sound had seen these elements replaced by just a little too much electronica. I also felt that on a few occasions, the cover versions weren’t quite distinct enough from the originals to merit a thumbs-up.

But I went back again to the album while I was away on holiday at the tail end of 2014 and listened afresh and hopefully without prejudice and to my surprise and delight I found myself enjoying a great deal of it.

On the basis that you could never replicate the magnificence of the opening track it was much easier to listen to  American duo The Golden Filter and accept it as a trippy, hypnotic, multi-paced and ultimately haunting lovely, dreamy and enchanting take rather than a song which has never failed to get me on any dance floor whenever it is played (with the most recent being just a few weeks ago at the Xmas show of Glasgow Little League).

And on the basis that most of the musicians playing on these records wouldn’t even have been born when PC&L was originally released, then why should I get annoyed when the likes of Another’s Blood do a very straight take on Lonesome Tonight to the extent that it often sounds exactly like New Order but with a singer who can hit all his notes.   Oh and I really like the version of Leave Me Alone…but it’s such a great song that it should be impossible to mess up.

There is no doubt that each of the acts who contributed to this album were big fans of New Order and in many cases the Mancunians were probably the biggest single influence on their own sounds.  As such, it is, overall, a a very fine tribute to a very fine band and a very fine album.  It’s far from perfect  – but I’m guessing that the songs I most dislike will be the ones that certain other readers will find most enjoyable – while the decision to feature covers of both Blue Monday and The Beach seems  a bit of a waste when you could have looked for a cover of something like Procession, Temptation or Thieves Like Us, but at least the compilers went for contrasting acts (and in Biosphere found someone who is even older than I am and who was clearly as blown away by New Order back in the days just as much as I and many many others).

mp3 : The Golden Filter – Age Of Consent
mp3 : Tarwater – We All Stand
mp3 : Errors – The Village
mp3 : S.C.U.M – 586
mp3 : Fujiya & Miyagi – Your Silent Face
mp3 : Seekae – Ultraviolence
mp3 : Walls – Ecstasy
mp3 : Destroyer – Leave Me Alone
mp3 : Biosphere – Blue Monday
mp3 : Zombie Zombie – The Beach
mp3 : Lonelady – Cries And Whispers
mp3 : Another’s Blood – Lonesome Tonight
mp3 : K-X-P – Murder

Enjoy.  At least in parts.

(Originally posted on the old blog on 25 March 2009)

From the release of Temptation onwards, it was always the 12″ versions of the New Order singles which I rushed out and bought over the years. Never the 7″ versions.

So today’s offering is one of the newest bits of vinyl to find its way into the big cupboard – well new in as much that I’ve only owned it for just over a month having found it in a second-hand shop down in Manchester when I was down there for the Magazine gig last month…but accurately speaking it’s not a new piec of vinyl having been first bought by someone back in 1986.

mp3 : New Order – Shellshock (7 inch version)

The flip-side is an instrumental (and edited) version of a single from 1984:-

mp3 : New Order – Thieves Like Us (instrumental edit)

Although the single did hit the Top 30 in the UK, it’s never really been thought of as one of the band’s finest moments, but it was, ironically, a bit of music that probably made them more money than most thanks to its use in the movie Pretty In Pink (as well as its inclusion on that particular soundtrack which sold rather well, particularly in the USA).

2014 addition

Digging this out made me want to post the tracks from one of the 12″ singles in the collection:-

mp3 : New Order – Thieves Like Us
mp3 : New Order – Lonesome Tonight

Brings back great memories of life at Strathclyde University 1981-85.

I do like it when a band release a single from an LP but change it around enough to turn it into a different song.

I was reminded of this state of affairs by these:-

mp3 : New Order – Sub-culture
mp3 : New Order – Subculture (7″ single version)

Hard to believe that Low-Life, the LP from which it was lifted and and given its makeover for a single release, celebrates its 30th birthday next year.

Oh and rumour has that the reason the single came in just a plain black sleeve is that Peter Savile hated the remix so much that he refused to design anything to house it.

Enjoy

As posted on 18 June 2008……

I’m not sure how many singles are released in the UK every week. Let’s guesstimate at 200.

If so, this would mean that since 1 April 1982, there have more than 250,000 bits of product originally designed to rotate on a turntable at 45rpm made available to the great British public. And not one of them has been as majestic as the work of art and genius that is Temptation by New Order.

Yup, that’s the song I consider to be my all time favourite 45 on the very day that I turn 45. And given it has held down the position for 26 years, 2 months and 18 days, its likely to hold the coveted slot for quite a while yet. At least till I’m 78 I reckon….

I’ve loads of great memories associated with this song.

My then closest friend called me up one day to say that he’d gotten his hands on the latest New Order single. He said that it wasn’t like any of the previous two releases – Ceremony and Procession – but it was something that had to be heard to be believed. I immediately got on my bike and cycled the couple of miles to his house for a listen. My mate handed me the single and invited me to place it on the turntable. He then left the room and said he’d be back in a minute or two but I was to give him my initial impression.

I thought it was appalling. There was something just not quite right about it, and who was this new vocalist that had been drafted in with his helium-like voice? My mate came back in and asked me what I thought. I looked him in the eye and asked him if he’d gone off his head as it was dreadful. It was then he burst out laughing and let-on that the single was to be played, not at 45rpm, but at 33 and 1/3 rpm….

Which I did…..and immediately fell in love with the hypnotic and robotic rhythm pulsating from the cheap speakers. This was the New Order that Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton had been promising us for so long – and the song that finally got them to emerge from the shadows of Joy Division and stand on their own eight feet.

I don’t know how many times we played that record back-to-back that night, but a few hours later, I was back on my bike on the way home singing different snatches of the song, a cassette recording in my pocket and looking forward to buying my very own copy the following day after I’d borrowed some money from my mum.

I was lucky enough to go into a record shop which had an assistant who asked ‘Do you want the 7” or 12” version?”, and my choice of the 12” turned out be inspired.

It was quite unlike the 7” which was by now so familiar to me. The sleeve was slightly different, it had a different introduction and it rotated on the turntable at 45 rpm. It also sounded, to my ears at least, a perfect recording whereas the 7″ seemed now to be something spliced up to come in at under 5 minutes for radio play….

Now it was my turn to phone my mate and get him on his bike down to my house, where he grudgingly accepted that the 12” version was superior.

It was all a bit disappointing that Temptation didn’t make the band instant superstars – I was a bit worried that having made such a masterpiece that did next-to-nothing, New Order would soon either choose to break-up or maybe just fade into obscurity..

Instead, the band just got bigger and better in so many ways over the next 10 years or so.

And with the inclusion of a new version of Temptation on the phenomenally successful soundtrack to the film Trainspotting, the song finally got some long-overdue recognition and acknowledgement.

Which brings me to another story (if you’ll indulge me…)

I’d like to think that this series has highlighted how important my time at University was in terms of really developing a passion for music. Most of my weekends between late-1981 and mid-1985 were spent in various parts of the Students Union at Strathclyde University – be it Level 8 for gigs and the ‘popular’ indie-disco, or the smaller downstairs converted dining-room for the more obscure stuff mixed in with the Goths.

Upon graduating, I moved to Edinburgh to live and work and I reckoned that I’d never set foot in the building again. Which I didn’t……

………until 12 years later when I accompanied a local dignitary who I worked for as he had the task of giving a welcome speech as part of an event for the fresh intake of students in September 1997. The location was the newly refurbished Level 8 of the very building that I had spent so many happy nights. I was a bit unsure of myself as I got into the lift to go up the 8 floors of the building where maybe 300 or so students were patiently waiting for the formalities to begin. As I stepped into the space, my jaw visibly dropped at how different it all looked….the makeover had changed the old haunt beyond recognition……but the real shock was to hear that the song coming over the speakers was Temptation. I was a bit spooked to say the least…

It turned out that the CD to the Trainspotting soundtrack was what was being played, but to have arrived at that moment as Barney was singing about grey eyes, green eyes and blue eyes was really disconcerting…

But it’s not just the stories and memories that makes this song so very special.

The 12” version of this song is so joyously infectious that you can’t help but sing along. It’s so incredibly catchy that you can’t stop yourself dancing. It’s also a track that has often been a live tour-de-force at New Order gigs. The early 90s documentary ‘New Order Story’ has got an especially incredible version recorded live at Montreux in Switzerland…

I don’t know how many times I’ve played Temptation. It was a near staple inclusion on all the compilation tapes I used to make, and I still include one version or another of it on many of the playlists compiled for the I-pod. I have never ever grown bored by it, and know that I never will.

And…..as I mentioned above, there’s also the fact that it did so much to establish New Order as an act in their own image, and not just three seemingly nondescript blokes and a shy girl looking to carry on where Joy Division had left off.

I’ve never seen anyone quite like you before. No I’ve never heard anyone quite like you before.

mp3 : New Order – Temptation (12 inch version)
mp3 : New Order – Hurt (12 inch version)

Bonus track:-

mp3 : New Order – Temptation (live at Montreux, 1993)

T(n)VV returns to normal as of next week…..thanks for hanging around during the repeats.

Interesting debate last week when I suggested that In Between Days was not only the finest moment of The Cure but also the best New Order song that New Order never wrote and recorded,

I hung my hat on it being the Lowlife era….others have thought it was more Power, Corruption & Lies.  Thinking more about it, it’s probably a mix of the two as the tremendous opening tracks of both LPs illustrate:-

mp3 : New Order – Age Of Consent

mp3 : New Order – Love Vigilantes

And when featuring those two songs on the blog, I really can’t let the occasion pass without listening to their other great LP opener of that era:-

mp3 : New Order – Dreams Never End

It really doesn’t seem like 32 years ago. It too sounds a big influence on In Between Days

Enjoy