28 years of memories

Just a few thoughts on a group of people who’ve had such a profound impact on 28 years out of my life. Hope you enjoy them.

Seeing Joy Division supporting Buzzcocks at Manchester Apollo in 1979, but not really paying too much attention because one, I’d never heard of them and two because it wasn’t cool to watch support bands.

Buying a 12” of Atmosphere/She’s Lost Control (my first 12” along with OMD’s “Enola Gay”) from Piccadilly records in Manchester with my first grant cheque.

Buying two copies of Ceremony 7” (one for a lad at the Poly who couldn’t get into Manchester at the weekend to buy it), taking one of them to a party on the Saturday night and being BEGGED to sell it to the lad whose house it was (and not doing).

Reading the run off grooves on the vinyl and feeling that I was part of something really special.

Buying “Unknown Pleasures” as my very first CD when I bought my first player.

Loving the fact that “Face Up” on “Low Life” sounded awful but that nobody cared.

Waiting until midnight for New Order to come on stage at the Manchester Ritz in 1981. Bumping into a lad from down the street on the bus the morning after who asked me if I’d liked the support band (Beach Red). Telling him that I thought they sounded like a poor man’s Joy Division (actually liked them but still had my thing about support bands) and being asked “So you didn’t rate my drumming much, then?”

Getting my first points on my driving license for speeding coming back from seeing New Order at Bradford in 1985.

Hand painting a pale blue T shirt in the style of “Movement” but with the FAC no and title of “Temptation” – then hearing on John Peel that it was FAC 63 and not FAC 65 (as I’d painted it) and having to redo it on a white T shirt that didn’t look anywhere near as good.

Hand painting a “Blue Monday” T shirt (this time with the correct FAC number on the back) and having everyone at the Manchester Poly Friday night disco (woo hoo!) ask where I’d bought it (and having to smugly tell them that I hadn’t)

Standing freezing in the snow outside King George’s Hall in Blackburn with my kid brother until they opened the doors to let us in to see New Order an hour later.

Buying live JD and NO cassettes from a stall in Manchester’s underground market (including a tape of “Low Life” a week before it was released)

Getting the free “Technique” sticker out of the NME in 1989 and sticking it on the inner sleeve of the LP.

Meeting good people at Macclesfield on May the 18th one year (but not as good as my brother who was invited into Barton Street for a look round on the same day but a different year)

Watching as a pot of diluted ink used for cleaning drafting pens toppled off the top shelf onto the floor – precisely where “Low Life” with its greaseproof paper sleeve was sitting. Looking at said (but now wrinkly) greaseproof paper sleeve for the next ten years until I found another pristine copy at a record fair.

Feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand on end the first time I heard “Ceremony” and “IALP” on “Heart And Soul”

Downloading the “Closer” font and photos taken in the same cemetery and making my own CD boxes for JD gigs.

Touching Hooky’s bass at his 40th birthday bas at the Witchwood in Ashton-under-Lyne and probably coming near to ending my life for my trouble.

Being part of something.

Thank you, Joy Division and New Order – wherever you are and whatever you do in the future.

Great Memories!

One of my favourite memories is coming home with my first New Order CD "Low-Life" bought on release in 1985/86 ? I already had the vinyl and boxed white linen cassette. Anyway I went to take my cassette out of my player and it chewed it up - arghhh!

Then I looked at my new CD and a pile of blank TDK tapes and a light bulb lit up in my brain. I carefully unscrewed the Factory cassette shell and removed the tangled tape. I then put the tape from one of the TDK blanks in the Factory Shell. I then used my new CD to record back onto the Factory Cassette. If anything it was better sound than the original!

What really made me smile was when I took this home made cassette to a local record shop and sold it! What a cheapskate but then I was a student and I had spent my grant on my first CD Player!!

peter ,, some great memories ,, shared a a few of em with you, cept i bought atmosphere from virgin in manchester.it was being played at the time ( first time id heard it) spooky,,,

the funniest ive got looking back was seeing barney and hooky nite after nite in a nearly empty hac..no cheap drinks for free then.

as for blackburn,, stayed warm in the pub prior and got coach back to manc land.

to the centre of the city

I'm not as old [come on, I'm only 23!], but I do have some fond memories of the Order in my youth, growing up, and so forth.

I recalled the first time I saw the video for 'True Faith' , and seeing for the first time, thought he was the cutest guy in the world. [These days, it's my boyfriend Michael. But still. ]

Listening to the songs and trying to sing along with them. Especially BLT, TF, Temptation and, nowadays, TPK, Crystal, SLY, Turn, and GiaUE. Oh, and Krafty and Mesh and Procession too! :D

Buying my very first NO c.d. [actually, compilation sounds more like it!], :substance:, and playing it nonstop at work. Everyone loved it. Especially me.

Getting my very first official NO album, WFTSC, the day it came out, and listening to it for days if not weeks on end.

The day I found PC&L at a C.D. Revolver [formerly C.D. Warehouse], and listening to that for days on end right away.

First night out on the club and the DJ played TPK. That was the first time I saw the video too. TPK became my all-time favorite after that--both song AND video.

Seeing the video for LWTUA by JD for the first time later on that night! :laugh Recalled how much of a cutie was.

Buying my first JD c.d., 'Permanent 1995', and then 'Substance 1977-1980' about a month later. Listened to them both when I had the worst bout of depression ever. The music cured it. Thank God!!

Buying my first official JD album, UP. And grinning in glee about how cool Disorder and Interzone sounded!!

Listening to 'Regret' in my middle-school years [late summer '95 to early summer '98], and not knowing who did the song. For years.

Falling in love with SLY when I first heard it, and then for the Gabriel & Dresden911 Vocal Mix of the same song.

Watching NO concert footage on YouTube. Always thought was cool in tackling the poor bass. Fuckin' ace!

Always admiring how pretty was, and that no matter how many times one of my friends insisted, I was never going to look even close to half as beautiful as her.

First time I saw dance. YouTube of a performance of FT. Laughed my ass off.

Befriending everyone here on NOOL and on Barney's Angels. Yes, that IS a part of the Legacy that NO has brought about.

The day about two weeks ago when the JD/NO pics that Missy sent me in the mail arrived. Started taping up the pictures in my apartment, pronto!!

My first NO-related mix c.d. And the JD-related one following that same day.

The day I heard Mesh. And fell in love with THAT song!

...oh, and the first time I heard a proper version of 'Temptation' that I wouldn't tire of!

[lost in benidorm...] ['sunshine'] wrote:

The day I heard Mesh. And fell in love with THAT song!

!

Aaahh the Scottish B side fairy....

Not quite 28 years for me,but 20 will do!

Mate kept playing blt sunstance version over and over again,he gave me the cassette and i copied it. Listened to it over and over again then went out and bought it on cd,think it was something like £27 back then!

Within the week i'd bought the entire back catalogue from Andy's records on cd,or so i thought!

For some reason,i was looking through the p section,looking for pet shop boys stuff and i came across this grey sleeved cd,lo and behold it was brotherhood,was clearly in the wrong section,saw on the back cover that it was new order and bought it sttaight away.

Loved listening to the back catalogue,i had to listen to it in the living room on my dads technics as at that time i didn't have a cd player of my own.

Immediately,decided that pc&l was my fave as still is today.

Absolutely loved Technique,specially Vanishing point,was the track we used to play every sunday when we were on our way to Huddersfield baths.

When republic was released it was when i'd fallen out with my parents and they'd kicked me out from home. I was living with a mate in a run down shithole of a terraced house in the worst part of my village. Again didn't have a cd player so despatched lady to town for said republic,to be honest was dissapointed because it wasn't technique,but liked regret,and it turned into a grower.

Loved get ready and crystal especially,60mph could have been a much better track,the guitars seem stifled,but twas a good video!

Dissapointed with sirens,esp Krafty,very poor track to put out as a first single from the album.

The Future?

Who knows what the future holds,but whatever happens i will always have my memories!

:nuts;

26 yrs here...

just hearing new order on the radio as an eight year old...hearing bizarre love triangle and true faith...and bluemonday in 91...

seeing the 'f' symbol sticker on the back of someone's car in austin after having had a nervous breakdown, which was before i had ever heard of joy division. then when i went with a friend to fye and was looking in the j section and there was the symbol on the cover of still,so i bought the record.

the first time hearing joy division..exercise one..i knew there was something special about this band especially after hearing ian's voice..

then i found out that new order was once joy division...and ever since then i've loved the music of both bands...its been there through all the crazy times..

quite a few of us haven't had the wonderful experience some of you have had in seeing them live, espjd, but i would , like to say that i love and hate youall who have been solucky.

:p

Thanks everyone - it wasn't just me it was good for then!

Love the story, Shug! Class stuff right there.

So many memories. Old man of nearly 41 here so some go back a long way...

Watching the video for Love Will Tear Us Apart and knowing that the singer had died recently but was intrigued to go out and buy the 12".

A friend in Bradford who was a JD/NO obsessive sending me a tape after I'd heard (and bought) Temptation on John Peel's show one night. Alongside my passion for Ultravox at the time, I thought "This is superb!".

Missing the infamous Tolworth gig in 83 - the one with the moped announcement - because the bloody Order didn't advertise their gigs then!

Going to the Royal Albert Hall to see them for the first time in 86. Top night.

Then Wembley the following year where I saw "the Temptation bloke". I'd see this bloke at gigs in the distance and he'd strip to the waist and give it loads only during Temptation for some weird reason. Working at a local hospital with nowt but both Substances on my Walkman the whole time. I practically wore the tapes out!

Driving over the Pennines on the M62 from Leeds to GMEX to see them play just before Christmas 1988. Really top night.

Reading 93: people crying as they thought it might be the last time.

Reading 98: people crying when they played Joy Division songs.

Shaking Barney's hand and chatting to him, Finsbury Park and the mud, meeting Chris Nash at Hyde Park in 2005 and realising we lived in the same manor, seeing Monaco at the Scala, Wembley last year....great times.

Thank you.

28 years is the number for me......

hearing the Transmission single in 1979.

buying all of the JD stuff I could get ahold of around here, either at the import stores or via mail order from Rough Trade USA, who kindly sent a couple of copies of the Komakino flexi and several JD badges my way.

Factory US finally getting decent distribution, so when PC&L came out, I could buy it at the local department store right away, rather than having to drive an hour or wait a couple of weeks.

All night (13 hour) drive into San Francisco in 85, with EGG airing on a local station at dawn, for my first NO gig. Last time I saw my ex-roommate, who lived down there, alive as well, he passed away four months later.

Buying a new car in 86 and the first song I heard on the radio that I turned on was...............Love Vigilantes.

Very good show on the first half of the hellish Technique tour in 89.

Still played their records through out the 90's......too many good things to say about this decade, I couldn't list 'em all. There's nothing I regret about anything, really.