The Leaving Of Liverpool. Summer Pops 2006

Neworder Liverpool 8th July 2006. Summer Pops.

6 months we have waited for a gig, unfortunately there was no way of getting over to the Athens gig last month as I was absolutely skint. The Corby Order set off in two cars little after 12pm, Baldrick drove Our Kid, Cousin Eddie and Brian whilst our designated was Uncly John (he tends to drive to the concerts, leaving Lorraine to drive back, thus meaning John can get pished during the day) with me and Malky in the back. We gave Baldrick a 10 minute head start and still beat them to the venue with time to spare. Luckily for us, the festival was signposted all the way through the city – I have to say, in following the band since 89 this was a first with us finding the venue so easily.

On the way to Liverpool I received a text from Alex saying “I want to lick yer bum” – typical Alex :nod: So I thought I’d have a bit of fun and replied with “Is that you Sharon?” obviously sensing he was onto something Alex wasted little time in sending another perverted message – to which I replied “Can’t make it tonight as I’m gonna see that 80’s band New Order, I’ll see you the morra, wear the kinky stuff I got ya” to which Alex’s reply was “I’m sitting here touching myself” – I decided to leave it there and wind him up when I saw him in the pub. Daft get!

We headed straight to the Hanover Hotel, where the original meet up was arranged, we soon bumped into Timbo and he introduced us to Paul (PHD), Paul’s mate Alan and Marc who posts on NOOL. The first beer went down a treat as we I caught up with Tim and interrogated Paul and Alan on their gig experiences. Not long after we were joined by Monty, Lunatic Fridge and his son Ethan, who informed me he had actually heard of Corby and K*tt*ring cos he had an auntie there, so I explained that I hate K*tt*ring which I think he found amusing – after another quick pint we were off to the aptly named “Slaghterhouse.” I got the number of a taxi firm and handed it to our John to phone a taxi, within seconds he handed the phone to the bargirl cos the person on the other end of the phone couldnae understand him!

The Slaughterhouse was already very busy by the time we got there, the first few people I saw were Jem, Greg, Ness and Alex, so I greeted Alex by saying “Hello Sharon” Ness cracked up straight away as she knew I was winding up Alex all along – and I also sorted Jem out with the skull and crossbones Viking badge which has the Borromean triangle which I got tattooed on me arm. As I say the place was heaving and it was filled mostly with the same old faces, as usual we spent ages saying hello’s before we even got to the bar. Rocket Mick, Mike Garrity and Johnny Two Sheds stood out as they were all in their usual daft Hawaiin T-shirts – concealed underneath where Shedhead T-shirts with “Talking Bollocks since 2006” which should have been replaced by “Forever talking bollocks” Also in the pub were : Garymac, Ally, Nick King, Jarvo, Mark (JG), Wolfram, Mad Darren, Dave Legge, Big Col, JT and the ever delightful Lucy, Chris Nash, Trisha, Hibster, John, Christine, Gary, Gordy, Mike, Luca, Jeanette, G-Man and his missus, JAK, Jake Dudek, Darlo Order, Martin Frads and his missus (who is proper Scottish according to Fradders) Royser, Liam and Agentwood, Andy Hall, Ted Baker and the rest of the Salford Reds, Vinnie (where’s ma DVD), Bonzette and Nick, Julie, Delilah, Norbert, Matthias and the rest of the German Order (although Danny was missing cos he’d done his knee ligaments celebrating a German goal in the World Cup!) I think the only Viking who was missing was DoN as he was best man at his cousin’s wedding. He was gutted when we spoke to him in the build up to the gig.

Jarvo came over with mine and John’s share of the new Viking badges “Los Vikingos De Gira” specially done for our impending trip to Madrid and Barcelona. This time we decided on five different colours, obviously I asked for Green, and I have to say, they were by far the coolest. I think we handed out about 30, so there are a few left for the Spanish trip. Jarvo had already managed to get rid of all his badges and the day was nowhere near over – I also remember him winding Jem up that she’s actually got more of an orange glow than Dale Winton, which was met by a very quick “Do you want a slap?” As with the usual pre-gig sessions I try and dive round all the different groups scattered round the pub, The Shed people were in particular fine voice, well, that was when they could get a word in edgeways from Rocket Mick. Myself and Mike were also showing off our Viking tattoo’s to various people during the day. Our John was amazed at the amount of mates we had at these meet ups, I introduced him to Garymac, our John is “a bit wer a bit wey” so him and Garymac hit it off instantly. I also managed to discuss the new project I am starting when we get back from Spain with Nick and Ally, as it is going to be a Revenge and Monaco DVD (with possibly The Other Two as well) Nick and Ally have sent me most of the promo’s and with the help of a couple of others, mainly Uncly John, we have a few snippets from TV. Alex did the usual sweepstake in the pub, for this gig it was the seventh song, I have no idea who won though, I will find out in Espana. Hibster turned up a bit later as did G_man and his missus and Chris Nash and Trish. Hibster was on photo duty and I think he ended up with nearly a thousand pictures by the end of the night!!! Lorraine was also bemused by my marching over to her every 10 minutes or so asking her for more badges for the people in the pub. I think we still have a few left for Spain. Brian who was with us has not seen New Order since the 80’s and he seemed to be blending into proceedings nicely. I also spent a bit with Liam and Christy and was telling everyone how Christy was mine and DoN’s tourist guide when we visited New York back in 2003.

The day passed unbelieveably quickly and the next thing you know we’re heading to the venue. It was already 9pm when we got there so myself and Uncly John decided to get 4 drinks each to save us having to go back. So it was two bottles inside the trousers and a pint in each hand. We worked our way round the side till we got to the front, and as there were a few spare seats in Row CC & DD, we thought that they would do nicely. So myself, Malky, John, Lorraine, Eddie and Our John dived in there. Baldrick and Brian were back in their own seats. On came Alan Wise and introduced the band as “The Four Tops” to bemusement by some around us, it was weird not being able to dive next to yer mates for the crush at the start, but as we looked round the first few aisles, we spotted almost all of The Vikings, kind of surreal. The band started with Love Will Tear Us Apart and the place erupted, even though it was a seated arena, there was no-one sitting anywhere near us as people were dancing away and singing along enthusiastically, it was half way through this first song when we first encountered the Security being quick to grab people and telling people to behave! Fookin ell, you can’t dance anymore! It was well over the top.

The band sounded great, my mate Malky turned round and said “I didn’t think they’d be this loud” as Crystal kicked in, this was Malky’s and Our John’s first gig and they were loving it. Regret was up next, the band sounded sharp to us lot and in good spirits, though I think it was at the end of this song when Hooky had a go at the security down the front, so it wasnae just us who noticed what a bunch of bstards they were being. Next up was 24 Hours, this sounded better than the last couple of times I’d heard it played as well, maybe it was the drink, I dunno until I get my hands on the bootleg! I noticed Mark and Steve Butler over to our left in the middle of the arena, so I went over to say a quick hello and pass on one of the bottles of lager I had. It was not long after this Steve was thrown out for being on the wrong end of the wrong row! As I got back to my seat I asked John and Lorraine where our John was, he’d been kicked out for sparking a cigarette, it was turning into a bit of a joke and we weren’t enjoying ourselves like we usually do at gigs with loads of people being ejected for extremely trivial things, people were being told “we’ve warned you three or four times, you won’t be told again” which was absolute nonsense. Al, Greg and Ness amongst others were on the front row and couldn’t enjoy the gig because every five minutes or so they were having torches shined in their faces and asked to produce their tickets. The security was so badly organised it was beyond a joke. With our John having been ejected my cousin Eddie also left in disgust following John outside, though he was told by the security lad that John wasn’t being ejected, just given a warning, he lied through his teeth as Eddie followed on and watched in dibelief as John was thrown out the front gates! New Order continued to hammer through the classics nevertheless, after Krafty they played Working Overtime, the first time I’ve seen them do it live, though they did play it in Athens last month and I caught 30 seconds thanks to Al phoning me when it was on. I love this song, so was thrilled, a fast heavy up-tempo tune number which is reminiscent of The Stooges at the top of their game. Then we had an old crowd favourite, Transmission, with the delirium of the crowd, you could tell that this was the first time that a lot of them would have heard this played by New Order, for us it was all part of the show these days as this has played constantly for the last few years. After this the band decided to slow things down “Cos we’re getting on a bit” and we were treated to Your Silent Face, usually this is where I light up a cigarette, but after witnessing people getting thrown out for a lot less I decided against it. Waiting For The Sirens and Turn from the last album were up next, personally I’m much rather Road To Ruin than WFTSC but beggars cannae be choosers. Onto the Holy trinity of BLT, True Faith and Temptation, it was around this time that poor old Rocket Mick also found himself ejected for dancing in an aisle! And I think Hooky mentioned something about leaving the stage and leaving security to it to see how they’d cope then. G-Man and his missus who were in the row behind us to start with had now joined our row as there seemed to be more empty spaces, can’t think why!!!

Malky, now was really getting into the proceedings with these old favourites – jumping all over the place with the rest of us as the crowd sang along to every word. Next up was the best surprise of the night, even if we did have a good idea they were gonna play it. The Perfect Kiss has to be in most people’s Top 5 New Order songs, so we have to give a tip of the hat to the band (and very possibly Roger Lyons) for bringing this classic back into the set-list, if only they would follow suit with Age Of Consent and Sunrise which are the choice of the Hardcore. Blue Monday was segued into the end of the slightly edited TPK. And off the band went to rapturous applause. They came back on and did two more favourites in Ceremony and Shadowplay (by which time Uncly John had disappeared down the front with a few of the other Vikings) Even with all the carry on going on around us, I thought the band were on top form. As always Al and Mark stayed on to grab a set-list as we all waited down front, Alex was trying to grab a few words with Andy Liddel, New Order’s lighting guy, when security unnecessarily jumped in again and told us all to leave. On our way out into the second tent there seemed to be police everywehere and they joined in with the security and forcing everyone out of the venue. As we got out the venue itself we were told to “get a move on” then I was shoved in the back, obviously yer gonna react when someone shoves you, so my words were “Don’t push me you fucking wanker” it ended up being a policeman I was shoved by so I was lead away to receive an £80 on the spot fine, much to my bemusement. I’d never heard of this before, and I still can’t quite believe that it was me who was shoved and end up in the bad books? I have to admit on the way out I decided to get my money’s worth, by calling him a big lanky speccy cunt and a few other things. But you have to understand how incensed I was at this big fcuker. As I got thrown out the gates Jarvo grabbed me by the neck and shoved £20 in my hand, which I promptly returned not wanting a fuss made. But within 5 minutes of us all laughing about the incident outside the gates, Al, Lucy and JT arranged a collection for the fine and gave Lorraine £60 towards it. As everyone else headed off to various bars and hotels around town, the Corby Order were heading home.

I have to say even with all the carry on by security, it still couldnae spoil a fantastic day out with all me mates and some new one’s, stand up PHD, Alan, Andy, Ted and the Salford Reds. Hopefully we’ll see you lot joining the ongoing tour in October. A massive thanks also to all those who contributed to my on the spot fine. I cannae wait for Madrid and Barcelona.

NU ORDAH.