Love Kills / Love Dances (and demos)

Hi all.

I could've sworn that I had queried this on here before, but couldn't find any mention when searching.

Back in the day, I used to have something marked up on tape called 'Love Kills (Demo)' and which was supposedly by New Order. I seem to think I received it in a trade with someone back in 1995ish.

However, I can't for the life of me remember what the track was.

I'm kind of thinking that I dismissed it as either a) something I already had elsewhere and that had been mislabelled or b) something non-NO related. If it fell into the a) category, I'm wondering if it was possibly the untitled 12 minute instrumental that appears on this bootleg:

https://www.discogs.com/New-Order-Basement-Tapes-80-84/master/1341450

If it was category b), I'm wondering if it was actually 'Love Dances' by 'The Bridge' which we've discussed on this forum previously:

https://www.discogs.com/The-Bridge-Love-Dance/master/1312207

I strongly suspect it's the latter ('Love Dances'). I have 'Love Kills' marked on a list as being 17 minutes long, which is the same as the combined length of the two mixes on the 'Love Dances' 12".

Does anybody have something called 'Love Kills' on their hard-drive that they could check and see what it is. I believe it might also be on a bootleg CDR called 'Stravaganza'.

Lastly, I believe I used to have some demos of 'Lonesome Tonight' and 'Thieves Like Us' on cassette tapes that I've since lost. I'm not sure if the latter was the same as one on the recent 'PC&L' boxset. It may have been different. Again, does anyone have these on a drive / CD?

I did a fresh vinyl transfer of the Bridge 12" a couple of weeks ago - just side 2, the Industrial Mix, because the vocals on the A-side are dreadful. But it's something I used to play on my radio show in the late '80s and I've been rebuilding that playlist.

Discogs says Hook plays uncredited bass on this, and there's just no way. It's someone emulating his sound, which wasn't hard to do (just ask Simon Gallup). It's just 3 or 4 notes, same as played at the start of The Him, in a different key. I wouldn't be surprised if they DID use an Emulator to sample those, hence their dubious claim.

I really like 'Love Dance'. It's a pretty cool tune, which I've listened to a fair amount over the last 25 years. I don't mind the vocals really. Very post-punk in their style. What is surprising is that, back in the day, people heard the vocals and thought they were Bernard's. The rest of the song is NO-influenced, agreed. But the vocals? Nah.

Anyway, with kind thanks to one of my contacts, I got hold of a rip of that 'Stravaganza' bootleg CD (*).

I can confirm that 'Love Kills' is, indeed, 'Love Dance' by The Bridge. It clocks in at 15 mins 45 secs, rather than the 17 mins that the tape is purported to run for. I guess this is a 'tape speed' issue.

Listening to it, it appears to be both mixes, with the 'Love Mix' first and the 'Industrial Mix' second. All on one track on the CD.

Mystery solved!

Now, does anyone have those TLU/LT demos? ;-)

(*) In case anyone was interested, the other tracks on the CD were:

01 Haystack w/Kevin Hewick (from the 'From Brussels With Love' compilation) 02 Dreams Never End (Western Works Demo) 03 Homage (Western Works Demo) 04 Ceremony (Western Works Demo) 05 Truth (Western Works Demo) 06 The Perfect Kiss (early live version) (sounds like the Palais gig, 21/05/84) 07 Skullcrusher (live version w/vocals) (sounds like the Paradiso gig, 17/05/84) 08 Theme (from the 'The Quick Neat Job' compilation) 09 Sunrise (Instrumental Rough Mix) (from the 'Discreet Campaigns' compilation) 10 As It Is When It Was (Demo) (this hasn't been released and used to be included on various bootlegs in the 80s / 90s) 11 Let's Go (Studio Vocal Demo) (the 'Waiting For So Long' version, included on the 'Ostrich-A-Go-Go' bootleg amongst others) 12 Love Kills (Demo) (actually 2 x versions of 'Love Dance' by The Bridge; not New Order related).

Sadly the quality of the bootleg is pretty dreadful, but I think most of us will have the majority of these in much better quality. NB The Western Works demos are the old 'murky' versions that used to be on various bootleg tapes in the 80s/90s, not the stellar versions we have today.