Here is my review of the gig held at the Groene Engel in Oss, The Netherlands. I'm sorry for any errors/mistakes you might encounter.
On the eighth of November it was going to happen: Section 25 and Peter Hook would play a selection of Section 25, Joy Division and New Order songs with Kevin Hewick opening up for them. I've ordered my tickets on the first of August, just to be sure that I would be able to get a ticket .A friend of mine (the singer of the band I play in) and me would go there. He isn't a big fan of this genre and he certainly didn't like Section 25. But luckily for me, he still wanted to go for the Joy Division songs, otherwise I would probably have had to go alone.
We arrived well in time (around 17:30) while the doors would open at 20:30. We took the opportunity to get a bite to eat and a few beers. At 20:15 we decided to head to the Groene Engel, the venue where it would be held. There were already a number of people waiting in front of the door. Around 20:35 the doors opened and we entered.
First thing I noticed was the huge mixing desk in the centre of the venue, which fairly impressed me to say the least. Next to it was a DJ-kit which wasn't used. We were one of the first to enter so we decided to go to the front of the stage where Peter Hook would stand.
When we got there we saw some bloke talking to some other punters. It took me a while to recognize him, but it was Kevin Hewick. He looked very relaxed and at ease. After a few minutes he left towards the backstage area and the engineers tested the lights and smoke-machines. It looked like the gig could start anytime...
Kevin took to the stage around 21:00 armed with only an acoustic guitar and a cup of tea. He played a variety of songs which I didn't recognize. In between songs he would take sips of his tea and talked about The Netherlands (and in particular the pronunciation of "Oss"). He also talked about how he likes Shocking Blue and that we should really be proud of them. Perhaps we should...
My favorite songs of Kevin is Haystack, but he sadly didn't play it because he "wasn't going to play any Factory-era songs because he's an artist and artists can do whatever they like". I liked his songs, but none of them really stood out or anything. But I was surprised of the fact that he was able to get high notes, but he has a bit of a high-pitched voice already... Too bad other people also thought that he didn't have a powerful voice. Throughout his set it almost sounded to me that the audience chatter was louder than Kevin's voice and guitar.
At the end of his last song he walked towards the edge of the stage, walked down the stairs while still playing his guitar. Suddenly we could hear him disconnect his guitar and that was the end of his set.
The sound engineer started playing some music via the PA and a number of roadies walked up on stage. They taped the setlists on the stage and made sure that the guitars where ready to be played on. Also one of the roadies erected a lectern containing lyrics of the songs for the Larry the singer.
At (I believe) 21:45, Section 25 took to the stage. I stood in front of Section 25's bassplayer Steve Stringer. Me being a bassplayer myself I checked out what equipment he used. For this gig he played on an American Fender Precision Bass which was amplified through a Fender top and cabinet (2x15). He didn't use his Aria Pro 2 bass.
Section 25 opened with the chilling "New Horizon". The drum and bass laid the foundation while the guitar created a very nice atmosphere. But, I have to say that I was unimpressed with Larry's performance. Reading the lyrics from a lectern and not being able to reach notes (anymore) made me believe that if they rehearsed maybe a little more it could have been a more memorable night. The rest of the bandmembers where right on the money though. This song was one of the highlights of S25's set.
"Wretch" was the next song. It has a nice beat but it isn't anything special. Very danceable!
Next song was "Up To You". Here it seemed like Larry put a little bit more effort into it.
Then they played a fairly new song called "Gene". It sounds modern whilst still retaining that "Section 25" feeling to it. It features a nice little guitar riff.
Feedback introduced "Friendly Fires". I found this song to be pretty haunting. I didn't even dance, I just watched, listened and enjoyed. Larry sung about flying high, maybe he decided to taste a bit of the green stuff?
During "Charnel Ground" the bassplayer really stood out and looked like he was enjoying every minute of the song. Ian the guitarist and Vini the drummer also performed better than before and Larry seemed to do too.
But, during "After Image", the next song, Larry sadly wasn't able to stay on key. I saw that he knew it as well and he sang the song a bit more, strained, which I liked. Here the drummer and guitarist performed very well. The ending was a bit sudden though.
"Can't Let Go" followed. It features a fairly simple bassline, which even allowed Steve to scratch his nose a couple of times while doing the song. Next to "New Horizon" they all performed very well. Too bad the bassdrum mic stand fell over, so there wasn't almost a bassdrum! The stagehands did their best to fix the problem, but it took a couple of minutes to solve it (which they did by putting the mic into the bassdrum).
The last song of the Section 25 set was "Dirty Disco", one of their best known songs. Here they were right on the money with only just a few very slight mistakes. After the bridge I pogo'd like hell!
Then the bassplayer put down his bass and disappeared behind the keyboard. Greeted by a wave of applause, Peter Hook entered the stage. He picked up his red Yamaha BB1200 which he ran through a Warwick head and a cabinet which I couldn't clearly see and through a chorus effect which causes his trademark sound.
Without saying a word he started to play the bassline of "No Love Lost" which was extremely powerful with Ian delivering a great guitar performance. I noticed that they cut the part before the singing starts in half, don't know if that was intentional or not. The whole band made several mistakes during this song, which was a shame. Like I mentioned earlier, if only they had rehearsed a few more times...
"Ultraviolence" then followed. This was pretty special because they didn't play it the previous nights. I didn't recognize it at first because I don't listen to New Order a lot, but I know it was a New Order one. Nice little song.
A very well known drumsynth opened a very well known song, "She's Lost Control". The sample of the synthdrum sadly was on the wrong count, so the whole song sounded strange. Hooky provided backing vocals for this song. Larry messed up the timing of the words a lot. Steve did a great job on the keyboard. So did Vini while coping with the off-beat synthdrum.
Beginning with a sample, "Temptation" kicked off. The band really, really, really shined on this one. During this song (and a whole lot of others too) Peter stood right in front of me, but during this one he swung his bass around, almost hitting me and my friend in the mouth. The audience was as shocked as we were. That's strange, when you're in the audience and everyone's looking at you while there's a band playing!
I think Hooky got a bit tired of the audience's requests for songs (have to say that I might have requested "Disorder" for erhm, 239 times), so he said "he's up your big, fat, hairy ass, cuntface, that's where he is!" Didn't know to who he was saying it to, but it was hilarious.
Then the chilling bass intro of "Ceremony" started. At least, for a very short while. Ian was tuning up when all of the sudden Hooky started to play. Ian quickly tuned up and they restarted the song. Larry didn't seem to be ready, so the intro was extremely long, even Hooky seemed to get a bit ticked off and he shouted out "come on!" towards Larry. Hooky provided backing vocals for the chorus. During that song it struck me that Hooky's voice is pretty similar to that of Ian Curtis. Larry was a bit off key during the chorus.
Larry left stage and Hooky did the intro of "Dreams Never End" after getting his red six-string Shergold Marathon. This was, in my opinion, one of the best songs of the whole night. It really sounded like one of those New Order videos on Youtube or something in 1981, really amazing. Hooky's voice was perfect, the only bad thing of the song was that the sound engineer put too much echo on the vocals and mixed Hooky's voice too low in the mix.
Again Hooky's bass introduced probably the best known song of the whole set, namely "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Ian did a great job on the guitar and Larry got his timings mostly right this time.
Surprise surprise, Hooky's bass again introduced the next song, which was "Shadowplay". If you listen closely to the bootleg, you can hear me shout out "yeah!" (I'm the first one to do that around 00:06). Vini started the drum riff a bit too early, but the song sounded okay throughout.
Then they did a song which I also like, which is "Interzone". Again Larry went offstage for this song, leaving Hooky to do the strange howling noises (which strangely sounded pretty close to the version on Unknown Pleasures) and normal vocals. Too bad the drummer wasn't able to do the ultrafast high-hat like Stephen Morris did, but it sounded good nonetheless. Again, Hooky's voice was great.
The last Joy Division that was done that night was "Warsaw". Ian did a great job on the guitar during the intro. Larry got the timings for "31G" wrong (he did the first "31G" too early).
After that, Larry said "Thank you, we're off" and the band laid down their instruments and walked off. I knew that they would come back for an encore because it said so on the setlist. A lot of other people didn't know that they would come back so they made their way towards the doors. After three minutes Section 25 came back on stage to perform "Poppy Fields". The band really shined on this one.
Larry said "thank you very much" and walked offstage while Hooky went onstage to perform the very last song of the night.
The sample of "Doubts Even Here" came on and Steve played the keyboard extremely good. The drums were also very close to the original with Hooky's vocals and bass being perfect.
Hooky ended with "goodnight, thank you" and that was it.
We were close to the backstage area where I saw Kevin talking to some people again. Wanted to ask for his autograph, but all of the sudden he magically disappeared in his dressing room. Oh well, better luck next time! My mate spotted on a TV-Screen that Hooky was going to do a DJ-set of an hour, but my mate wanted to go so I missed the DJ set.
I did spot Hooky just before he was going to be DJ, so I asked if he wanted to sign my ticket, which he did. I also mentioned the fact that his bass almost punched my teeth out. He responded with "oh that's good, I'll get ya next time hehe". We shook his hand and we left.
Conclusion: I was unimpressed by Larry's singing, especially on JD’s and NO’s songs. The other bandmembers of Section 25 were great though. Next time, let Hooky sing the Warsaw, JD and NO songs. The Section 25 songs were good with a few exceptions (some were great, some could have been better). About Kevin, well, it isn't really my taste so I can't really comment on it. I could see that he really enjoyed himself so that's good.
Me being 17 years old I was very happy to meet my bass hero!
Setlist:
New Horizon
Wretch
Up To You
Gene
Friendly Fires
Charnel Ground
After Image
Can't Let Go
Dirty Disco
No Love Lost
Ultraviolence
She's Lost Control
Temptation
Ceremony
Dreams Never End
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Shadowplay
Interzone
Warsaw
Poppy Fields
Doubts Even Here
Written by: Stacey Kort
BOOTLEG LINK: CLICK HERE
Note, I didn't record this (found this on the net), but I cut the recording (it was just one long track) and had to change the EQ a bit. I hope you like it!
