"It might be our last show ever" - Steve and Hooky´s interview!

Well I meant a grudge against the band,for being old and all the other prejudice..But who,and let's remove the word relevent for a moment...Who is better,nowadays than New Order then?

And if New Order aint you're cuppa cocoa no more,have yoer rant and then move on to Milli Vinili As long as it's ok for other folk to still like New Order, I don't see there being a problem,from the New order end..

They will surely not announce a definitive split! Much more likely to be open ended.. As a band,and now very old friends they will be drawn to one another again.

Sometimes it seems there are no new order devotees on this site. And what does it mean that they arent relevant anymore. What is relevant these days, crap like Fergie and Blue October. Sorry I am just not buying this argument. To me, WFTSC was a great album, and like it or not, its different than most out there. That makes their music relevant to me and that is all that matters to me. These guys breaking up has had me upset for the past week and I can only pray that the rumor is a lie. But don't call them to old to succeed or irrelevant because its simply not true, each of them are musical geniuses. I am sure some of the older people from the UK will have something smart to say in reply, but i just had to ask, what is relevant?

What is relevant?

Maybe they're not on the top of the charts, or their videos are not shown on MTV, but does that mean they are not relevant?

They are relevant for me, I started listening to them only a year ago. And WFTSC is one of my fave albums ever. That album is the reason why I became a fan, so for me they are relevant. As simple as that.

I don't care if they don't win Grammys, or perform in stadiums, coz their music is as amazing as it always have been.

Daytrippera wrote: What is relevant?

Maybe they're not on the top of the charts, or their videos are not shown on MTV, but does that mean they are not relevant?

They are relevant for me, I started listening to them only a year ago. And WFTSC is one of my fave albums ever. That album is the reason why I became a fan, so for me they are relevant. As simple as that.

I don't care if they don't win Grammys, or perform in stadiums, coz their music is as amazing as it always have been.

I agree with Daytrippera. NO rules and the last two albums are so far away from almost i've heard in the last 10 years new bands.

I never gave a shit what other people in the herd liked. If my favourite band plays to 800 or 80,000 makes little difference to me ultimately - as long as I can get near the front at the shows. As long as it's relevant to me is all that matters.

New Order are like Kraftwerk in many ways to me, they were from a different plane of existence when i first heard them. The world may have caught up with (or 'copied the fuck out of') them since they started, but it doesn't make them any less original.

Uncle Liam wrote: I'm intrigued to know how it effects you Ronald. Not like you are even a semi regular face at gigs now is it?

You don't need to go to gigs to love NewOrder. I've seen them live a few times and that's enough to make me a happy man.

I'm not keen on gigs, but I'd still be gutted if they said they were calling it a day for good.

I also don't remember them selling out 5 nights at wembly or whatever even in the 80s. They always played smaller places didnt they? I dont know why people would be shocked that stadiums of people aren't turning out, well they never really did, they're not that sort of band. And they are getting huge crowds anyway, o I don't see the logic of that argument!

Craig W wrote:

Uncle Liam wrote: I'm intrigued to know how it effects you Ronald. Not like you are even a semi regular face at gigs now is it?

You don't need to go to gigs to love NewOrder. I've seen them live a few times and that's enough to make me a happy man.

I'm not keen on gigs, but I'd still be gutted if they said they were calling it a day for good.

WHY?

Are you people completely insane? In all seriousness, I honestly think that some people on here just have no life...

Face it, although this years tour was, in my book, pretty crap, its always been about the live stuff for years, certainly the 8 years i've been watching them. Thats why, if or when there are more gigs, i'll still bloody turn up even if they are doing the same old drudge.

Uncle Liam wrote:

Craig W wrote:

Uncle Liam wrote: I'm intrigued to know how it effects you Ronald. Not like you are even a semi regular face at gigs now is it?

You don't need to go to gigs to love NewOrder. I've seen them live a few times and that's enough to make me a happy man.

I'm not keen on gigs, but I'd still be gutted if they said they were calling it a day for good.

WHY?

Are you people completely insane? In all seriousness, I honestly think that some people on here just have no life...

'Coz I love their music...

Anyway...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6181932.stm

So, you dont go to the gigs, but because they are packing it in you'll be upset? Bloody hell.

No... I'd be upset if they quit writing music as a band. I couldn't care less they stop touring.

Er... unless they played Wellington of course...

are we getting back to the silly argument that you can't be a fan without doing at least five gigs a year.

I have been a fan since 1986 and have seen then whenever i could.

I have been through the dark days of no new new order and don't fancy facing that again .

If I'm repeating anything has said before then sorry but I just thought I'd give my own views on this subject. If this is the 'end' of New Order then naturally I'll be gutted as they've been a part of my life for nearly 20 years. I personally think they've got 'one' last album and tour - maybe in relation to the release of Control, before calling it a day. However as many of you have mentioned if this is the 'end' as sad as this may be for us, life still goes on and we have to face some facts about the position the band has reached and the personal lives of the members within it. With the exception of Phil Hooky, Bernard and Steve are +50 years of age and given the ways in which as musicians they've influenced and changed the popular music landscape over the last 30 years do we really want them to end up in 'ageing rocker' territory with the likes of U2, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Status Quo etc. or even worse end up doing dodgy 'Here And Now' gigs with b******'s one-hit wonders from the '80's. This and likelihood of them being labelled a poor man's Rolling Stones possibly explains the 'old guys of the neighbourhood' comments and Hooky, Bernard, Steve and even Phil's feelings about the future. Furthermore like what many of you mention we don't know what influence (pressure) Warners is putting on the band. If Warners consider WFTSC to be a flop - a No.5 album in the UK which has yielded one Top 10 and two - possibly three if they'd released Turn, Top 20 singles then I don't know what the band would have to do in order to live up to their demands for 'success'. IMO Warners aren't the worst offenders but the 'major' labels have a trigger happy habit of dropping an artist when they're no longer in the Top 10. If they have been dropped they could carry on down the 'indie' route - by themselves or through another label. However as some of you mention they've achieved so much musically anyway and with with the exception of Daniel Miller's Mute Records - technically owned by EMI, is it worth their while given they wouldn't achieve the positioning they currently enjoy with Warners within today's ever shrinking popular music marketplace. I don't think its exhaustion, acrimony or strain after the current tour which is prompting this call it a day talk as IMO they seemed to be enjoying themselves, each other and performing at the gigs I saw them at this year. They do deserve a well earned break from touring and promotion of WFTSC over the last two years and I think this is the only thing they're realistically thinking of doing right now. There have been other bands I've been gutted about calling it a day - for example Leftfield and Orbital, but the 'end' of New Order for me will be a sad time regardless of how right/wrong this may be. However we all thought it was the 'end' in the mid-'90's and I'd sooner see them bow out on a high when they're at the top of their game than continue touring/recording and become irrelevant middle aged parodies of their New Wave, Electro, House and Hacienda youth as a result. My advice is just enjoy what Warsaw, Joy Division, New Order, Revenge, Electronic, The Other Two, Marion, Monaco and Freebase has given/is giving to us - singles, albums, tours etc. and whatever they decide to do I personally wish Hooky, Bernard, Steve, Gillian and Phil all the best for the future. Cheers!

Thief Like You wrote: Dunno about you lot but I think that NO are big enough (as people)to be upfront about it and announce to a live audience if a tour was going to be their last. Not to say I think they will - I just think they have the balls to do it and personally I'd appreciate that very much.

You probably don't remember Reading 93 then, Barney saying something like "don't believe what you read in the papers, if we split I'll say it" to a relieved audience... yeah, right, all he said for the following five years was "we haven't officially split, but we haven't plans to meet in the foreseeable future". Even Rob Gretton was annoyed (it had become a phrase more common than Hooky saying "it's like coming home for Christmas"), to the point of gathering them in 1998 and asking "Look, I've been offered loads of money for Phoenix [then moved to Reading], have you fookin split or not??!". And they went like "err, have we? dunno, well... let's do Phoenix, take the money and see what's next...". That's the balls of New Order, and this time there's no Rob to wake them up, though I trust our Andy... he probably won't let them get away with such a finale for their career, I hope he'll manage to make them do a "live and unreleased" compilation, promoted by a final small tour with a last date ever in Manchester, at least...

Ally you're right about the phrase, it was "even if I say it"... I thought the words were "if we split I say it" but I remember having doubts about them at the time though I haven't checked much lately, just thought the meaning of the phrase was that... I don't know if he really was talking about anything else anyway... I just remember he told the NME they hadn't split and he was misunderstood in some other interview and made a sort of official statement to tell fans to wait for the band to say if they split instead of reading speculations on magazines... that's why I though those were the words even if they sounded strange (but I thought he was just chewing some bits) and I still think the meaning of the true phrase could be referred to that, also because the audience responded with roaring cheers... though that happened with the most of Barney said, he could have said "I prefer grey trousers to blue jeans" and the audience would have cheered anyway... :D

steveone wrote: Was life really that bad between Republic and Get Ready? We had other stuff to keep us going.

It wasn't that bad (though the music scene already started to become an ocean of shit, just remember Shed Seven, Echobelly, Offspring...). I liked Raise The Pressure and Music For Pleasure. Still, it was CERTAINLY better between Get Ready and Waiting For The Sirens Call! BTW Blunderer is AJ Wells, isn't he?

"Life will never be the same..."

Does anyone need the name of a good counsellor? On second thoughts the UN might be more appropriate... (If not particularly effective)... Group hug? Thought not...

Snorri xxx

I was never really that keen on them meself so there you go. Ah well.

Do any of you guys like U2? I do. Or what about the Super Furry Animals? We could merge with their fan base and we'd have a right laugh and jolly jape.

Drink b4 Xmas? How about the Good Ship in Kilburn London on the 8th December? Em, some cover band or other are playing there that night. Could be a bit of a larf..... whadoyasay?

Blunder, you should come along amd meet Al. He wants to give you a big hug and a kiss.

:bag:

If NO remain signed, it'll be as a prestige act - much like The Stones and so forth - a band kept on for its back catalogue. Sadly, the modern business model of music labels operates in this fashion, and finance and cashflow of labels is all aimed at quarters of profitability. The days of a long term career are gone, if your second album isn't a hit, you're dropped. Quite how a Top 5 album isn't regarded as a "Hit", I don't know. I would have thought that by this point in their career, NO would've got some decent accountants in and become near autonomous.

Id have thought theyd have stayed around at least until the Brits `07 to get their lifetime achievement award. Surely a dead cert with '07 being the 30th anniversary:\ohwell:

mark reed wrote: If NO remain signed, it'll be as a prestige act - much like The Stones and so forth - a band kept on for its back catalogue. Sadly, the modern business model of music labels operates in this fashion, and finance and cashflow of labels is all aimed at quarters of profitability. The days of a long term career are gone, if your second album isn't a hit, you're dropped. Quite how a Top 5 album isn't regarded as a "Hit", I don't know. I would have thought that by this point in their career, NO would've got some decent accountants in and become near autonomous.

It has never been more obvious that music is a commodity. Working a few years at Tower Records taught me that. Trust me when I heard about the K-Fed CD I just thanked my stars I was not in the record business anymore.

Quite a few musicians are lousy business people. Remember that NO took a a cut in their normal royalty rate to get owed royalties on their back catalog at Factory. The Hacienda was a money pit-as brilliant as it was. Their profits kept Factory alive. NO created great music, are probably good people, but their track record is that they are probably not great business people

NOOLigan wrote: are we getting back to the silly argument that you can't be a fan without doing at least five gigs a year.

I have been a fan since 1986 and have seen then whenever i could.

I have been through the dark days of no new new order and don't fancy facing that again .

The dark days of no New Order? Do you actually have any kind of life at all? Can you not survive without four blokes from Manchester and the surrounding area stopping what they;ve done for a living.

And just how did you manage to survive the original "dark days of no New Order?"

Grow up Ronald. You sound like one of those teenage girls who tried suicide after Take That split up the first time round.

mark reed wrote: The days of a long term career are gone, if your second album isn't a hit, you're dropped.

You're obviously out of touch with the industry. Now it's: if your first single isn't top 3, you're dropped :P

Uncle Liam wrote:

NOOLigan wrote: are we getting back to the silly argument that you can't be a fan without doing at least five gigs a year.

I have been a fan since 1986 and have seen then whenever i could.

I have been through the dark days of no new new order and don't fancy facing that again .

The dark days of no New Order? Do you actually have any kind of life at all? Can you not survive without four blokes from Manchester and the surrounding area stopping what they;ve done for a living.

And just how did you manage to survive the original "dark days of no New Order?"

Grow up Ronald. You sound like one of those teenage girls who tried suicide after Take That split up the first time round.

new order are the soundtrack to my life. i'm sorry you don't feel that way.

i don't feel passionate about many things, but this i do.

it is you who needs to grow up and accept that other people have different likes and passions to you.

Hope they release their "new album" on a independent record label

Uncle Liam wrote:

The dark days of no New Order? Do you actually have any kind of life at all?

a/Posting on NOOL and b/loving NOrder

doesn't mean you have no life! I've got a billion other things going on my life but I still do a/ and b/

Big Mouth Julio wrote: Hope they release their "new album" on a independent record label

A top idea!

I reckon it'll be a virtual release only thou' and thats no bad thing!