Why are New Order So HIT and miss live?

oldmonkey wrote:

Al Jarvis wrote: I think you'll have to give examples of where you think they've been a HIT, or a MISS, cos one person's decent gig is always gonna be a complete mare for another.

Tracklisting would help for me: if we got Age of Consent, Ceremony and EGG anywhere next weekend then I'm a happy man. I am so easily bought!

One gig I remember them being slated at in the 80's was the 'moody' Oxford Apollo gig in 86 (though I bet a lot of people would kill for a gig like that these days). The reviews of that gig were awful, yet I was sat up in the front of the circle (I had a dislocated shoulder) and when they kicked in 'Ceremony' I swear it looked like a fcuking riot was going on below me in the stalls. The whole place went up, just a surging sea of bodies. Fantastic just sitting watching that, yet so strange to look back on reviews of that one saying how awful New Order were on that occasion. I thought they were sublime!

Oxford really is a classic example of this. I thought this was a tremendous performance at the time, the sound was distorting on the vocals down the front so you couldn't really hear what Bernard was saying between songs, it was only afterwards that I found out that they were so unhappy up there and were never gonna do an encore that night. It was a good performance, I can understand the reviewers bitching because there was no encore (well it was only Jack Prat Barron really who had a dig at them), but in terms of both the setlist chosen and the way they actually played the songs, this was the best of the Spring 86 shows by quite a long way.

Jack Barron!! Started taking too much E and still the NME editor didn't haul in his rambling "equity culture" arse. He wrote some very nice things about the Order later, mind (again, probably too much MDMA consumed by both parties...).

Nice post above as well: "The Boys from Greece"????!!!

Sort of confused by that one myself.?

The boys from Greece.

I remember big mobs from Blackburn and Liverpool but the boys from Greece.

jon purdon wrote: What odds on getting 'Sunrise' as dusk falls upon Hyde Park ? Could someone post up the James Brown review of G-Mex '88 (Nme) ? Cheers.

"read my fookin' lips you shower of cockney wankers, move back"

NME 7/01/89 New Order Greater Manchester Exhibition Centre

Come and join the BARNEY ARMY

The crash-free 125 that cuts it's steely way through the black heart of England towards Manchester Picadilly is over-loaded with soldiers. An army on leave, they clot the exits, passages and seats, resting on kitbags, draining McEwans, reading the Gunner, dozing, and jumping when nudged. They are accompanied down the track by the infantry of another force, armed with wild eyed stares, walkmans, lager, and intent on dodging the fare.. They are The Barney Army, bent on getting "Shellshocked". Her Majesty's boys are returning to their wives, parents and children, so the BA want to see their wife and child. However, their family is the musical brilliance of New Order, which is very special because (like the doomed conscript in "Love Vigilantes") it might be the only family they've got. Outside the G-Mex Centre the Barney Army are laying down their litres of vodka, treading the turd-like ticket touts underfoot, and hurrying through the crocodile queues to get into the former train station where Happy Mondays are already exploding like limpet mines under ice. Having been on (one) stage since the doors were even opened the Mondays are at full throttle by the time they've got an audience. Strafing us with a set of ack-acne riddled tales disturbed by drug consumption, Shaun Ryder is clearly a white swan and Bez his mindwarped duckling. Unfortunately the early start also means an early end so before we can even get a complete Bumming or decently distracted from the stench of burning hamburger meat, Happy Mondays piss off into what probably used to be a complaints or ticket office. ACR should probably have stayed in the left luggage department. Someone announces Manchester 7 London 0 which sweems a strange attitude to have when you've recently left Factory for the larger wads of A&M and your war reporter immediately heads off to a different front. Better fun is to be had in the VPI (Very Pretentious Idiots) Lounge where a host of not really very pretentious nor idiotic celebs, liggers, quaffers, scoffers, singers, journalists, musos and Factory workers arwe checking out the width of each others wallets, the length of each others legs and the depth of each others beers. (tbc)

Continued..

Power drinking is always a necessity at such a function, but unfortunately for the lump of London media lads and lasses who are well into the fifth or sixth spirit, it also blurs the vision. Consequently they miss out on the chance to snap up conversation with Johnny Marr, Matt Johnson, Vini Reilly, David Gedge and a drained image of Ian McCulloch's former self. Meanwhile, dry ice is pumped into the space between the eager army and the beautiful curved roof, and New Order appear, "Touched By The Hand Of God". Despite being slashed and speared through by a piercing display of bright green laser beams, the wet, white smog keeps pumping out and the most stunning band this side of Jupiter leave "Ceremony" and "True Faith" burned into our memories before we can even see them. When they do materialize Barney looks like Jesus in plastercene, Hook is being run on the blood of axe heroes, Gillian is chewing away at her guitar and Steven Morris is behaving like the Domestos drinking lunatic he quite clearly is. Mad Faccers the lot of them, they pile through a set that is more notable for it's speed and energy than it's diversity. Dipping into "Low-Life" and "Substance" to bolster the new material. Barney tells us "This is a new song it's called Dreamtime but by the time we play here again it'll be an old song so you better start enjoying it now. Don't worry we'll play all the old songs at the end". As if it was really necessary. (tbc)

Continued....

As it happens they end two one-song encores with "Fine Time" which despite being frowned upon by the part-time New Order fans in shitty media-land roars past the finishing line thumping, exhilarating, and totally breathless. But before that New Order glide into a seam of creative dance music that could easily be compared to the best clasically composed overtures without being unrealistic or pompous (roll over Beethoven! - Ed). And although Steven Morris later told me he considered it an "average gig for us", it was the music and the open conversation with the audience, not the set's rapid delivery, that made it so special. As Barney whispers through "Every Little Counts" Hook's bass buries itself deep in the audience's gut alongside the love, hate, jealousy, fear and alcohol. A laser spray ejaculates over the roof and "Bizzare Love Triangle" falls from the sky, infests The Barney Army, and has them twisting and yearning in milli-seconds. More and more of New Order's songs appear to be specifically about friendship, lines like "I never thought of you in a sexual way in my life before" from "Touched" soaked in trust and the power of affection. The love flooding back towards the stage can't all have been created by Ecstacy, Dynasty or Fantasy, it seems that New Order makes such exciting and fulfilling music that devotion is unavoidable. Never have i seen so many people watch so much music that continually challenges and breaks the quality barrier.

James Brown

Thank you John Sludden

The Boys From Greece were the support at The Town And Country (October '96)and had small but rather rauccous following from Camden.