WORST New Order gig you ever attended ...

Most of the awful NO gigs I witnessed took place in Foreign lands between 1985 and 1989, however on UK soil one gig does spring to mind (this may not surprise the old school such as Tim) ... Brixton Academy, on a December day in 1983.

Earlier that year the band had delivered one of their FINEST shows in the history of NO when they played at the BRIXTON ACE. It was what NO were ALL about ... The atmosphere in that place was AMAZING ..

Just 8 songs ... abuse the audience ... walk off ...

Between then and December they put in some similar mighty performances (The Hacienda, The Tower Ballroom (WHY were the gigs there ALWAYS so damn good ?) and any of the Scotland dates (The memory of seeing Barney running for cover under a hail of bottles delivered so accurately by a gang of Scottish skinheads will live with me forever ...)

However, after a four month sabbatical the band returned and a date was secured for the Brixton Academy. There was a proper buzz but it seemed from the moment they opened with 'Confusion' they just did not seem interested. 'Temptation' which always used to get everyone going, sounded sterile, and the 'Love Reaction/Blue Monday' mix was a tragedy. Am I remembering things correctly believing SLIM was on stage singing at the end of the gig?

A truly AWFUL gig, but all was forgiven the next evening as we headed to the south coast and they played a blinder in Bournemouth.

A LONG time has passed since all of this so please feel free to pick me up on any element I may not have remembered correctly !

DM

:)

Yes that was a bad 'un, something to do with Gillian being off her face!!!

Worst one would probably be fairly recent, Finsbury Park 02 or Hyde Park 05? Back in the good old days even the shit ones had something redeeming about them. Hacienda 87 was crap, so was Hacienda 86, so was the Royal Albert Hall 86. I can honestly say I have never walked out thinking why the fuck do I bother though.

Newcastle 86 Reading 87 Finsbury 02

Hacienda was just a shit venue.

I only ever went to a handful of gigs, but heard quite a few bootlegs....

Have to say that Finsbury was the dogs bollocks, one of the best I've heard and been to, not the worst!!!

Hyde Park was fairly awful... although the lyrical remix prompted by the broken autocue was quite entertaining!

Duesseldorf, Philipshalle 6.12.1987

Fuji Rock 2005

the only crap one i can remember was either cheltenham or chippenham in 84,, sound was crap,, they were ,,loose,, still enjoyed it. enjoyed the hac 87gig, as it was part of me stag weekend

ive lived my life on pills,

DigitalWaters wrote:

Have to say that Finsbury was the dogs bollocks, one of the best I've heard and been to, not the worst!!!

Say no more squire......

if this means new order doing new order stuff then i'd say the worst ive been to is M.E.N 2006

:\ohwell:

Manchester Apollo October 2001.Can't remember if it was the first or second night, actually i think it was the first but it was cack. Maybe that's because we were in the seats. Thought the sound , particurlaly on YSF, was awful.

M.E.N Arena December 1998 wasn't all that great either.Funny how the 2 worst gigs have been in Manchester.

Dublin '93 was pretty dire.

Brixton 2001 - can't remember which night - the set was dull and they fucked up True Faith and BLT big style - it was just noise. A big wall of bass-ey noise.

The played Ruined in a Day in the encore - which sounds shit live, and after that the night was complete.

I actually enjoyed Finsbury Park immensely - right down the front going mental - the only bad thing was leaving the park and narrowly missing a punch thrown at someone else - which connected triggering a small brawl, which was fairly unpleasant. I then copped off with some girl I shared a taxi with back to Hackney. So, a happy ending.

ShugZV wrote: Only good thing about that night was getting to the aftershow. Cheers JT & Lucy

That was the gig where for the aftershow, the security guard at the Apollo made us all line up against the wall. it was like being back in school, or prison. The most interesting thing about the gig was me tearing ankle ligaments and being helped out by Colin, and then five minutes later being helped back in after the alcohol kicked in. I have never been on so much pain as I was the next morning though...

You're right about the gig though. It wasnt a patch on Brixton the week before. I never understood why they just didnt do it on the Saturday instead of the Monday...

As for worst. Liverpool takes some beating, but some may suggest that was down to the security and the venue, but thats a bit of a cop out from what I considered a performance to be generally substandard.

Electric Picnic was a lifeless and phenomenally weak performance. So much so that the cynic in me says that some effort went into putting a performance together that would just be so dull.

Apollo 2005: the one where I decided to neck a load of Stellas (Jabez Clegg?) on an empty stomach before the gig, and consequently couldn't really have said whether it was a good gig or not!

(If memory serves me correctly, I believe that I'd been up the previous night and necked a whole load that time as well - something to do with an Urbis art gallery launch and Massey dj'ing?)

All I remember is that before the encore, I had to rush to the toilets at the back, honk up in the sink (to the disgust of the other people around me), come straight out again and drink some more beer...

Never made it to the aftershow, however...

confusion wrote: Duesseldorf, Philipshalle 6.12.1987

Great gig that one nobby!

1st time abroad!

One Brain wrote: You must have drank a lot, Nick. You don't even remember the name of the pub. It was Joshua Brooks, not Jabez Clegg.

That about sums the afternoon/evening up - I was trollied (as you can probably see in the above pic)!

coachella '05

One Brain wrote:

Nick King wrote: Apollo 2005: the one where I decided to neck a load of Stellas (Jabez Clegg?) on an empty stomach before the gig, and consequently couldn't really have said whether it was a good gig or not!

You must have drank a lot, Nick. You don't even remember the name of the pub. It was Joshua Brooks, not Jabez Clegg.

I never get tired of posting this classic picture!

you must have been pissed nick. you got off with this bird later....

Facsimile wrote:

One Brain wrote:

Nick King wrote: Apollo 2005: the one where I decided to neck a load of Stellas (Jabez Clegg?) on an empty stomach before the gig, and consequently couldn't really have said whether it was a good gig or not!

You must have drank a lot, Nick. You don't even remember the name of the pub. It was Joshua Brooks, not Jabez Clegg.

I never get tired of posting this classic picture!

you must have been pissed nick. you got off with this bird later....

PETER COATES'S BELATED REDEMPTION wrote:

Facsimile wrote:

One Brain wrote:

Nick King wrote: Apollo 2005: the one where I decided to neck a load of Stellas (Jabez Clegg?) on an empty stomach before the gig, and consequently couldn't really have said whether it was a good gig or not!

You must have drank a lot, Nick. You don't even remember the name of the pub. It was Joshua Brooks, not Jabez Clegg.

I never get tired of posting this classic picture!

you must have been pissed nick. you got off with this bird later....

fradders has a monobrow!!!

Hollywood Bowl, USA 1993. The set list was horrible with the exception of As It Is When It Was. The band looked and sounded horrible and the sound system wasn't great either.

Dodjem wrote: fradders has a monobrow!!!

No shit, Sherlock!! I would like to point out that this clinched the deal with Nick that night: he ran his fingers through the brow all night long......

And then came on my face, natch.

Apollo Manchester 2005(?) ...sound was bad from up the back of the top deck.....

And then came on my face, natch.

I still have the pics :)

The Perfect Shed wrote:

And then came on my face, natch.

I still have the pics :)

There's video footage somewhere. Forget Pamela Anderson; Paris Hilton is so passe....download some hot Nick & Fradders action on yer laptop.

Yes that was a bad 'un, something to do with Gillian being off her face!!!

My goodness and there's me thinking she was a model of propriety on-stage! I can't recall a single gig that was truly abysmal all the way through with no redeeming features at all and I was also at the Royal Albert Hall gig in 86. Certainly they had the ability to be brilliant and terrible during the same gig. It's one of the reasons we loved them sfter all...

PETER COATES'S BELATED REDEMPTION wrote:

The Perfect Shed wrote:

And then came on my face, natch.

I still have the pics :)

There's video footage somewhere. Forget Pamela Anderson; Paris Hilton is so passe....download some hot Nick & Fradders action on yer laptop.

Bloomin' heck, it exists?