Phil Cunningham
Archived42 replies · 1,360 views
After waiting to choose what will be my 200th post,I settled on this.& I've kind of waited for this to come up,or thought about doing it meself.
With nothing against Phil wotsoever,I just miss Gillian,it's the N.O. I know & love & grew up with.Does anyone else feel that,even tho' you're watching N.O.,being just Barney,Hooky & Steve,that it just doesn't feel like you are? 
PS.200.Shit compared to 15,000 innit?
Au contraire, I think Phil adds a lot to the band in the live setting. He's a far superior guitarist than either Gillian or Bernard, and now handles the bulk of the live guitar work, thus freeing Bernard up to squint at the autocue and do silly dances. True that the live keys don't play as big a part as they used to in Gillian's day, but that has as much to do with the band switching to HD for the synth parts, rather than anything else.
Plus, having Phil in the band rather than Gillian at least means they can still gig whenever they want to, something that wouldn't be possible so easily with both Gillian and Steve in the band. You certainly wouldn't have had the 05 US or 06 South American tours with Gillian in the band!
oldmonkey wrote: Au contraire, I think Phil adds a lot to the band in the live setting. He's a far superior guitarist than either Gillian or Bernard, and now handles the bulk of the live guitar work, thus freeing Bernard up to squint at the autocue and do silly dances. True that the live keys don't play as big a part as they used to in Gillian's day, but that has as much to do with the band switching to HD for the synth parts, rather than anything else.
Plus, having Phil in the band rather than Gillian at least means they can still gig whenever they want to, something that wouldn't be possible so easily with both Gillian and Steve in the band. You certainly wouldn't have had the 05 US or 06 South American tours with Gillian in the band!
True about the touring,but then again,I don't live in the US or South America,I live in Manchester!
oldmonkey wrote:
Plus, having Phil in the band rather than Gillian at least means they can still gig whenever they want to, something that wouldn't be possible so easily with both Gillian and Steve in the band. You certainly wouldn't have had the 05 US or 06 South American tours with Gillian in the band!
i'm agree!!
Seriously tho',& whether it's just coincidence,the sound has veered closer to MOR rock such as Hey Joe,which isn't too bad,& Hey Now What You're Doing,which,is,& not a sound I personally favour.It just seems that the keyboard/sequencer element has taken a bit of a back seat with Gillians' presence lacking.Yeh,I know Morning Night & Day & Guilt are sequencer driven mainly but they just seem different.Maybe I'm being a bit picky & comparing to older classic stuff too much,but the rockier influence is,to me anyway,definately more apparent live at least.
IMO Phil has contributed well to NO both in the studio and live and has given NO a freshness which arguably may or may not have been the case if Gillian was still a full time member of the band. That said I love what Gillian contributed to NO and she will always be one of my favourite synth players. However she quite rightly put her family first something I think any one of us would (or should) do in the same situation. Cheers!
Dont think theirs anything particularly wrong with Phil, and no-one can say for sure if more of NOs work would be more synth-driven with Gillian.
On the other hand, Gillian looks nicer :D
i think gillian didn't have that big an input in the song writing style, most synth driven songs were writen by barney, his musical taste has changed that's why they don't do so much now, also sequencers have moved on and don't sound as rigid, which is a key sound to early NO tracks, bringing phil in was a good idea to freshen the line up and have some one new to bounce ideas off.
as for who looks best, being a bit of a music gear nerd I just look at the gear, which was more interesting in gillians day, but better sounding now.
He didn't set security on me when I drunkenly lunged at him coming out of the toilets in that club in Glasgow so he's alright with me.
He never phoned to meet for a pint the next day though, lightweight!
NObabe wrote:
Steve One wrote: He's got no history,simple as that.
He's got ginger bollocks
Well that's something Gillian could never bring to the studio or the live arena, I suppose.
NObabe wrote:
Steve One wrote: He's got no history,simple as that.
He's got now
Exactly. He had nothing to do with the band we've all grown up with,spend years listening to. Sorry,i dont mean to be negative.
Nice hat though Maya!
Steve One wrote: He's got no history,simple as that. Marion? Fuck off.
Rather harsh - you could say that about anyone starting off-
e.g. That Johnny Marr - he was only in the White Dice...
Confusion33 wrote:
Steve One wrote: He's got no history,simple as that. Marion? Fuck off.
Rather harsh - you could say that about anyone starting off-
e.g. That Johnny Marr - he was only in the White Dice...
Hardly think you can compare the two. Marr has played with some of the best people in the world,and had earned his stripes BEFORE he had anything to do with Electronic.
Naw, personally I MUCH PREFER/MISS Gillian, she contributed a helluva lot to New Order. And if NO are gonna keep Phil Cunningham in the band I think his good mate & musical partner of many years, Aly Bain, should also join.
He got in my taxi once. He'd joined the band, but the public didn't know about it. He tried telling me he was the guitarist in New Order. "Yeah course you are mate. Fuck off !"
Cheers
Phil seems like a nice guy. He has a lot of energy onstage, I enjoy watching him dance around while playing guitars and keyboards.
BUT.....
Gillian was a much better synth player than Phil. Thats whats missed live. I hate seeing all of the keyboard parts on the newer songs being put on a backing track. Like the keyboard solo in Turn. Phil plays it on guitar and it sounds like crap.
If he would just play live keyboards more, he would be complaint free.
Beyond that, he seems cool.
However, I was a but sad that he didnt respond to the very funny message that I send him on Myspace.
Also...is he really only 31?
he's younger than me?!
Anyway, I was impressed by his guitarplaying at Wembley. Good addition to the band.
There will always be fans who don't like changes in their band, whether it's personnel or a change in sound.. a lot of fans like things to stay the way they are.
Zachery Starkey wrote:
However, I was a but sad that he didnt respond to the very funny message that I send him on Myspace.
Was it something along the lines of:
'Stop playing guitar and start playing keyboards.'
Christopher Owens wrote:
Zachery Starkey wrote:
However, I was a but sad that he didnt respond to the very funny message that I send him on Myspace.
Was it something along the lines of:
'Stop playing guitar and start playing keyboards.'
Confusion33 wrote:
Steve One wrote: He's got no history,simple as that. Marion? Fuck off.
Rather harsh - you could say that about anyone starting off-
e.g. That Johnny Marr - he was only in the White Dice...
Wow I didn't know you came on here Phil, any chance of back stage tickets to next gig 
Music-wise, I think almost everyone prefers the New order from the 80s to the one today. Phil is part of the Get Ready / WFTSC crowd, Gillian was there when they did all their classic stuff.
To be fair, what sort of /history did Gillian have back in 1980? Even if the only thing Phil brings to the band is more gigs, that's fine by me...
Snorri xxx
How does he bring more gigs though Snorri?
I mean,it's easy to understand the point about how he brings ginger bollocks to the band...but what influence does he have on touring?
Boatraceface wrote: How does he bring more gigs though Snorri?
I mean,it's easy to understand the point about how he brings ginger bollocks to the band...but what influence does he have on touring?
If Gillian was still in the band, think of the babysitter bill.
Christopher Owens wrote:
Boatraceface wrote: How does he bring more gigs though Snorri?
I mean,it's easy to understand the point about how he brings ginger bollocks to the band...but what influence does he have on touring?
If Gillian was still in the band, think of the babysitter bill.
Yeh,Phil must be cheaper.Explains it.A value for money Jinog
I like him. Makes no real difference to me. As long as my favourite band are still gigging and putting out records is all that matters. The thing that baffles me is that people resist change, yet, without change, we'd've had no "Blue Monday", no "Temptation", no "State Of The Nation" (ok, maybe not all change is good). Evolution is important to a band and without it, we wouldn't be where we are now.
The people who say they dont like Phil, may have been the same people who hated Blue Monday when it came out, because it didn't sound like Joy Division.
banshee wrote: Phil used to live in oswaltwistle.that means fuck all to anyone but i drink there sometimes
I've got over the feeling that he has somehow taken what should have been my job and I think he's great, a really good musician, though I wish he would leave the guitar alone during the nice orchestral bit after the first chorus on Krafty. Hey Now What You Doing has always sounded to me like Bernard doing his Neil Young record, and Phil's contribution is great on that, though I especially like his work at the end of Waiting For The Sirens' Call.
so why not next gig in manchester we'll have phil dancing with barney and guitars, gillian back on keyboards (hey you know she misses it) and dawn zee singing and dancing at the back
