Okay, I'm pretty sure that this US zine doesn't operate any more; it's called Matter, and it was from either Boston or New York. This is from the January 1986 issue, with the maniac Monoman himself, Jeff Conolly, first of DMZ, then of the fabulous Lyres, garage-rock supremists with a fantastic live show, on the cover.
There are no pics of the band, just an article that I will edit a bit. Great humour by the band as well.
Barney is too pooped to think after the previous night's excursion to the Palladium. "It was like a department store on Christmas Eve." "We couldn't get near the bar to get a drink," complains Stephen Morris.
"Americans are all outgoing, but they are dead loud. In England they think Americans act like the characters on 'Dynasty'." Sumner also laments the difficulty of ordering Pernod at clubs in this country. But wait! New Order are just back from Japan, where things are worse. "Where no one can make a decision about anything."
"They have to have a meeting to decide everything," Morris explains.
"We caused a riot," Sumner recounts happily. "It was because we gave an unexpected, by the security, encore."
"They were sitting down having a meeting about it," injects Morris.
"Thousands and thousands of little schoolgirls ran up the aisles and onto the stage," adds Sumner.
Sumner's average day: "I wake up. I get myself a cup of tea. Switch the TV on. Lie down. Put the remote control switch on my chest, and stay there till midnight."
Not doing much to spark up your image, guys. "Our image? Do we have one?" asks Morris
"Depressed," muses Sumner. "I suppose our biggest amount of publicity was when Ian Curtis died. We wouldn't speak to the press, so they made things up. But we have fun!" he insists. "We like going out at night drinking until we pass out."
"I like to buy video equipment and throw it out of hotel windows," Morris sighs, sipping chocolate milk.
"I guess most of what I do for fun is unprintable," adds Sumner.
Peter Hook is a cheery, pony-tailed guy with no outward evidence of a hangover, and is down the hall with Gillian Gilbert. She's shy and quiet and acquiesces to whatever opinion anyone bothers to blurt out.
"I know some people buy our records," Hook announces, while Gilbert smiles. "We've met 'em. The bellboy at our hotel. At our shows we get hippies, skinheads. Students. Old people. Middle-aged people. It's very good." He does look pleased.
"Who is Hook a fan of?" "Just A Gigolo" by David Lee Roth. We met him in L.A.! He's fantastic!" Hook also loves Lou Reed, but is perturbed about his Honda commerical. "I thought it was his video. Then he says, on the bike, 'It beats walking. Oh!' Hook slaps himself on the head, mumbling the phrase over to himself.
Meanwhile, Sumner and Morris are still complaining. Changing the subject, I ask about New Order come up with the lyrics. "We usually do it together in the studio," says Sumner.
"We fight over 'a' not 'the' or 'that'," confesses Morriss.
When this dynamic duo aren't watching "Twilight Zone" or reruns of "Sgt. Bilko", they listen to Iggy Pop-a passion for the entire band. ("Come to think of it, I wish I wrote Iggy's song 'The Passenger'" says Sumner wistfully. "Or 'Heroes' by Bowie.") Morris fave is Terry Riley: "Actually it is so extremely repetitive and simplistic you can only play it every ten years, or put it on at parties to get rid of people." They also admit to liking the Dream Syndicate, R.E.M., Husker Du and yes, David Lee Roth.
"We met him in L.A." I'm informed a second time. "We met Quincy, too. Adds Sumner about Q : "He's really nice. He says 'man' a lot."
Sumner leans forward, mulling something over thoughtfully. "Do you know what happened when we were out there?" We were at a club, and they played 'Blue Monday', followed by an instrumental. We were all going, 'This is really good, who is this?' 'Oh, it sounds a bit like Hooky's bass' Halfway through, we realized it was an old Joy Division flexi-disc we'd forgotten." Sumner shakes his head, grinning. "It was us."
Even though there may be a tall tale or two in that article, I still find myself chuckling whenever I re-read that one.
Hopefully, sometime later this year, I will be getting a scanner so that I can send these clippings to the webmasters, especially for the cover of the Music Technology magazine.
Cheers Rocket and his DIRTY MAGS Mick :D
:D
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but I remember the pic had Barney in a beige polo neck and Gillian with a flowery shirt/dress. Am I right?
Not the best photo of the band by a long shot, but I find that I keep coming back to it for a look. Side lighting from the band's right keeps parts of their left sides in the dark (maybe that's why Barney was wearing those glasses!) but Gillian is the focus of that photo, with her hair flowing in front of her blouse, and poor Stephen looks like he's trying to sneak into the shot.