The Opener, and other useless minutiae

Back in the day (and even more recently on occasion) we used to have a sweep to guess the first song (when the sets started becoming a bit more monotonous it changed to being a different number in the set rather than the opener). This was often the highlight of the gig, certainly back in the mid 80s when we literally had no idea what was coming first from one gig to the next.

Now it's all over, the most common openers can be revealed, as well as a few other useless stats. Sure, there are about 20 of the US 89 tour dates that we don't have the setlist info for, plus possibly a dozen or so other gigs down the years, but they are unlikely to make that much of a difference in the wider scheme of things.

Anyway, of the 452 recorded/known about gigs, we have the following openers (we don't know about 20 of these 452):

Crystal 51 Ceremony 36 Touched By The Hand Of God 27 Perfect Kiss 22 Your Silent Face 22 In A Lonely Place 21 Love Vigilantes 16 State Of The Nation 15 Blue Monday 14 Elegia 13 Bizarre Love Triangle 12 Ruined In A Day 11 Temptation 10 Ultraviolence 10

various others less than 10

Of the songs played more than 50 times, Senses, Leave Me Alone and This Time Of Night were never first up on the setlist.

Second in the set:

Ceremony 42 Dreams Never End 40 Regret 34 Transmission 26 Love Vigilantes 26

Third song:

Regret 42 Dreams Never End 41 Ceremony 38 Dream Attack 20

Fourth song:

Ceremony 45 Truth 30 Your Silent Face 15 Sunrise 15

overall:

Temptation 321 Ceremony 255 Blue Monday 251 Bizarre Love Triangle 214 Perfect Kiss 208

Anyone still awake? Well if you take 1989 as a cut-off point, being the era when they stopped doing random sets every night and started selecting from a rehearsed pool of songs, the stats are a bit different:

openers Ceremony 29 Perfect Kiss 22 In A Lonely Place 21 Your Silent Face 21 Touched By The Hand Of God 16 State Of The Nation 15 Blue Monday 14 Elegia 13

second Dreams Never End 40 Ceremony 29 Love Vigilantes 23

third Dreams Never End 41 Ceremony 20 Chosen Time 18

fourth Truth 30 Sunrise 15 Your Silent Face 14

overall Temptation 199 Ceremony 175 Age Of Consent 155 Perfect Kiss 146 Blue Monday 142

Thanks for the stats

They must have opened with "Touched by da Hand of God" quite a bit in late 80s so it must have been somewhat predictable. and "State of the Nation" must have been the favorite opener before "Touched".

What about the last song? In the 80s that must have been a question on what and how they would end each night.

So basically, of the 76 or so gigs they've played since the release of Crystal, they've opened with the song 51 times.

Kinda backs up the general feeling of a lack of setlist variety since Gillian left with stats.

AND

Tim, you have too much time on your hands. Gerrajob.

Burt Reynolds wrote: So basically, of the 76 or so gigs they've played since the release of Crystal, they've opened with the song 51 times.

Crystal is or was so repetitive to open the gigs, but it was worth it....sounds very good to start the concerts.

In the encores in 2005 in 2006 they tried to change with Atmosphere, SLC, Turn...

Can't wait to see whast Kershaw has to say about this thread.

I bet he comes out with something ace.

I'm going back to bed to dream about seeing NO come on to KW1.

When they reunite and have their concert since Argentina, errr... centuries from now, their first song should be "Here To Stay!"

Indeed!

Nowt to do with jobs, or lack of. More to do with lack of mobility at the moment, limited net access and several spreadsheets!

The last song isn't quite so easy to assess, as the set lengths changed so I can't just put a formula in to tell me how many entries have a certain numerical value, and in any case do you count encores or not?

oldmonkey wrote:

The last song isn't quite so easy to assess, as the set lengths changed so I can't just put a formula in to tell me how many entries have a certain numerical value, and in any case do you count encores or not?

Without thinking about encores and assuming set list runs vertically;

Put a column on the left hand side numbered 1 - 18 (don't know max songs!) Number the gigs in a row across the top, starting with the first gig being 2, second 3 etc.

Below each column (gig) count the number of tracks played, so for example in cell B19 you have =COUNTA(B1:B18)

Now use VLOOKUP to return th last track on each gig in a single row, so B20 has =VLOOKUP(B20,$A$2:$G$19,B1)

This now has all the last tracks sorted, use COUNTIF to collate them.

Couldn't you just turn the lists upside down and do whatever you did to count the first ones?

Interesting dilemma about the encores though.

I'd vote yes. They're not really proper encores if they're planned.

James Thomas wrote:

oldmonkey wrote:

The last song isn't quite so easy to assess, as the set lengths changed so I can't just put a formula in to tell me how many entries have a certain numerical value, and in any case do you count encores or not?

Without thinking about encores and assuming set list runs vertically;

Put a column on the left hand side numbered 1 - 18 (don't know max songs!) Number the gigs in a row across the top, starting with the first gig being 2, second 3 etc.

Below each column (gig) count the number of tracks played, so for example in cell B19 you have =COUNTA(B1:B18)

Now use VLOOKUP to return th last track on each gig in a single row, so B20 has =VLOOKUP(B20,$A$2:$G$19,B1)

This now has all the last tracks sorted, use COUNTIF to collate them.

sets run horizontally by numbers - track names and setlist positions are in columns, gig date and venue name are in rows. counting 1, 2 or 13 is a piece of piss, calculating t'other way ain't so simple even with the VLOOKUP thingy - ta anyway!

Probably easiest if I upload the spreadsheet and let everyone who wants to play with it do so to their heart's content. Will do so when I get access to things like an FTP client tomorrow.

oldmonkey wrote: sets run horizontally by numbers - track names and setlist positions are in columns, gig date and venue name are in rows. counting 1, 2 or 13 is a piece of piss, calculating t'other way ain't so simple even with the VLOOKUP thingy - ta anyway!

Just use HLOOKUP in that case, no probs.

See until we got onto various computer do dahs... I did find it interesting.... But now I'm int the land of 'EH?' not that it matters! Wooohoo the drunk but F-ing happy bird! x

If anybody wants the setlist record - far more up to date than the database here, and a tabulated version of what Sam has stored over on www.new-order.net, then you can download it at www.digital-jdno.co.uk/no sets.xls

cheers Tim!

oldmonkey wrote: If anybody wants the setlist record - far more up to date than the database here, and a tabulated version of what Sam has stored over on www.new-order.net, then you can download it at www.digital-jdno.co.uk/no sets.xls

WOW! Thanks!!!

Indeed!

*bump*

oldmonkey wrote: If anybody wants the setlist record - far more up to date than the database here, and a tabulated version of what Sam has stored over on www.new-order.net, then you can download it at www.digital-jdno.co.uk/no sets.xls

hey Tim dude! The link no longer works. Any other link/s of the tabulation? I need to check some stats/data.

Thanks, indeed*!*

The link no longer works because the Digital site is no longer required!

You should have downloaded it at the time ;)

I did before, but then, it was part of the directory in my harddisk that crashed and eventually, got destroyed...

Hmmmnn... Any kind soul there who has this file sent to me? I will give you a penny.

Indeed*!*