October 25 – Out With The Old, In With The New…Order

Today, a non-descript first show for a big band emerging like a phoenix out of the ashes of another band whose singer died. Today we look at the beginnings of New Order, back in 1980.

Three-quarters of New Order (bassist Peter Hook, drummer Stephen Morris and guitarist Bernard Sumner) were three-quarters of Joy Division, an industrial-goth group that had just started to come close to hitting it big, at home in Britain at least, when their singer, Ian Curtis commit suicide. While devastated by the loss of their friend, the trio also felt like there was a need to keep on making music, although they agreed they couldn’t keep their name.

Within a couple of months of the death of Curtis, they’d gotten a new name – New Order- had the blessing of their record label, Factory Records and were off and running, playing shows around their hometown of Manchester as well as a few around New York City. The diehard fan will know they, as Joy Division, were just about to leave for the U.S. to tour when Curtis met his demise.

By most accounts, the shows weren’t all that memorable or long. Joy Division had been a function of its dour lyrics, heavy bass and perhaps most of all, depressed baritone voice of Ian Curtis. Hook, Sumner and Morris took turns trying to be the new singer in early shows, they finally decided Sumner might have the best voice, and the most time on his hands in a concert so he “won” out. They quickly realized though that something was still missing, they needed a fourth member. Enter Morris’ girlfriend (now his wife), Gillian Gilbert. The lady was not only attractive, she was a fairly good keyboard player and through the years would become essential to their sound with that and her backing vocals.

So it was this night in ’80 that they played their first show as a quartet with Gilbert aboard. It was at a now-gone bar called The Squat at the University of Manchester, which from the few accounts, lived up to its name. Few reports of the concert seem to exist, but from the band’s own account, they went on around midnight and played 7 songs, finishing with “Ceremony.” That song was tried out when they were still Joy Division and went on to be the first New Order single.

Over the years, New Order came to be one of Britain’s most successful indie acts ever, one of the defining sounds of the decade and a group which virtually created its own genre of music, blending disco with post punk’s energy and raw edges. They would go on to score 16 top 10 singles at home (including “True Faith” and “Blue Monday” twice apiece in different years with different remixes) and top U.S. dance charts five times.

New Order is still going, touring last year and having a somewhat new album, Music Complete, but now without the distinctive bass of Peter Hook. Hook and the others had a falling out about six years back, with Gilbert telling the press as far back as 2012 “there’s a lot going on behind the scenes on the copyright” with Hook soon after suing his bandmates over royalties he felt he was due.