New Order Drama
 

Certainly some of you are following the public falling out between Peter Hook and the rest of the band.

Peter Hook on MySpace

Peter Hook here is proving:

• Why PR is important
• Why PR was especially important with this band given their enigmatic and artful legacy
• Just how important the deceased Rob Gretton was in shaping this band

I especially love his comment on how you can find the Electronic record real cheap in bargin bins. Hey Peter, that two quid for the Electronic best of is about 200x what you'd get for any of your Revenge "music".

Re: New Order Drama
 

He's no writer really, is he.

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It's like reading your sisters Xanga account or something, it's pretty bad.

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I'd like to think this isn't really Hooky, but yeah, pretty soddy writing there.

It just makes me think of the scene in 24 Hour Party People where the actor playing Peter Hook is being harassed by Martin Hannet in the studio. "You wear it very well, now play like a fucking musician."

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Hooky is beyond the washed-up hasbeens now and in a category of sad ex-famous band members all of his own. Public spats like this just underline how sad he has become. :(

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bernard sumner is the writer. i cant believe peter hook, he's in some kind of late midlife crisis of something, his blogs full of anger for months already and he is really shite as a dj. but its hard to imagine new order without peter hook.

i believe "waiting for the sirens call" slayed by many - press and fans - so harshly, it was just a unfashioned album full of great songs. still, none of these indie bands can release singles like "crystal", "here to stay" or "waiting for the sirens call". as an old new order fan, i always think last part of their career overlooked. shadowed by joy division wannabees in music scene. bernard pointed them "hypocrite cunts" once.

i wish rob grettons alive.

at least we'll have glasgow dvd, control soundtrack and reissues this year.

Re: New Order Drama
 

bernard sumner is the writer. i cant believe peter hook, he's in some kind of late midlife crisis of something, his blogs full of anger for months already and he is really shite as a dj. but its hard to imagine new order without peter hook.

i believe "waiting for the sirens call" slayed by many - press and fans - so harshly, it was just a unfashioned album full of great songs. still, none of these indie bands can release singles like "crystal", "here to stay" or "waiting for the sirens call". as an old new order fan, i always think last part of their career overlooked. shadowed by joy division wannabees in music scene. bernard pointed them "hypocrite cunts" once.

i wish rob grettons alive.

at least we'll have glasgow dvd, control soundtrack and reissues this year.

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i totally agree.

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I think the first (but not the subsequent two) Electronic record proved who the star of the show was in the band. That record is basically a New Order record sans Hook's bass lines and it doesn't suffer for it.

That Electronic record was the last time any member of the band, or the band collectively, felt like the original exploratory spirit of the group was alive. There would no longer be anything like "The Perfect Kiss" or "Fine Time" and instead it was all mostly middle of the road pop with a fair bit of self referentiality. I remember reading an NME article previewing the second Electronic record and it Bernard Sumner mentioned that he'd gone sober but had started experimenting with Prozac so that probably partially explains why that record was such a flatline.

Re: New Order Drama
 

this pattern really is remiscient of the same internal disintegration of the smiths. to some degree hooky would be playing the role of morrissey.

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kowalski is exactly 100% on point when he says he wishes Rob Gretton were alive. Rob Gretton was the true soul and vision keeping New Order together. they haven't been the same since.

i personally place Waiting For The Sirens Call LP in my top3 New Order albums. happy for them to end on a high note and also happy they can't continue to erode their legacy.

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Funny as fuk :D

You have to wonder how self-aware Hook is at the moment.

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from 'Rolling Stones' Magazine...

8/2/07, 4:11 pm EST

Bernard Sumner Says New Order ‘Mate Peter Hook “Needs to Chill Out”

Last week New Order bassist Peter Hook shocked fans by lashing out at his bandmates on his blog and announcing the group had broken up (in something resembling Courtney Love speak): “You are no more new order than i am! You may have two thirds but dont assume you have the rights to do anything NEW ordery cos you dont ive still got a third!”

New Order guitarist Bernard Sumner — who hasn’t seen Hook since the group toured South America last November — was as surprised as anyone who read the post. “I find it very distasteful for him to do that after all this time,” he says, checking in by telephone from England. “He should have had a meeting with us. I’m not having someone tell me that we’ve split up without consulting me first. I think that’s very arrogant.”

Sumner is unsure whether he and drummer Stephen Morris will continue on as New Order without Hook. “We haven’t got any plans to make any music under the guise as New Order,” Sumner says. “I’ve working on two other projects at the moment so I’m kind of busy for the next couple of years anyway.”

And Hook, he says, needs to take five: “I think that Hooky just needs to chill out a little bit and relax.” Sumner says he has no plans to reach out to his blogging bandmate to clear everything up. “He’s the guy who with the problem, so he should approach us,” he says. “We haven’t got a problem. I just don’t think he likes me, so what can you do?”

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geez

that is kind of arrogant for Hooky to declare that NO have split up...

I mean - in all honesty, he is just the bass guitarist, know what I mean?
but yea... if even Stephen won't play w/o hooky, the name New Order shouldn't be used anymore

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back in February, it was widely speculated that Bernard put New Order on hold indefinitely, refusing to do more live gigs and not committing to finishing the tracks they had left over from WFTSC. nobody knows the truth, even Bernard and Hooky have diff. ideas of what the "truth" is but if I had to wager, i'd put money on Bernard sparking Hooky's ire and prompting him to make these comments. Hooky, however, shouldn't have gone off in public about the matter.

either way, i'm thrilled to have their music to listen to. nothing will ever eclipse the joy i get from New Order's music.

Re: New Order Drama
 

That Electronic record was the last time any member of the band, or the band collectively, felt like the original exploratory spirit of the group was alive. There would no longer be anything like "The Perfect Kiss" or "Fine Time" and instead it was all mostly middle of the road pop with a fair bit of self referentiality. I remember reading an NME article previewing the second Electronic record and it Bernard Sumner mentioned that he'd gone sober but had started experimenting with Prozac so that probably partially explains why that record was such a flatline.[/quote]


in that first period, they released amazing 12 inches, great b sides.

but, come on, after that we've got "out of control", "twisted tenderness", "get ready sessions" etc.

lets see what bernard will do next.

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i agree with you again Kowalski, despite the 2nd Electronic LP being mostly shit, there were some amazing singles and b-sides from that era and Twisted Tenderness is a phenomenal LP. New Order have done more great tracks post 93 than i expected them to. Here To Stay & Primitive Notion alone justify the last 14/15 years of New Order activity/inactivity.

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do you know "the peter saville soundtrack" ? 30 minute beautiful piece of music.

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I don't like any of that stuff. IMO, I think with very little exception everything post the first Electronic rekkid from any member of the band is either not good or treading water. I'm a huge fan of everything they did from 1977-1990 but after that it goes spotty.

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yes i do. had a friend pick up a copy for me in MCR.

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What Do You Want From Me
Crystal
Primitive Notion
Here To Stay
----

i personally love all of WFTSC and most of Get Ready but i highlight those tracks because i feel like those are as strong as any other songs in the New Order cataloge.

your criticism is treading water. what band that's been active for 25+ years doesn't tread water? i just find that to be a very weak critique of a band who's well into their 50s. what do you expcet them to do?

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its also very important that people are still buying their records.

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I like Get Ready, but not as a NO record. There are some great tracks on that album, but if you listen to these songs and compare them with their younger catalog it feels worlds apart. I kind of feel the same way about Republic - I really like that album, but it's not thier best. Post-True Faith New Order are really a different band - they are more polished and upbeat, more pop less art. Take that as you will but I perfer the earlier stuff.

Perhaps they jumped the shark at 'World in Motion' (excluding 'Reget')?

I would have to argue that the best Electronic song is 'Disappointed' which is bascially a PSB song, but I really love the PSB. Actually the Electronic songs I like the best are the ones with Neil Tennant. I still haven't listened to the other Electronic albums, Revenge, or The Other Two, but I can't imagine they would be all that good (someone yell at me if I'm wrong here).

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So just because the band has been active for 25 years I should somehow adjust my personal taste to align with records I don't like? Prince has been making records since the late 70's, was in my opinion was as rock solid or more so than New Order well into the early 90s, and now too does not seem to create music I like anymore - should I like his new music now simply because his track record suggests that I should find a way to like what he's doing?

Last I checked liking music was about how listening to it made me feel, end of story. At least, that's how I evaluate music. Me saying "I don't like it" might not be the most informative description of why I don't like their music but that's the way it is - when I hear "Krafty", while I think it's a decent pop song I certainly don't get moved like I did or do when I hear "The Perfect Kiss", and when I hear "Jetstream" all I can think of is detatched, rich musicians listening to and getting inspired by the most boring, inoffensive house music on an airplane music channel.
I think it happened a few years after that but "World in Motion" was definitely the tipping point. Maybe it meant something more to someone living in the UK but outside of that World Cup fever, hearing that song for the first time was like "Isn't this just kind of silly? Is this the same group?"

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well i always thought they never had a problem about looking silly. like PSB doing latin album or neil young doing old school country records. i think they invented this joke (singles like world in motion, true faith or spooky) ages before irony become "cool" in pop music. :-) some artists tries to ridicule themselves to not to drown in their own seriousness.

most of the "hype"/"non hype" dance/rock acts of today are still stealing/ripping off chords from new order. from justice to bloc party, editors to interpol, scissor sisters to fischerspooner, chemicals, maps etc. its still hard to beat their legacy.

as a concervative new order fan, i can understand why people like scott warner stop listening them after "tecnique". all the those early 12 inches and albums... i mean, they were the best band for almost two decades. but songs like "special", "everyone everywhere", "prodigal son", "make it happen", "run wild", "primitive notion", "crystal" or "here to stay" meant something else to some people.

although i'm quite emotional about new order these days. i was watching sofia coppola's "marie antoinette", there is a scene where antoinette partying all night at the palace, chilling out in garden with her friends. we are listening "ceremony" while suns coming up, knowing that this could be the last sunrise she'll ever see. that scene remind me the story of new order.

i'm happy that they got older gracefully.

l love them.

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Oooh, Ssssss :p

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I hear what you are saying, but to put it simply; considering the back catalogue of certain artists that had their 15 years of fame, there's usually a gem or two of music in their output that makes it all worthwhile. When an artist is beaucoup rich from their glory of yester years' output (which, in and of itself, the music becomes timeless), it's nice to see artists taking chances on what sounds good to the artists themselves. Who knows? Some of us may realize what sounds (insert derrogatory explicative of your choice here) today, becomes more influencial and soulfilled than originally thought.

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i still think 'get ready' was the last great new order album. i don't think it was as 'edgy' as earlier new order albums but the quality of the songs was more consistent than 'republic' (4 great singles and filler). i get the same shivers down the back with 'crystal' as i did with 'all the way' from 'technique'.

'here to stay' and 'krafty' were both great singles in the n.o. tradition but for me there were only a couple of decent tracks on 'waiting for the sirens call'. most of it had the same filler vibe as 'republic'.

i don't really mind if it's time for new order to stop making music. i just think that despite barney's 'drunk uncle at a wedding' dancing (and overdone whooping), hooky's increasingly annoying 'i'm foooking ard me' persona and the absence of gillian they have still made some great music since reforming.

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Yeah, but i really did like that Monaco record. (or at least half of it) :)
crank