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Evening Standard Troxy review

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Here's The Times review from behind the Murdoch paywall:

New Order at Troxy, E1 David Sinclair Rated 4 stars

It is dispiriting to think about New Order as yet another dodgy turn on the nostalgia circuit. But the band from Manchester that inspired and influenced so many others during the 1980s has not released a new album for six years, during which time the members have split into new groups and warring factions. They returned to the London stage with no new songs and without their iconic bass player Peter Hook — a scenario that would have been unthinkable for most of their career and which remains unacceptable to some of the purists among their fans.

But the naysayers missed a cracking show, and for a band that is synonymous with a doomy blend of pop electronica they did a pretty good impression of a rock’n’roll group having a good time. Towards the start, during Ceremony, they were actually mob-handed with guitarists, as the keyboard player Gillian Gilbert switched to six-string duties alongside Phil Cunningham and the singer Bernard Sumner. The drummer Stephen Morris maintained a manic disco beat, his sticks revolving over the hi-hat like the spokes of a bicycle wheel as the band powered into Age of Consent. The unenviable task of replacing Hook fell to Tom Chapman, who replicated the high, melodic, plectrum-driven bass lines of his predecessor with sufficient swagger while avoiding the impression that he had acquired ideas above his station.

With the band encased in a lattice- work of green laser beams, a beautiful and flattering lighting design that showed just enough of the players and no more, the stage was set for a performance that balanced the group’s traditional mystique with an undercurrent of revivalist euphoria. With both Gilbert and Morris playing keyboards on Bizarre Love Triangle they reaffirmed their synth-pop roots, while the performance moved up a significant notch as they swung into the nagging pop chorus of True Faith.

Sumner was in an unusually buoyant mood, casting off his guitar every so often and engaging in some comically inelegant dance moves. Too bad his singing wasn’t more assertive, but his anaemic vocal tone is as much a part of the group’s sound as the keyboard textures and galumphing bass lines.

The show ended with encores of Blue Monday and Joy Division’s classic Love Will Tear Us Apart. With numbers like that at their disposal, New Order can certainly look back with pride.

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