Search and Destroy : New Order

Reading Morris' latest book, thought this was kinda interesting:

“The legend that Factory lost money on every copy of ‘Blue Monday’ is a great myth, but sadly not true. Myths rarely are. If Factory actually lost 5p on every copy sold, as the story goes, they would have gone bust in a matter of months. Nobody is that daft, not even me. (Apparently, by the end of 31 May 1983 Blue Monday had sold 230,340 copies and had made £ 113,477.78 fact fans! It took a long time to discover that.)”

I never believed that such a huge global hit as Blue Monday lost money, Factory probably could have put it out in a gold leaf cover and still broke even in the short term. I bet Tony Tone was always telling his roster of bands they were making fuck all money.

He was always telling New Order they were the only ones making money but they needed to give it back to him to flush down another toilet elsewhere, iirc.

Did anybody see that New Order are/were holding a "Blue Monday" sale today, on their website?

10% off everything.

(I know)

Mark Refoy of Spiritualized/Slipstream etc. remembering one of the very first New Order gigs, plus photos etc. Great little post capturing the moment:

https://www.facebook.com/markrefoy/posts/10160631150412437

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Gjycc5ejc

I've always liked that (mostly mimed?) clip. They all look like they are on different drugs.

tbh, i thought this revive was about hooky selling off more stuff.

^^ there is no end to this

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Be0AAOSwEdFhBArL/s-l400.jpg

what has Hook sold before and is selling now?

The YouTube description of that Procession says it's "a new edit of archive footage of New Order, recut and synced to their song Procession". I think it's fan made, not an official clip.

sic :

https://www.nme.com/news/music/peter-hook-is-selling-off-hundreds-of-new-order-artefacts-including-an-nme-award-2980239

Some amazing stuff for sale. Martin Hannett 7” reels!

Anyone who buys that Prophet-5 and expects it to be functional after 35 years in storage is in for a grievous disappointment.

a real New Order melodica https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-301---new-order-cased-melodica-soprano/?lot=14685&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=45&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=48&pn=7&g=1

he's got two

Lawrence Wiener poster https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-59---new-order-original-1987-substance-poster/?lot=14411&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=45&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=48&pn=2&g=1

Some of the stuff in there is utterly daft, and some of it is super awesome.

One of his last auctions had a bass amp, the same as the one in my garage.

Allowing for the "yeah, but that one was owned by Peter Hook", the opening bid price was surprisingly high.

i enjoyed looking at what was in "hooky's post-punk record collection(s)"

Destroy these imo.

+1 to "State of the Nation"

whoah, The Village? No way.

"Music Complete" is possibly top five, and easily my fav 'reunion' album. (ie "Get Ready" onwards)

whoah, The Village? No way.

― dan selzer,

too dopey

Vicious Streak is a great song. I really like Draculas Castle as well, but that ones harder to defend than Vicious Streak. You're mostly right, but also wrong. I'd also place the blame for Subculture remix on John Robie, so if you want to start calling out which New Order remixes are shit, that's going to be a very long list. I suppose the entire point of posting a list like this is so people will argue with you or tell you how smart you are. I hope you generate sufficient engagement with your blog post.

I hope you generate sufficient engagement with your blog post.

New Borad Description?

How could you not include Slow Jam?

The afternoon was very clear
The sun was beating down on me
I got thirsty for a beer
That I had to go to sea
The sea was very rough
It made me feel sick
But I like that kind of stuff
It beats arithmetic

I suppose the entire point of posting a list like this is so people will argue with you or tell you how smart you are. I hope you generate sufficient engagement with your blog post.

Thanks?

But I'm sorry, I guess you're the only passionate New Order fan.

How could you not include Slow Jam?

If bad lyrics is the threshold for landing on the destroy list, there's not much of the New Order catalog that survives. The miracle of this band is that they're still somehow completely essential despite the lyrics. And the singing.

I agree in part but also feel this doesn’t give Bernard enough credit for his many memorable and (sorry) hooky lyrics. He can conjure up some unique images and tap into powerful sentiment - especially (but not limited to) his absolute peak of (let’s say) True Faith -> Regret

You are so wrong about The Village it’s painful.

Well, I went from finding "Guilty Partner" meh to considering it bloody essential. Hope is the thing with feathers!

"The Village" is one of my favorite New Order songs!

The Regret lyrics seem promising at first. But I can't imagine that he laboured too long over the chorus lyrics:

I would like a place I could call my own /
Have a conversation on the telephone

Also, The Village might be in my top 10 New Order songs, so successful challop there.

Vicious Streak is tranced-out magic to me. I was expecting the entirety of Republic after the first three tracks.

i <3 the village, that little switch up in the drums and the synths for the third verse is pure joy

The Village for me is not in the top drawer - but certainly not in the bottom. Chorus couplet is pretty awful, but I guess only averagely bad by Bernard's lyric standards.

I find The Village affecting. Lyrically and musically it captures a goofy / giddy new love feeling, and the sense that the entire world confirms your special thing, before re-framing it at the end with "their love died three years ago." Like he was looking at a happy photograph of his now-divorced parents the whole time, trying to imagine how it must have once been. Out of the context of the song it's doggerel but so what.

well put

I would like a place I could call my own /
Have a conversation on the telephone

To me this is kind of genius? Catchy rhyme, rhythmically perfect for the song but also conveys some kind of yearning for normalcy in the face of an unspecified emotional devastation

I just read the lyrics and yep they read terribly, but when they sit on top of the glorious rush of the music those random couplets can hit (me) profoundly. That messy blend of banality and romanticism is kind of how my brain actually thinks, I think.

Speaking about a lot of NO songs there, not just Regret.

otm. Can't do them at karaoke.

The Internet seems to think every single song they ever wrote is about Ian Curtis

you're so right emsworth - I mean, the song is called "Regret" and ends "just wait till tomorrow / I guess that's what they all say / just before they fall apart". That and "Waiting for the Siren's Call" can bring me to tears if they hit at the right moment. That indefinable mix of banality and genius is what keeps them so fresh in my heart.

oh fuck I didn't mean to plagiarise you while praising your take!

Not relevant to Alfred’s list but the live version of “Waiting for the Siren’s Call” crushes the original.

Hard disagree, I mean it's a cool reworking but it loses all the poignancy, and it's not New Order without the acid sting of guitar lines and that bass melody.
I guess I will be shouted down but Sirens' Call is the last NO album for me, as irritating a shit as Hooky undoubtedly is, the band is the four of them or GTFO.
Amid all the rancour and sniping, to pull out a song like that - in which all four absolutely shine at their best - is almost miraculous. Everything after that is spare change, to me.

what a fucking idiot I am for forgetting that Gillian bowed out for that album, there's no defence for self-clowning like that.
Great song though. I will now retire from saying anything online ever.