New Order were the best band on the planet in the eighties. Bar none. But it is very hard to describe to someone who wasn’t there exactly why.
I became a New Order fan in 1983 around the time of Blue Monday. It sounded like nothing else on earth. It richocched around the Youth Club like a machine gun sending the girls scurrying for cover. The only people who would get up were a couple of older lads with Perry haircuts who danced very earnestly, arms flailing, fringes over their eyes. They stayed on for the next couple of records – one I recognised: “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, and another one with a demonic, roaring chorus which belied the lyric: “Dance to The Radio!”. The Jam fans looked on respectfully. They mocked every other dancer at the Youth Club, but there seemed to be a total incomprehension of what this music meant. I was intrigued and knew I had to find out more.
Blue Monday was 12 inch only so took weeks to save up for. The cover was unbelievable – it looked fantastic. Just who were this band who didn’t even put words or pictures on their covers? Confusion was released shortly after and from that point onwards I bought everything – “Movement” and “Power Corruption and Lies” contained a few gems on each and the Joy Division back catalogue sounded like a different band – yet sometimes the same band. The more I delved the more wondrous this band looked. The covers mesmorised me. The Joy Division legacy fascinated me. The fact that New Order didn’t really do interviews and shunned publicity only drew me in further. They refused to mime which was a wonderful principle to have – especially when their playing and singing skills were, at best ,average. When I eventually saw the band, on video playing live at The Hacienda I was awestruck. They looked wonderfully cool – they didn’t move, smile or talk. This band were pure. They really meant it.
My first gig, aged 15, in Blackburn was a disaster which still haunts me. I was excitedly smoking in Mum’s bathroom getting ready for the gig, and was caught. And grounded. Game over. The next opportunity came in 1986 when I obtained a ticket for a gig at Warrington Spectrum Arena. Four of us went over and it was here I discovered the true power and majesty of New Order. For, despite the fact that the records were totally cutting edge, the design work was unrivalled and the image was totally cool, the live experience was like nothing else. It was the first of many gigs I attended through the years in this country and abroad. New Order live were often shambolic. They were obnoxious. Their equipment broke down. They didn’t talk to the audience, they hardly did encores. They insulted the crowd, the crowd insulted them. What other band, before or since, would play new songs live before the lyrics were written, and just adlib the lyrics? Noone.
But sometimes, late in the set, when the lights went purple and the crowd surged, when they locked into Your Silent Face or Everything’s Gone Green or Age of Consent, they simply soared. Noone could touch them.
They were overtaken as Ecstasy swept the country by younger blood with 808s and 909s who took their inspiration directly from the band. But the legacy remained. New Order – the Daddies of them all. They did it their way.
“I remember …….when we were young”
