Songs they could still play.....

These need no fancy programming, don't contain special guitar parts that only Gillian could possibly master, and have decipherable lyrics that could be added to the vast array of words on Barney's autocue, and would be lapped up by the masses. All that is needed is a bit of contribution from the band, as in playing the bloody things !

Procession (not seen since Dec 85) Sunrise Age of Consent As It Is When It Was Everyone Everywhere Guilty Partner All The Way Weirdo Way of Life Broken Promise Dream Attack

just to name but a few. The only drawback is that Steve would have to get back on his arse and do some drumming rather than pressing buttons :)

Well, There's programming, or at least DAT in "Dream Attack". Otherwise, who plays the piano ?

Originally posted by Buster Klumpy Well, There's programming, or at least DAT in "Dream Attack". Otherwise, who plays the piano ?

Not six months worth though, which is the excuse they are using for not playing other stuff !!

Even 'Blue Monday', you tend to wonder what Gillian did throughout...

Always had my doubts as to the level of Gillian's contribution in most of it, other than to occupy part of the stage. We have video evidence of a small part in Ceremony, the basic tune in As It Is and We All Stand, and apart from a few bum notes here and there on the keyboard over the years on some songs, there ain't a lot ! Disk insertion and sequence triggering maybe.....

Good question, Allen...

Originally posted by Allen Jarvis > Originally posted by Buster Klumpy> Even 'Blue Monday', you tend to wonder what Gillian did throughout...

What did BOTH Gillian and Stephen do through Blue Monday?!

Often wondered this myself, so I watched PFD again just to find out. Gill presses three buttons and turns one knob, as well as a total of 23 different key presses. Steve presses as many as 8 buttons, turns what looks like a dial and a few different knobs, and also has some key pressing to do. Gill's main role seems to have been to launch the rocket sound that goes off 2/3 of the way through :)

Thinking of it, I guess the little differences we got in Blue Monday, from one gig to another are due to Gillian and Stephen, they do what differ, when something do differ, and wether Barney plays some guitar or not...

I don't remember who it was but someone on this forum assured me the opening and famous riff to "Regret" was in fact pre-recorded, confirming the impression I had.

But nobody wants to believe me on the french forum. Can Sloppy or Allen shed some light onto this ?

Originally posted by Buster Klumpy I don't remember who it was but someone on this forum assured me the opening and famous riff to "Regret" was in fact pre-recorded, confirming the impression I had.But nobody wants to believe me on the french forum. Can Sloppy or Allen shed some light onto this ?

Nothing would surprise me. They may even be miming these days apart from Hooky !!

What did Steve and Gillian do on "Blue Monday"? Why, looked blank and mysterious, of course!!! I hope the whole thing IS pre-programmed: it mean their work ethic matches my own....

opening to regret was definitely pre recorded in the 93 gigs but not too sure if it is now, doesnt seem to be on 316. what about the bass at the start of 60mph?? hmmm

If you saw them on Jools Holland, the start of 60mph is pre recorded. everything else is Hooky tho

Other stuff they could easily play are Dreams Never End, Lonesome Tonight, Love Vigilantes (they've already done this in Liverpool), Leave Me Alone and Run.

I can't understand why it is so difficult for them to play Perfect Kiss etc. Perhaps instead of doing BM in the encore they should just whip the 12" of PK on the PA and retire to their dressing rooms.

Another hooky story. i went to see revenge and was right at the front close enough to strum his bass which i did along with numerous others, but it couldnt be heard at all. strange.

Originally posted by Mickey Way Other stuff they could easily play are Dreams Never End, Lonesome Tonight, Love Vigilantes (they've already done this in Liverpool), Leave Me Alone and Run.I can't understand why it is so difficult for them to play Perfect Kiss etc. Perhaps instead of doing BM in the encore they should just whip the 12" of PK on the PA and retire to their dressing rooms.

Love Vigilantes has got a sequenced part running through it though, even though they played it at Liverpool, and Lonesome Tonight has a highly tricky keyboard part that may be beyond someone without our Gill's dexterity. Leave Me Alone is far too complicated for them now, that might involve two strings on the guitar !!! Apologies for the sardonic tone of this, but having read other messages about various parts of guitar tracks being pre-recorded, I'm starting to suspect that the piss has been well and truly taken for several years.

Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe > Originally posted by Mickey Way> Other stuff they could easily play are Dreams Never End, Lonesome Tonight, Love Vigilantes (they've already done this in Liverpool), Leave Me Alone and Run.> > I can't understand why it is so difficult for them to play Perfect Kiss etc. Perhaps instead of doing BM in the encore they should just whip the 12" of PK on the PA and retire to their dressing rooms.

Love Vigilantes has got a sequenced part running through it though, even though they played it at Liverpool, and Lonesome Tonight has a highly tricky keyboard part that may be beyond someone without our Gill's dexterity. Leave Me Alone is far too complicated for them now, that might involve two strings on the guitar !!! Apologies for the sardonic tone of this, but having read other messages about various parts of guitar tracks being pre-recorded, I'm starting to suspect that the piss has been well and truly taken for several years.

Only NO could pre-record guitars on tracks and then have people complaining about the 'quality' and 'sound' of their live performances!

Though if you take the set in isolation, it is excellent and I doubt if many bands good match those songs, its just that our expectations are quite high after seeing different sets throughout the 80's.

Originally posted by Mickey Way > Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe> > > > Originally posted by Mickey Way>

Only NO could pre-record guitars on tracks and then have people complaining about the 'quality' and 'sound' of their live performances!

Though if you take the set in isolation, it is excellent and I doubt if many bands good match those songs, its just that our expectations are quite high after seeing different sets throughout the 80's.

It's not really "live" though is it ? They might as well, as you say, put the records on. The autocue was almost the last straw, finding out they pre-record guitars and virtually mime gigs these days is like standing in the pit and being gobbed on by the band. Forgive my disillusion.

Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe Always had my doubts as to the level of Gillian's contribution in most of it, other than to occupy part of the stage. We have video evidence of a small part in Ceremony, the basic tune in As It Is and We All Stand, and apart from a few bum notes here and there on the keyboard over the years on some songs, there ain't a lot ! Disk insertion and sequence triggering maybe.....

Dont forget Chosen Time (not ICB) from 3 16, she played great keyboards on that!

Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe > Originally posted by Mickey Way> > > > Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe> > > > > > > Originally posted by Mickey Way> > >

Only NO could pre-record guitars on tracks and then have people complaining about the 'quality' and 'sound' of their live performances!

Though if you take the set in isolation, it is excellent and I doubt if many bands good match those songs, its just that our expectations are quite high after seeing different sets throughout the 80's.

It's not really "live" though is it ? They might as well, as you say, put the records on. The autocue was almost the last straw, finding out they pre-record guitars and virtually mime gigs these days is like standing in the pit and being gobbed on by the band. Forgive my disillusion.

right, hold on here! The only pre-recorded bit of Regret is the synth riff at the beginning of the song, Barney does play the guitar. It's only the opening second for god's sake anyway.

Exactly the same for Hooky's bass on the Later performance of 60mph. The first couple of bass chords kick in and then Hooky plays all the rest.

In both cases, it's to give the opening of the songs some oomph. New Order are an electronic band and OK they might add a bit of sampled guitar or keyboard but can anyone really say that Hooky, Stephen and Barney aren't playing live? Of course not. That's almost as bad as the guy who wondered if they would ever play an acoustic set!

Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe > Originally posted by Mickey Way> > > > Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe> > > > > > > Originally posted by Mickey Way> > >

Only NO could pre-record guitars on tracks and then have people complaining about the 'quality' and 'sound' of their live performances!

Though if you take the set in isolation, it is excellent and I doubt if many bands good match those songs, its just that our expectations are quite high after seeing different sets throughout the 80's.

It's not really "live" though is it ? They might as well, as you say, put the records on. The autocue was almost the last straw, finding out they pre-record guitars and virtually mime gigs these days is like standing in the pit and being gobbed on by the band. Forgive my disillusion.

Though even back in the day with songs like Confusion and Shellshock you could never claim these were actually 'live'. The first time I saw them they played Confusion and when the 'ratta ta ta ta tatta hey' bit came booming out the speakers I thought 'what the fuck was that?'. Hooky on speed or something, which he probably was.

Then again, I remember Barney playing guitar over the True Faith new intro, in Paris : that, obviously, wasn't pre-recorded.

But it surely would be interesting to know what is pre-recorded, what is played live.

For the auto-cues, a lot of people do that today. This means a big difference in NO gigs : Barney can't sing with his eyes closed anymore...

Anyway, Stephen doesn't mime, obviously...

When they were playing "State Of The Nation", there was no-one behind keyboards, as for "Deeam Attack", although there's obviously guitar parts...

By the way, did someone else notice this synth part that's almost the same in "Mister Disco" and "State Of The Nation" ?

Originally posted by Mickey Way I can't understand why it is so difficult for them to play Perfect Kiss etc.

Sadly, all of the little tree frogs who used to live inside Gillian's custom keyboard and were trained to peep on command died several years back.

Originally posted by Allen Jarvis > Originally posted by zicoOK, I'll await the results with interest!Actually, I watched Later again last night, sad sod I know but only coz I was watching 'When We Were Kings' (great film) which I'd taped after it on Monday.Pretty sure he does play that opening riff himself though.

I've got several shows on disc since 93 and it is most definately a sample at the beginning of Regret. You can tell by the volume and the fact that it's exactly the same on each disc. Case Closed. Those frogs reared their head again on Player in the league near the end, i believe. It seems like Thieves Like Us should be simple to play on synth.

They made a fundamental error when they began writing songs though - if they had just stuck to the black keys rather than just the white ones, they may have had fewer problems now !! Watched an old live video the other night, and you can clearly see bits of label stuck on the keys a la Hooky's Warsaw bass !!

Originally posted by Geaux Hagen Those frogs reared their head again on Player in the league near the end, i believe.

Oh, those must be samples, then. ;)

Originally posted by Buster Klumpy By the way, did someone else notice this synth part that's almost the same in "Mister Disco" and "State Of The Nation" ?

The bassline is identical.

The reason they don't play perfect kiss live these days is that the Mexican singing frogs they used to use are now an endangered species.

I must say that almost all music artists these days pre-record something to gigs. I believe NO does not use it to guitars or vocals but of course they use it for keyboards. That's because Gillian is very lasy on stage and she doesn't like to play keyboards live or she does not know to play the lines that sometimes are very quick to be played. Other problem is that Barney cannot play and sing and Gillian has to leave the keyboards to play for him (and she's not very good in guitars). I think, the new guy that is playing with them solve the problem and gives NO songs the real quality. Example: Who can denie the Regret in John Holland is much better than in Reading. Between the vocals the guitar dos not stop. He should be really integrated to the band. What do you think?

Originally posted by Keeper Of The Major Key > Originally posted by Buster Klumpy> By the way, did someone else notice this synth part that's almost the same in "Mister Disco" and "State Of The Nation" ?

The bassline is identical.

The reason they don't play perfect kiss live these days is that the Mexican singing frogs they used to use are now an endangered species.

Bassline isn't quite identical - it veers off at one stage. Those fucking frogs are now doing Budweiser adverts !!!

Hurt or Procession

or DIGITAL

Too much sequencing in Hurt. Procession would be a possibility, but it hasn't been aired since the end of 1985. I'm afraid you'll have to settle for the same stuff as the rest of the world got :)

Thieves Like Us wouldn't be that hard either if they had someone playing synth instead of/in addition to Phil.

Originally posted by Geaux Hagen Thieves Like Us wouldn't be that hard either if they had someone playing synth instead of/in addition to Phil.

It's all sequenced. Would be great to hear it again though.

Originally posted by Allen Jarvis > Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe> > > > Originally posted by Geaux Hagen> > Thieves Like Us wouldn't be that hard either if they had someone playing synth instead of/in addition to Phil. >

It's all sequenced. Would be great to hear it again though.

I'd imagine they'd not play this one out of sheer embarrassment. I mean, the whole track's virtually sequenced, so would that leave Phil and Steve fighting over the one simple keyboard bit (which could almost certainly be sequenced these days anyways).

I still laugh at the American 83 date where Gillian completely made a horlicks of the only bit she had to do on this track. Not quite as bad as one LWTUA keyboard part in 86 or the debut of Sooner Than You Think though :) Brixton 83 was certainly one of the more "influenced" Gillian performances.

Originally posted by Allen Jarvis > Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe> > > > Originally posted by Geaux Hagen> > Thieves Like Us wouldn't be that hard either if they had someone playing synth instead of/in addition to Phil. >

It's all sequenced. Would be great to hear it again though.

I'd imagine they'd not play this one out of sheer embarrassment. I mean, the whole track's virtually sequenced, so would that leave Phil and Steve fighting over the one simple keyboard bit (which could almost certainly be sequenced these days anyways).

How come they always manage to make a pig's ear of TLU when played live though?! God bless'em...

It's a shame because Thieves devolops so nicely. The instrumental sounded great in the car. What about Sunrise? Was that discussed already? So much energy. Sounds like straight up rock to me. Shouldn't be that hard.

What about Sunrise? Was that discussed already? So much energy. Sounds like straight up rock to me. Shouldn't be that hard.

I was thinking the same thing. Sunrise would sound awesome live and doesn't to appear to difficult to perform.