Where to begin?
Arrived in Bruxelles at 10am, bumped into Gary, Gordy, Dec, Mark and Dave and stood about talking about previous gigs, Dec was in Brussels the first time Neworder played in 1981. Aye, there are some right old buggers STILL ON TOUR. After a few beverages we headed back to the hotel and got ready to meet up with all the other Vikings who had made the trip. Unfortunately nothing ever goes to plan for the Corby Order and we spent fuckin ages trawling round Bruxelles in the hope of finding the pub they were in, all to no avail. On the plus side we did enter the Grand Place, which is indeed very grand, a massive Town hall and museum occupy the massive square. Naturally, John, Lorraine and masel found a Celtic bar “The Celtica” which to our delight was only 2 euro’s a pint, get fookin in there. Dec joined us after failing to get into the soundcheck, then Paul & Roz, Gary, Gordy and Mark arrived before heading to O’Reilly’s near the venue….and only after Gary decided he was too good for the blokes bogs and used the women’s instead. Several beers later we joined up with everyone else at O’Reillys and saw a large crowd of the usual suspects, Jarvo, Mad Darren, Karl, Alex, Jert, Jem, Angela, Sandra, Leggy, Sarah, Bonzette, Mr & Mrs Milky, Nick King, Dave Clarke, Mark, Ally, Ness, David Sultan, Super Mario, Wolfram, Sy, John & Neil, Gary & Gordy, Roy and his better half, Hibster complete with hair and Iain, then Matthias and Norbert. Hopefully that’s everyone name checked, but no doubt I will be corrected. Another few beers and then we were in. A good half an hour before the band took the stage, which is not like us, but we did catch the end of the Shamberg film and a DJ set from TinTin. The band took the stage, Gillian placed on stage right (as you look at it) where Hooky always used to be, which was weird, but Gary’s endless shouts of Gillian between songs raised a few smiles from Gillian herself and even a wee wave if Gary is to be believed. The Corby Order were right in the thick of things down the front as always, joined by Gary, Gordy, Jem, Angela, the Manics Paul & Roz, Norbert and Matthias. A few of the others decided to take in the show from a safer distance. Elegia kicked us aff, which was a surprise as they hadnae opened with that for a while and as this happened Mad Darren was so disappointed he turned straight around and headed to the bar for a swally. He shouldnae have worried though as we had a couple of nice wee treats, Crystal, Regret and Ceremony had us jumping around like mad eedjits, but the next song it would get as mad as it’s been for many a gig. Age Of Consent was back. Shock and amazement on everyone’s faces, as soon as I heard this I couldnae fucking believe it, I have been shouting for this at almost every gig since 89 and as soon as there is no Hooky there to shout it at, the buggers go and play it. Fucking ecstatic I was, so much so I lost ma camera at this point. (Cheers to Lorraine for getting it back at the end of the night and to whoever handed it to security, broke but fixable)
Love Vigilantes and Krafty cooled things down a bit, 1963 was played, but didnae really suit the live environment, though to be fair, a lot of the crowd were happy to hear it and sing along. BLT and Toothache got the place dancing again before the next big surprise of 5-8-6 (complete with Kraftwerk sounding vocoders) which was stripped down a bit and was majestic, I hadnae heard this live before either, the last time they played it was 87 and I was only 12 and too young to go to concerts!! The rest of the gig was a bit of a blur, that Belgian beer is pretty fookin strong! TPK, Temptation, Blue Monday and LWTUA closed the show and Barney said it was all for Shamberg. From what I remember it was a slightly nervy performance which was to be expected. Naturally everyone would have wanted Hooky there, but life goes on as they say, the young stand in Tom seemed to grow into the gig as the concert went on and there were a few Hooky shout outs. What was shown was that this version of New Order were equally as good/bad as the other version. NU ORDAH!
Pics and vids will be on ma facebook by the weekend (If it wasnae for the pics, it is possible I would have remembered even less!) 
Great to meet everybody again and hang out for some beers! 
Hope there are gonna be some more gigs like this!
Missing Hooky though..
Ahem!
It was I who received the wave from her majesty.
