Irony

I always believed that part of the conflict between Hooky and Bernard was Hooky's eagerness for touring and Bernard's reticence in getting NO on stage.

Isn't it ironic that BL are about to embark on their 3rd round of gigs - including support slots for the PSBs, whilst Hooky has performed only at the opening of his new club. Has the DJing become more important now and has Bernard overcome his stage fright?

Before anyone says anything this is not me Hooky bashing - I love the bloke. Just asking that's all.

I may be wrong but I don't find Barney democratic enough to pay attention on the others opinion, mainly Hooky's. Don't blame my words, it's just an outsider's opinion. Their record label is another problem I guess. They have their hands tight and can't be as independent as they were in the 80's. If they don't do what the record company wants (impose producers for example), there's no album released

Tucker wrote: Touring is where the money is, it always has been. In Hooky's case DJing, writing the Hac book and investing in his new club is obviously his main source of income now. I'm not fussed with the Hac stuff at all personally (too young) but a new album would get my attention. Similarly for Bernard it would have been ludicrous for him to record an LP then sit on his arse at home without touring it; a lesson learned from Electronic if ever there was one.

Records don't sell very much in real terms these days... unless you're Susan fucking Boyle. They don't represent much of an income to pop stars of New Order's level. A shame really as I personally thought "Never Cry Another Tear" had a handful of really good pop songs on it. Just because it didn't sound like "Age of Consent" times 14 shouldn't mean it's branded bollocks from the outset. It was never gonna be New Order but Sumner clearly still knows how to craft a song with a good melody and daft-yet-endearing lyrics.

Back in '97 Hooky made "Music For Pleasure" a success because aside from the quality tunes and three very good singles he and the band toured their arses off both in the UK and America. It went Gold (500,000 copies) pretty quickly which is hard to believe of any NO related album these days. Exposure and a good product (natch) is obviously the key.

I would hope and assume that the delay regarding Freebass is to do with the fact they want a live band to do the record justice rather than just one or two dates here and there. We've been told more than once via blog the album is done so I would assume assembling a cohesive live unit & schedule is what's left. Granted, it's taking fcuking forever at this rate.

Good answer/opinion, IMO.

Also, as for Freebass, one thing that I had thought was, Mani is still active in Primal Scream (ie- he's still a member of the Primal Scream)...surely, with one guy active in another band, it might a bit harder for Freebass to get everyone's schedules sorted compared to BL.

I mean, the reunited Marion hasn't being doing much compared to Primal Scream in the recent years, so maybe it was easier to get the main three members of BL in the studio together, release an album, do mini-tours...compared to Freebass.

(I'm not blaming Mani by any means...just that I think the situation is slightly different...hence, maybe one factor in the delay of things.)

I found that odd too, also Barney was the one that always wanted to make things "synthy" whereas Hooky always wanted it more "guitary", then BL release a guitary album, and hooky does manray

I can't wait to hear the freebass stuff and go see them play, whenever that may be, but Hooky is busy with all sorts and the others are busy too, I'm sure he just plays for the fun of it these days though, that's why he pops up on stage with so many different people. In some respects it's good to know he's not completely money driven, a rarity in music biz.

I think that at the end of the day their working relationship has run it's course after all those years together. They both have different ideas of what the band should do/sound like. As for the delay with Freebass - As I am aware this is due to Hooky being cautious about whether to release the album himself or go with a record company. With the way the internet is these days making money from a record is hard. He doesn't want to 'give the music away'. BL gave music away for free in order to promote the album online. Hooky is wary of this.