Manchesteronline Apollo Review

A glowing review from the Manc online website, not sure i agree it was better than Brixton but cant blame them for saying so ;)

(click on the link if yer wanna see the convincing Barney pic!)

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/entertainment/music/livereviews/s/181/181819_new_order__apollo.html

14/11/05

THERE are good weeks and there are great ones. For one of Manchester’s most esteemed outfits, this definitely falls into the latter category.

On top of this triumphant first homecoming show in over three years; the group will join heavyweight luminaries such as Pink Floyd, The Who and The Kinks into the UK Music Hall Of Fame on Wednesday.

And on last night’s evidence, New Order can punch their weight in any company.

Timed to coincide with their new Singles compilation, a fervent sold out crowd got exactly what they clamoured for - a greatest hits set, which spanned their near 30-year career as both New Order and trailblazing Joy Division.

Joy Division composition Ceremony got proceedings underway. Delivered with crackling intensity and Barney's trademark deadpan vocal, it acted as a perfect marker for what was to come.

With bassist Peter Hook putting in a signature tour-de-force display - despite looking he would be more at home propping up a bar in an Alice Springs hostelry - and full-time axeman Phil Cunningham beefing up the guitar parts, it proved an assault on the senses that would have made Motörhead’s ears ring.

Krafty

The utterly infectious trio of Crystal, Regret and recent single Krafty whipped the masses into a euphoric state, which didn’t subside until Hooky took a well-earned breather during a relaxed rendition of the new album’s title track, Waiting For The Sirens’ Call.

Taking it down a peg or two proved to be a wise decision as well, bearing in mind the visceral onslaught that was to follow.

With Stephen Morris setting a dynamic pace on drums, the layered build up to True Faith was one any superstar DJ would have been proud of as the crowd were again stirred for a sublime take on Temptation - made all the more effective thanks to searing ice white flashes and blades of red strobe lights.

Sumner himself soon shed his inhibitions too, abandoning his position centre stage to give us his trademark rendition of a drunken uncle at a wedding.

Anthem

And while the newer tracks didn’t hit home as hard as the celebrated classics, by the time the city’s unofficial anthem Love Will Tear Us Apart and the incessant electro standard Blue Monday were unleashed, a lot of the crowd seemed understandably spent so a lower key Joy Division medley proved a wise encore.

At the start of the set Sumner has demanded the Manchester public must outdo a recent Brixton Academy gathering, I think he got his wish.

And while they may not seek the fame they are being bestowed with, they certainly deserve it.

Thanks Don!

Wow what a first line, couldn't ask for better than that!!

I would say Manchester was better than Brixton by a teeny bit, you are just biased as a Southerner.

One point of contention, that dancing is much better than a drunken Uncle

Ness wrote:

One point of contention, that dancing is much better than a drunken Uncle

Is that a very drunken uncle with a poorly ankle?

Love the comment on that site:

"vikings rule! Phil out, Gillian in Matt, madchester 15/11/2005 at 10:24 "

I'll scan the review in from today's Manchester Evening News paper, as it's different. They seem to spend quite a bit of the review on Hooky's comment last night about "incontinenance pants"! :D

James Thomas wrote:

Ness wrote:

One point of contention, that dancing is much better than a drunken Uncle

Is that a very drunken uncle with a poorly ankle?

Spot on! - that drunk he has to kneel down halfway through!

Here's the Manchester Evening News Review (as promised):

Funtime return for city's finest

New Order APOLLO

ICONIC, bordering on deity, status normally demands reverential respect, and the fans of New Order were certainly prepared to provide it last night.

However, arguably the most important and influential band to come out of Manchester, if not Britain, in the last 30 years, were in no mood to play rock gods for their homecoming gig.

Instead, they were up for fun, joking with the audience and lacing their links with self deprecating wit. "Are those incontinence pants working?" enquired bass thumper Peter Hook, looking meaner and leaner than he has in ages in a sleeveless T-shirt, to someone near the stage.

If, indeed, the poor soul was in need of sanitary assistance then the subsequent set of classics and resurrected gems from the New Order and Joy Division back catalogue - along with stuff from new album, Waiting For The Sirens' Call, which had the delirious fans bouncing up and down continuously - would have done him no favours at all. His trouble would have started four songs in, with the pulsating Regret, and culminated with the majestic Love Will Tear Us Apart, the record that inexplicably lost out to Robbie's Angels in a poll of great British singles.

Lead guitarist and singer, Bernard Sumner, may not have the haunting vocal delivery of the late Ian Curtis, but he still did the song justice. Only the emotionally challenged would have failed to find it a spine-tingling moment.

Sumner pointed out that most bands would have ended on such a high, but "we like to think we're a cut above the rest," and to prove it they followed up with Blue Monday, which Sumner dedicated to the Manchester Evening News. Nice.

Fittingly, the encore's closing number, in a Joy Division medley, was Atmosphere - something that was never missing from a terrific night of master class rock.

ERIC JACKSON

Al Jarvis wrote:

Ness wrote: I would say Manchester was better than Brixton by a teeny bit, you are just biased as a Southerner.

And you're from York-shy-er. What happened to the War of the Roses spirit, eh?

Hit the North!!! If Rockets anything to go by the other lot are Work-shy-er.

Al Jarvis wrote:

Ness wrote: I would say Manchester was better than Brixton by a teeny bit, you are just biased as a Southerner.

And you're from York-shy-er. What happened to the War of the Roses spirit, eh?

My rose alliance turned from white to red when I bought my first Sumner and Co. 12"!!