NEWS: NEW ORDER INFORMATION SERVICE (NOISE)
The latest news, release notes, tour updates, archive additions, and site dispatches from across the New Order family and the wider scene — the details that used to travel through fanzines, forums, and word of mouth.
NEW ORDER presented their new album 'Music Complete' in Hamburg (Germany) at the 10th annual Reeperbahn Festival. The band was interviewed by long time collaborator Arthur Baker. You can watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6MG5QW3-20
For longtime fans, Music Complete is something of a return to form for New Order—complete with appropriately chic minimalist artwork courtesy of Peter Saville. The record’s carefully considered aesthetic and meticulous production bear all the hallmarks of the band’s most iconic work. Still, it’s hard to know if anyone other than the band’s legions of devotees will find most of this material truly arresting. Music Complete certainly doesn’t do anything to diminish New Order’s formidable legacy, but it doesn’t necessarily expand upon it either. That being said, it still sounds like classic New Order, and now over three decades deep into their career, it's kind of amazing that nothing else really does.
It took a crisis to reunite New Order. The pioneering dance-rock group had ostensibly called it quits in the latter half of the Aughts, but in 2011, they learned that their friend, "Blue Monday" and "True Faith" video director Michael H. Shamberg, had taken seriously ill. So the band regrouped and booked some gigs to raise money for his medical bills. Originally, the band — which consists these days of frontman Bernard Sumner, drummer Stephen Morris and returning keyboardist Gillian Gilbert (who had left in 2001), along with guitarist Phil Cunningham and bassist Tom Chapman — was set to play only three gigs. But Sumner, who is age 59 and typically soft-spoken, says the reunion snowballed. "We've been on tour for three-and-a-half years off and on," he says from his home near Macclesfield, England. "It seemed like the opportunity to write an album."
Music Complete was produced by New Order with additional work from Stuart Price (Superheated) and the Chemical Brothers Tom Rowlands (Singularity and Unlearn This Hatred). It will be released on September 25. The tracklist is as follows: Restless Singularity Plastic Tutti Frutti People on the High Line Stray Dog Academic Nothing But a Fool Unlearn This Hatred The Game Superheated
New Order have signed to the legendary independent label Mute, which will release their 10th studio album worldwide. “We couldn’t imagine a better place to be than working with Daniel Miller and his team,” the band said of their new home. “Mute has a superb roster of artists and a history that complements our own. In many ways, joining the label feels like we are coming home.” (The band’s Bernard Sumner had recently suggested the band might be working with DFA Records.)
New Order know how to keep busy: They're touring, working on a new album (or possibly a series of EPs) and, as Stephen Morris cracks at Rolling Stone's Rock Room, they're cooking up a plan to open a New Order hotel in Vegas. "We could play by the pool every night," the drummer says, but no gambling or Elton John allowed (if your name is Elvis, though, you're in). It wasn't all goofing around though. The band reminisced about some of the grimier hotels they stayed at during their early days, while frontman Bernard Sumner discussed the band's recent attempts to balance touring and writing more evenly: "We're coming out in small bursts and writing in small bursts at home – so we're constantly here whether you like us or not, we're here to stay," he says. Sumner describes the band's most recent work as more electronic- and synthesizer-based, which they were excited to return to after their more recent guitar-heavy material. "That's not to say there won't be enough space on the album for enough cool guitar tracks if someone's got them," Sumner says. "I think New Order's a hybrid band and will always remain so."
New Order and The Cure will be headlights of the Osheaga Festival in Montréal, Canada next summer. We don't know yet which date, but the festival is from August 2nd to August 4th, and is in downtown Montreal. This will be the first time in 26 years that New Order will be coming in the 2nd biggest french city in the world. It's a bit of a big deal for us, since NewOrderOnline is a Montreal based site.
With Mancunians New Order about to play their first gig since 2006 (and their first ever without bassist Peter Hook), and news from back home announcing the reformation of another seminal Manchester band, the Stone Roses, it's only fitting that, on arrival in Paris, clouds are gathering and rain is beginning to fall.
The members of New Order have agreed to release the seven songs left over from the sessions for the band’s 2005 swan song Waiting for the Sirens’ Call, bassist Peter Hook tells Slicing Up Eyeballs, saying the move should help make the group’s acrimonious split “a little cleaner” and finally “draw the line” under the break-up.
Other UK gigs – London (April 23rd) / Edinburgh (April 30th) – Information Embargoed Until 9am Monday 7th March 2011 Tickets available from Thursday 10th March 2011 at www.factorymanchester.com
What's Up? Magazine, based in Annapolis, Maryland recently did an interview with Peter Hook. Listen to the interview here.
And then there were two: Andy Rourke of The Smiths is no longer involved with the Manchester-based triple-bass supergroup Freebass, which also features Peter Hook of New Order and Gary “Mani” Mounfield of The Stone Roses, according to a note posted on the band’s website.
It's been reported that Joy Division/New Order/Bad Lieutenant captain Bernard Sumner has a synth record in the works with British producer/songwriter Stuart Price. Unfortunately, as Sumner reveals to Spinner, that project has been scrapped. "I believe you can do anything with enough enthusiasm," Sumner says. "To make a good record, you have to put 100 percent in. And now, you have to make about 16 to 18 songs. In the old days, when I was in Joy Division or New Order, if you did that, it would be a double album."
“As promised we are coming to the U.S. to play our re-scheduled dates in Chicago and New York with the addition of the Coachella Festival and a concert in San Francisco. We are really looking forward to playing our songs live for our fans in the U.S. It’s been some quite time since I have played in America, and we are all very excited about the prospect.” -Bernard Sumner Friday, April 16th – Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA Saturday, April 17th – Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Indio, CA Monday, April 19th – Park West, Chicago, IL Wednesday, April 21st – Webster Hall, New York, NY
Peter Hook opened FAC251 last night (February 6) with his band The Light, and you can see fan footage of the show by scrolling down. Showcasing New Order, Joy Division, Monaco and Freebass tracks, Hook was joined onstage by Primal Scream and former Stone Roses bassist Mani, Howard Marks, Gary Briggs, Rowetta and his son Jack for a 17-song set. Opening with the first live airing of the Freebass songs 'Dark Starr' and 'You Don't Know', the newly refurbished former Factory Records office was crammed to the hilt, with seemingly all of Manchester coming out to sample a slice of its own musical history.
After the success of 2009’s British Design Classics, 2010 opens with a look at the classic art of the album cover. For decades the album sleeve has been the canvas for some of the most imaginative graphic artists in the world. This stamp issue salutes this unique art form and celebrates some of the greatest examples, used by UK artists. This band of designers and photographers have not only reflected the visual styles of many musical cultures, but have also defined and created them, too. The stamp issue explores some of the most potent graphic images of modern times, many of which have provided a visual soundtrack to people’s lives. Many of the most significant graphic designers of the last 40 years are represented by this selection of ten iconic album covers.
