Blue Monday is 20 years old

I have gotten tired of the song. Too many remixes too. But, John Digweed/Bedrock's own edit of the track (based on the Hardfloor mix), which is not commercially released, is fantastic if you're ever lucky to hear him drop it in one of his sets.

BTW - reading some of the replies on this thread is another age-confronting situation---some of you are just children (being born in the 80s)!

Heh - I remember actually buying my copy of Blue Monday pretty near to the day it came out.

I was on a school outing to some old buildings or other in London (I seem to remember the Old Bailey was involved somewhere), but then the teachers gave us an hour after the last visit to chill out.

I got straight on the tube with some mates, shot off to Virgin Megastore at Tottenham Court Road and bought it there and then.

Just made it back to the coach in time, with my Virgin bag clutched tightly to my side.

The sleeve is completely shagged now (lots of house moves) and, idiosyncratically, the record always jumped in the same place, right from day one (I wasn't too good at looking after records at age 16, so I guess the thing was stuffed in an overhead space above the seats with several coats, bags and jumpers on top of it).

I never wanted to swap it tho' - this slab of vinyl has so many memories for me, to have taken it back all the way to London (in those days, the Megastores were very few and far between) to swap it would have been sacrilege.

I never actually got to hear the un-jumping version on my stereo until Substance came out four years later.

Man - I played that record to death : luckily my mega-cool Mum absolutely adored it too, so no hassle from the folks !

Happy Birthday old friend - here's to the next 20 years

I'm only 15 but I had my first kiss while listening to blue monday when I was 13.It's the best new order song

I was thrilled beyond belief when FACTUS10 showed up in the bins of the local department store in the spring of 83, meaning that I didn't have to drive an hour to get it. It was played a lot on the local college radio station, and I don't ever mind hearing it, though if I heard it as much as , say, Benny, then I might have grown weary of it.

Still hear it from time to time on the radio, and I still play the single quite a bit, though I prefer the original mix over everything else.

Well this ancient relic was in the San Francisco Rough Trade shop the day this single was released and I remember being distinctly unimpressed by it... it was warmed over Sylvester/Patric Cowley done by white boys and it didnt really add anything or innovate in any serious way... it really worked best as an introduction and bookend for the work of genius that was PCL... as far as "starting new wave", thats a joke; New Wave was already pretty much done by the time... and BM didnt get much play in clubs initially either... I dont recall hearing it very much at all in 83... it seemed to get more play in the mid to late 80s... but it has stood the test of time... it is the millstone around the bands neck and dont they love it ;)

The sleeve is the real statement of this single... the innovation, beauty, perversity and financial suicide of its cost sum up that period perfectly... I do feel lucky to have lived through a time in which anything seemed possible and life could be redefined by each individual on their own terms... thats how I remember the 80s; not the bad haircuts and Regan

hmmmmm... it was 1985 (age 14) when i heard BM for the first time.... it was on a tape that my friend loaned me (low-life on one side, various NO singles on the other)...i have to say, it was mesmerizing. never heard anything like it before. sonically, it was so frigging interesting. i discovered new things about it everytime i listened. i mean, there are so many things to appreciate, don't you think? needless to say, i fell in love with Blue Monday. i'll admit that there was an 8 year period in the '90's where i just couldn't bring myself to listen to it..... yeah... well,i'm over it now.

Today (04/03/03) I bought the 12" of Blue Monday, and was just looking for information about it (as you do) when I came across this coincidental fact. Happy Birthday Blue Monday, and I'm proud to be an owner of the biggest selling 12" of all time!

Roly, Adelaide Australia

i heard it first on the radio in 1983 as it was a big hit in the listeners´ choice charts at that time. I was 13 years old and thought ´what a long record, much too boring´ because I never heard a 7 minute song before and certainly not on the radio! but when it became a big hit in the charts and went on to be the smash in the following summer, I loved it and everywhere you were going, in school, baths or parties they were playing this song. I think the song grows stronger the more listen you it and never lost its strength until today, where it is one of the most influencing and groundbreaking songs for electronic music ever, may it be house, techno, trance or whatever you call it today.

it is alwiz cool. I neva feel old with this song. I like the intro.

I don't have a completely accurate recollection of when did I first hear it, it must have been circa 1986. I was into Joy Division first, actually, I taped New Order out of sense of duty, because I knew they were connected, but Joy Division were my no 1 band,I still have my first tape with LWTUA on it from November 1986. I found New Order "not serious enough" in an early-teenage-goth-sort of way. It was only when I got a little older that I started to understand them. By that time the 1988 version had reached our shores, and I actually remember seeing the video. I liked the dog instantly (however, up to very recently I've thought that was the video for the 1983 version as well). It's hard to understand how influential Blue Monday was from my perspective, it certainly wasn't very influental where I live. But, since we didn't have a period when it was playd over and over again, I've not grown tired of it. I'd love to see them play it live, but hey, I'd love to see them play anything live...

Don't remember when I first heard it either, but do remember seeing them play it on TOTP and thinking "this is crap".

I found out what the song was the third or fourth time I heard it. I was listening to DLT on Radio 1 and it sent a shiver down my spine and the hairs on my neck stood up.

A truly outstanding song which completely transformed my musical direction. I remember also going to Woolworths to buy it but of course they didn't stock 12" singles back then so I had to find a real record shop and felt really intimidated.

I am always astounded that a lot of you guys say that you don't really like BM.

[Content deleted by Larsson 7 on 3/10/2003 8:01:21 PM EDT]

For me Blue Monday was a forerunner of what I like to call Battle Techno. Simulated machine gun fire and battle sounds for the energetic young man with some excess energy to burn. Front 242's " Special Forces" especially the Demo version is pure Power-Rave. A little well done machine gun fire may also be heard on Duran Duran's " Notorious- Latin Rascals Mix ". So as Blue Peter may say " Take Me To War ". Have a nice day. IRS007

I don't really remember it in the 80s, although in the back of my mind (perhaps a case of delusion) I vaguely recall it (or maybe it's wishful thinking, I don't know). When I first heard (or "re-heard" it, take your pick) like in the mid-90s I didn't see what the big deal was. It was no "True Faith" or "Bizarre Love Triangle". But a few years later I slowly got into it and realized it was a masterpiece. Forget the '88 version and the mixes, those are fine, but pale in comparison to the original. Now I love it more than ever. Do I get sick of it? Sure. But ít's still a timeless classic and will be always be remembered in the future.

Long live

I was 18 when Blue Monday came out. I think "Images From Heaven" by Peter Godwin was my favorite electronic based song. That changed when Blue Monday came out. It was far superior then what any of the electronic based groups of that period (Depeche Mode, Yaz, and Cabaret Voltaire) was putting out. Blue Monday was so different in many ways.

20 Years!!! I am getting Old!

The first timewas great, it was Blue Monday-88 from The best of NO...

Listening to Vini Reilly fact244 currently, oops, sorry! Congratulations Blue Monday; not my favourite NO song however. I like it for dancing; not so much to just listen too. Must have heard it on the radio first at the age of 23.

Well this just evokes memories of NEW ORDER on TOTPs.Friends said to me...MICK weren't NEW ORDER brilliant singing live.I just smiled and thought...Another cool thing they have done...then replied "yeah ...not bad!" Still have the MOST MINTY MINT VINYL 12 inch record.And no excuses about housemoves and damaged covers.Treat all your records with respect...just like FINE CHINA.Future generations must see these in their PRIME.God knows what my local CATTERY will make of the ROCKET COLLECTION that i give them in my will!:D

Well, I was only 13 years old when I listened to it in 1988.Ideal moment cause it was a party at my cousin´s house where I was introduced to my first girlfriend (broken heart romance to make it pay !!!).

You can thank Adam Sandler and his 1998 flick "The Wedding Singer", more specifically the soundtrack. Could not stop playing this after I heard it, have NEVER gotten tired of it. Nothing else like it by New Order or anyone else.

I discovered that my dad still has his Harmon/Kardon turntable, so I was thinking of investing in some vinyl from our Manucian electronic pioneers.

I'm just proud to share a birthday with one of the best songs ever.

when i first heard it i was 9 years old … too young to buy records in my small town so bm played in my head u till i was 16 and found my first copy of bm (now stolen…grrrrr) i was so happy when i played it for the first time so to me it reminds me of my childhood

First intro o New Order........ sitting in my Mum and dads living room with some tea and toast and marmalade on the go..... Top of the Pops on the box and there they were. Loved it.

Mate of mine, Matt raved about them. Lent me some Joy Division at that time and said they beat the bollocks out of their new stuff. Heard Joy Division on tape in my room and it made me remember when I had squatters in the flat above. I would inadvertantly go to sleep to tracks I didn't know but loved it....... It was The Eternal and Decades. Night after nighet about a uear prevuious to that date, someone upstairs was playing it at about 10pm at night. I would drift off to sleep noy knowing who or what I was listening to. But then I knew from the day matt gave me the tape and it started from there.

Whew!

Dont ask me about the tea and toast eating in the evening....never understood it

Dont ask me about the tea and toast eating in the evening....never understood it

Dont ask me about the tea and toast eating in the evening....never understood it

I have to admit that when I first heard Blue Monday(I can't remember when that was), I didn't like it that much. But it soon grew on me, and now I have over 14 different versions of the song in my collection.

i remember exactly when i heard this song for the first time (i'm sure i've mentioned this on this site before). i was in 7th grade (age 12 or so) and it was at the end of the year talent show. these three 8th grade girls did a dance to this incredibly cool song. i had no idea what it was, but i couldn't get it out of my head. several months later, when 'true faith' came out, i bought 'substance' and, lo and behold, the talent show song was on the album--'blue monday'!

i loved the song for years, but in the past 3 or 4 i've tired of it somewhat and i tend to skip over it on CDs. having said that, if it comes on randomly, in a non-NO-related context (on the radio, in a store, etc.), i get very excited and must listen to the entire song as i do feel a bit possessive of the tune (it would be sacreligious to walk away from it, after all).

hard to believe it's almost old enough to buy alcohol in the U.S.--it sounds like it could have come out yesterday. just put it next to anything recorded by journey, for heaven's sake.