Manchester Apollo, Fri 27 April 2012

What can I say, apart from AMAZING.

My first 'New Order' gig in almost 23 years and it did not disappoint.

The highlights for me included, 'Crystal', when one of the new blokes was 'playing' keyboard during the bridge section of the song.

This was however eclipsed during the crescendo as the keyboard part was still playing when he was back playing his guitar (very much similar to the banjo player from Dexy's Midnight Runners I may add)

Anyone who suggests that new bloke was trying to fool punters by playing over a backing track is way off the mark.

'5-8-6' How to take a stand out live track and turn it into a karaoke style, mobile phone ring tone.

Finally, the visuals were truly spectacular. They at least, gave me the opportunity of watching something to pass the time.

What lingers for me was the overall insipid nature of the event.

I simply cannot believe that any long term 'New Order' fan can tolerate such stale stinking crap.

Even when the REAL New Order were bad, they were never, EVER this bad.

eh?

You went from "AMAZING " and "did not disappoint" to "insipid" , "stale stinking crap" and New Order "were never, EVER this bad" in a few sentences

johnny wrote: eh?

You went from "AMAZING " and "did not disappoint" to "insipid" , "stale stinking crap" and New Order "were never, EVER this bad" in a few sentences

The introduction to the review is slightly misleading but it quickly becomes clear that he is being sarcastic, it is good to read differing viewpoints but it must be borne in mind that anyone expecting a performance in anyway similar to the pre '89 era New Order was going to be in for a major disappointment. People knew what to expect as there are numerous clips on Youtube from the recent gigs to give anyone an idea of what they are going to get at a New Order concert in 2012.

I thought Phil was doing a bit of pretend keyboard playing on the clip of Round & Round that featured in the "shenagagins" controversy also..

Yeah i see the sarcasm now. I guess i only quickly glanced through at first. Very well done actually, he puts our old friend By Eck My Neck in the shade

True, it would be interesting to read a By Eck review but he obviously has given the recent gigs a miss?

cranelane wrote:

johnny wrote: eh?

You went from "AMAZING " and "did not disappoint" to "insipid" , "stale stinking crap" and New Order "were never, EVER this bad" in a few sentences

The introduction to the review is slightly misleading but it quickly becomes clear that he is being sarcastic, it is good to read differing viewpoints but it must be borne in mind that anyone expecting a performance in anyway similar to the pre '89 era New Order was going to be in for a major disappointment. People knew what to expect as there are numerous clips on Youtube from the recent gigs to give anyone an idea of what they are going to get at a New Order concert in 2012.

I thought Phil was doing a bit of pretend keyboard playing on the clip of Round & Round that featured in the "shenagagins" controversy also..

Doesn't Phil play only guitar on Round and Round?

As for Crystal, the descending piano part actually two separate keyboards parts, one sequenced and one played live. The sequenced part is the faster, almost 16th note bit and the live part is the descending melodic part.

The melodic bit is what Phil plays live. On the Finsbury Park DVD, when they finish Crystal, Phil runs his and in a scale up the keyboard after the song is done, making evident that the part he was playing was live.

What you were hearing was the sequenced piano bit. While Phil didn't play the melody bit at the end, I do not know. perhaps his keyboard wasn't working. They seemed to have a lot of tech issues at that gig.

I like the way they have revamped 586.