Interview in The Guardian

Or i guess it's in The Observer physical newspaper today but i didn't buy it but anyway it's online on the Guardian site.Interviewed by long time fan Miranda Sawyer.

here

Well, there’s only two choices when life goes wrong, you deal with it, or you check out, and like 90% of people I go for the former. There’s challenges in life that present themselves unexpectedly, and if you rise to them, then those challenges will toughen you up.

• Bernard

I’ve changed. Having kids, and having to stand up for them… I became more confident in what I was doing. I know my ideas are good.

• Gillian

I was reading this today..

As a band we don't talk about things. We never have. It's a northern male thing… the basis for a dysfunctional family.

Ah, the past. Never far away with New Order....

Sumner has known Hooky since the late 1960s, when they went to Salford Grammar. They formed Joy Division together. I ask Sumner how things are in the band without his old friend, and he turns the question back on me:

“What is it that you miss?”

"The symmetry", I say. "The history. Also, I have a theory that the best bands are an argument-stroke-love affair between the two central characters. Usually the singer and the guitarist, but in this case, the singer and the bassist".

“Yes, but this was an argument-stroke-argument,” says Sumner. “Even at the mixing stage of Get Ready, all that time ago, it wasn’t right. And it got to the point where it was like a football team with two strikers, and one of them won’t pass the ball, ’cos he wants to score. But he keeps missing the goal. I don’t think Sir Alex would have stood for that, would he?”

"It’s still sad for fans, though. It’s like mummy and daddy arguing".

“There’s no point in staying together for the kids though, is there? Look, Hooky’s said some unforgivable things, disgraceful. Gillian wasn’t in the band for a bit and she never said anything bad. He was angry – he’s an angry man – and the anger was inside the band. And a lot of the anger was focused on me and that isn’t very nice to have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. He was jealous of me".

“He’s said it himself, he’d got to an age where he felt he couldn’t compromise. He wanted things done his way, or not at all. In a way, he was right to leave.”

Sumner smiles.

He doesn’t seem rancorous. He seems happy, no matter how much he’s toughened up.

I also enjoyed the information on pernod and crystals...

It's a great interview.

Surviving cancer does a lot to change a person, and I couldn't be happier that Gillian is now confident and more assertive. She's always been the key to the group's chemistry for me, and I missed her terribly during her absence.

I'm glad that the band hasn't returned the sniping of their former bassist, and I'm glad he's gone. This brilliant new album would never have happened had he remained - or it'd be another tepid mess of Dad Rock and Mom Pop with 11 Rock The Shacks on it.