Worst live track ?

Just been listening to the CD of Old Trafford, and one thing stands out to confirm my worst fears. Hooky doesn't know the 60mph bassline !!!!

There's been a few shockers over the years, but which track deserves the title of "Worst live track" ? Some are consistently shoddy, others just had occasional blips, usually alcohol/drug related. Any takers ?

My ten cents worth :

1. There's a desperate LWTUA on one 85/86 boot (can't remember which off top of head)where Gillian completely fucks up the keyboard line.
2. Leave Me Alone at Gloucester 84 where Hooky plays what sounds like a different song at the start.
3. A version of Ceremony in Europe 84 (again, can't remember which), where Hooky plays it in the wrong key to Barney.

I have a tape from the late 80s where they butcher 'blue monday' way more than usual, at one point a totally wrong sequencer part comes in, Barney keeps restarting the same verse, Hooky tries to help on vocals, and then Barney makes some great lyric changes, including 'how does it feel/when your bollocks grow large'

Thieves on TOTP was pretty tragic, then again so was HTS and World to name but a few!!

ermm can they be classified as 'live' tho ??

LWTUA from Les Bains, December '79: My god, the out-of-tune keyboard or whatever it was just makes that unbearable.

i can't say i've noticed any bad live new order songs, but i have to say that when arthur baker opened for them as a DJ at the glasgow barrowland last autumn it was pretty unbearable. the songs were good once they got started, but his mixing was terrible! :o

How about Heart and Soul? JD have a valiant but tragic crack on the Preston CD (where even Ian says "Everything's falling apart....I'd like to apologise...for everything"). Also, NO had a bloody awful attempt at the Apollo 98 gig, when Hooky starts in the wrong key, and Barney forgets the lyrics and goes "..mumble...ner ner....destruction" as a lyric. Top effort! CTB

Originally posted by Chris Nash Benny Boy - the LWTUA fuck up was on the demo they did for 'Brotherhood' - they all got right royally pissed and that track was the result tagged on to the end (I thought I heard it was Barney screwing that one up on keyboards - no vocals - went back to J.D. way of playing it - I may well be wrong!)

No, it was definitely at a live gig. I was there !

Originally posted by ShugZV©
=3 As It Is & Age Of Consent......several dates, I suppose it's me being hyper critical, but two of my favourite songs / live songs, were massacred a good few times, again fer the reasons given above, I suppose we can put a lot of it down to what state Barney was in on that particular night But like everyone else if these songs made a comeback live....I'd die a happy man:D

I don't know about those two being shit live. The Tokyo live vid (PFD) has an excellent version of As It Is, with Barney agonizing over the guitar solo in the last bit (either that or he was coming off some foul acid he dropped before the show). AOC I've heard live twice on the 1984 live disc from Muffy and the '87 Glastonbury (?) version available on BBC "Live In Concert". Maybe if I'd have been there I might feel differently, but you know how expensive it would've been to time travel to 1987 and then get to England?

Anyway, that's my two cents...

I think LWTUA is perhaps Barneys best rendition of a JD song, he has sung it very well imo :)

True faith at Glasto 87 was super cack with extra shite sprinkled on top. I don't care if they wrote it 2 minutes before going on stage!

I once had a K7 bootleg from the 80's (London 85 I suppose...) with really lousy, innept renditions of Weirdo and Atmosphere!

well, the very few times i've heard "Run" live...they always fucked it up live. The whole hi-hat from the recording is missing and the brilliant keyboardpart in the middle of the song...well they always mess it up...

Originally posted by DoN Thieves on TOTP was pretty tragic, then again so was HTS and World to name but a few!!ermm can they be classified as 'live' tho ??

Tho' I know what you mean, I distinctly remember sitting in front of the TV when that was shown and feeling total delight at the performance. For the first time on tv they actually smiled! I recall that they were on just before "Blancmane" or "Yazoo" or something along those lines and that Pete and B. wore matching bikers jackets!

Originally posted by FourFortyFive > Originally posted by DoN> Thieves on TOTP was pretty tragic, then again so was HTS and World to name but a few!!> > ermm can they be classified as 'live' tho ??

Tho' I know what you mean, I distinctly remember sitting in front of the TV when that was shown and feeling total delight at the performance. For the first time on tv they actually smiled! I recall that they were on just before "Blancmane" or "Yazoo" or something along those lines and that Pete and B. wore matching bikers jackets!

Agreed - it was a wonderful moment. (Was going to put "seminal" but that would have inferred heights of ecstacy that weren't reached :))

"Decades" from "Still"...the keyboard sounds horrible

Originally posted by Marco Pleil "Decades" from "Still"...the keyboard sounds horrible

Not wrong Marco. It's a pity that they haven't seen fit to release any of the tracks from the Rainbow Theatre 1980 gig (that was on the same night as the last Moonlight Club gig), as that was the only other time they played Decades live. Mind you, the problem was probably the synth itself, which would explain the shoddy sound. I did read that they deliberately de-tuned the pure-set on synths to give a drone effect that was supposed to add to the unsettling feeling caused by Ian's dancing. Never been confirmed though, like so many things !

would be easier to list the songs NewOrder haven't fucked up live. every boot i've ever heard has at least one moment where i cringe...then seconds later i'm smiling again...

maybe if they played just ONE GIG SOBER they could manage to not mangle their tunes.

they really struggle to get confusion across live..

Originally posted by PAUL TROWELL they really struggle to get confusion across live..

As you can tell from PFD (not a pretty sight)

How about the keyboard mixing on those 2 sings in the Les Bains JD album - if it sounded like that in the show, I would have ducked for fear that space ships were about to hit the club. WORST... MIXING... EVER

I actually liked the fooked up keyboards of LWTUA from Les Bains as well as Isolation/Decades from still. But then I am a strange fellow so...

Somebody already mentioned True Faith from '97. I will give them a bit of slack cause Barney did warn the audience.

Originally posted by Paul Roy I actually liked the fooked up keyboards of LWTUA from Les Bains as well as Isolation/Decades from still. But then I am a strange fellow so...Somebody already mentioned True Faith from '97. I will give them a bit of slack cause Barney did warn the audience.

Yeah True Faith was pretty messed up, but he loves to experiment live.

My personal entry for WORST NEW ORDER LIVE TRACK has to be EVERYTHINGS GONE GREEN, the last track from THE ROXY, STOCKHOLM 19th MAY 1981 (DEAD BODIES CANT SING Bootleg)

It drones on for 13 MINUTES & simply sounds AWFUL!!!!!! If that wasn't bad enough, there's also moaning something about being 'ON THE BOARDWALK' along with random shouting & howling. He must have lost his marbles on that track!!!!!!

The gig itself is ok, apart from the low quality keyboards, but that track takes it a bit too far!!

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WATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THE NOVELTY HAS GONE? ____________________________________________________

Originally posted by Mark Fahy My personal entry for WORST NEW ORDER LIVE TRACK has to be EVERYTHINGS GONE GREEN, the last track from THE ROXY, STOCKHOLM 19th MAY 1981 (DEAD BODIES CANT SING Bootleg)It drones on for 13 MINUTES & simply sounds AWFUL!!!!!!If that wasn't bad enough, there's also moaning something about being 'ON THE BOARDWALK' along with random shouting & howling. He must have lost his marbles on that track!!!!!! The gig itself is ok, apart from the low quality keyboards, but that track takes it a bit too far!!____________________________________________________WATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THE NOVELTY HAS GONE? ____________________________________________________

I think that was the second time they had ever played it, and it was a long way from being finished - there were no lyrics. At the time, it was wonderful, as it was a new track that sounded different and much less miserable than the rest of the set !! Try listening to Sooner Than You Think, Face Up or Sunrise in their early stages !

I see your point there!

The set was very low key & droning & its fair enough that the band were more or less just experimenting with new material, & that it most probably would have sounded great at the time.

But as my live bootleg material is pretty much limited to both ends of the scale (1980 - 1983 & 1998 - 2002), I don't really have much live stuff to listen to.

How about HOMAGE at SCAMP's in BLACKPOOL in 1980? Their 2nd gig as I recall. Homage was never officially released & it is clear to see why because it is bad on this particular gig, although my recording of this isn't great, the other tracks were good, apart from the awkward start to DREAMS NEVER END.

There is also the fact that New Order did seem to pen a lot of new material between the demise of Joy Division & their first few gigs, so it is pretty understandable why their earlier works were awkward & jerky, but genius in a sense!

I better stop. I seem to be going off on one!!

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WATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THE NOVELTY HAS GONE? ______________________________________________________

That's probably the best of the Homage live versions ! Boston Underground was similar I seem to recall.

Originally posted by Paul Roy I actually liked the fooked up keyboards of LWTUA from Les Bains as well as Isolation/Decades from still. But then I am a strange fellow so...Somebody already mentioned True Faith from '97. I will give them a bit of slack cause Barney did warn the audience.

strangely enough I like those keyboards too. The songs are MEANT to be unsettling!

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I'm gonna open myself to hate mail and ask a VERY VERY VERY newbieish question here -

On the 316 dvd, on the 1981 gig, they play Temptation at the end. it's about 13 or so minutes long and the lyrics are all just...wrong. Did they make it up on the spot? What?!

At that stage, Temptation was very much "work in progress". It had been played as an instrumental a couple of times prior to that tour, and it was on that tour that Barney started to conjure up some of the words (at that stage in his lyric-writing career, he made them up on stage and sifted through live tapes to see what he liked). When I saw them in January 82, Temptation had the words that we came to recognise instantly. He's done this over the years until Technique, when the songs were written primarily in the studio rather than allowed to evolve naturally from live jams.

Originally posted by almanso sister ray - bbc radio 1 live in concert 87. they just played the same f***ing riff again and again for about 10 minutes. steve´s out of tempo, barney fights (and loses) with his guitar... and he´s singing a total different thing than Ian on SR-Still version. never heard the original but I guess barney f***ed up as he usually does.

Ian knew the words !! JD's version was an authentic attempt at a cover version, whereas the NO take on it is a random jam...

Originally posted by Benny's Cobweb Eyes At that stage, Temptation was very much "work in progress". It had been played as an instrumental a couple of times prior to that tour, and it was on that tour that Barney started to conjure up some of the words (at that stage in his lyric-writing career, he made them up on stage and sifted through live tapes to see what he liked). When I saw them in January 82, Temptation had the words that we came to recognise instantly. He's done this over the years until Technique, when the songs were written primarily in the studio rather than allowed to evolve naturally from live jams.

and he STILL gets them wrong to this day!!

Originally posted by almanso sister ray - bbc radio 1 live in concert 87. they just played the same f***ing riff again and again for about 10 minutes.

that's exactly what the original's like, only it's 17 mins!!!