New Order
 New
Order rose from the ashes of Joy
Division in 1981, releasing their debut album Movement
at the end of the year. The album was no work of cavalier folly -
It was a record made under extreme duress.
Ian Curtis had died, and producer Martin Hannett was drugged
beyond reason and asking the band to "make it more wooden . .
. more helium-like". The album topped the UK indie charts and
made it into the regular Top 30.
The band's desire to explore new electronic technology, and
their immersion in Acid House culture,
was becoming apparent in their music, most notably on an extended
version of B-side Everything's Gone Green and May 1982's
Top 30 single Temptation.
Their support for the new club culture was evidenced by their
joint ownership of Manchester's Haçienda
club, which was opened in Whitworth Street in May 1982 and went on
to become the most famous dance music venue in England.
In 1983 Blue Monday became a fixture in the charts,
becoming Britain's biggest-selling 12 inch single ever. Meanwhile
the album Power, Corruption and Lies went Top 5. Myth
attests that New Order made Blue Monday to try out a drum
machine. Indeed the track was distinguished by its pummelling beat
as well as the Ennio Morricone-influenced bassline. Adding
alienation to the dancefloor electricity, the song also featured
lyrics variously interpreted as a reflection on Ian Curtis's
suicide or the Falklands
War.
An elaborate sleeve design ensured that Blue Monday made
a loss, despite being the best-selling 12-inch ever . . .
Their subsequent collaboration with "hot" New York
hip-hop producer Arthur Baker spawned the anti-climactic Confusion
(1983) and Thieves Like Us (1984). Both singles continued
their preference for the 12" format, stretching in excess of
six minutes, and stressing their lack of concern for the exposure
gained by recording with mainstream radio in mind.
Low-Life appeared in 1985 and remains their most
consistently appealing album to date. While the 12" version
of The Perfect Kiss was a magnificent single, showing the
band at their most inspired and innovative, the collaboration with
producer John Robie on the single version of Sub-Culture
indicated that their tendency to experiment and "play around'
could also spell disaster.
Their next album, 1986s Brotherhood (although containing
strong tracks such as Bizarre Love Triangle), offered
nothing unexpected. It was not until the UK Top 5 single True
Faith in 1987, produced and co-written by Stephen Hague hot on the
heels of his success with The Pet Shop
Boys, and accompanied by an award-winning Phillipe Decouffle
video, that New Order found themselves satisfying long-term fans
and general public alike. The following year Quincy Jones' remix
of Blue Monday provided the group with another Top 5 hit.
If the recycling of old songs and proposed "personal'
projects fuelled rumours of a split, then 1989s UK Number 1 Technique
promptly dispelled them. The album, recorded in Ibiza, contained
upbeat bass dominated tracks that characterised the best of their
early output. Its most striking feature, however, was their
flirtation with the popular Balearic style, as in the hit single Fine
Time, which contained lines such as "I've met a lot of
cool chicks but I've never met a girl with all her own
teeth", delivered in a voice that parodied Barry White's
notoriously sexist, gravelly vocals of the 70s.
Meanwhile, the band had changed significantly as a live act.
Their reputation for inconsistency and apathy, as well as their
staunch refusal to play encores, was by now replaced with
confident, crowd-pleasing hour-long sets.
In the summer of 1990 they reached the UK Number 1 position
with World In Motion, accompanied by the England World Cup
Squad, with a song that earned the questionable accolade of best
football record of all time, and caused a band member to observe,
"this is probably the last straw for Joy Division
fans".
Rather than exploiting their recent successes with endless
tours, New Order unexpectedly branched out into various spin-off
ventures: Hook formed the hard-rocking Revenge, Sumner joined
former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr in
Electronic and Morris/Gilbert recorded an album under the
self-effacing title The Other Two. The extra-curricular work
prompted persistent rumours that New Order had irrevocably split,
but no official announcement or press admission was forthcoming.
In the summer of 1991, the band announced that they had
reconvened for a new album, to be produced by Stephen Hague, which
was eventually released in 1993. Republic met with mixed
reviews reflecting critical confusion about their status and
direction. While retaining the mix of rock and dance music
successfully honed on Technique, the tone was decidedly
more downbeat, even sombre. Sadly, it arrived too late to help the
doomed Factory label.
Following a headlining appearance at that year's Reading
Festival, the band members returned to varied solo projects, with
Hook forming the critically praised Monaco in 1996. In 1998, after
five years silence, the four members reconvened for live
appearances and to record new material. The first new track to
appear, Brutal, was featured on the soundtrack of The
Beach.
The band returned to the UK charts in August 2001 with the Top
10 single, Crystal. A new studio album, Get Ready,
followed in October, although by now Gilbert had left the band to
look after her sick child.
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