Once a year, a scrap of wasteland in Liverpool’s Northern docks gets a loud and proud, green and yellow big top transplanted on it and acts from the Dinosaurs of rock to the princes of throwaway pop come to thrill the punters. It is here that Gigwise has come to witness a legendary band of the 80s and 90s – New Order. Entering its cavernous black interior, a mass of fans has already assembled. A mixture ageing Joy Division fans, who probably felt Ian Curtis reflected their pain before they all grew up and became chartered accountants. And of course the slightly younger, post-rave generation, New Order fans, reliving the time when they still had a short-term memory.
The guys roll on stage with little fuss, say hello and before anyone has even had chance to sit down from the initial applause they begin ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and the tent is immediately hooked into its mesmerising beats. It’s so alien to hear a song that is so ingrained into ‘alternative’ culture played live by three quarters of the people who created it, the feeling is uncanny and we can’t help but have a thousand images flash through our mind from darkened bedrooms and film soundtracks to every Indie disco you’ve ever been to and the 14-year-olds who still hang around the war memorials of Britain wearing Unknown Pleasures T-shirts.
After a strong opening they move into 90s territory with the wonderful, dynamic jangle-pop of ‘Regret’. Peter Hook whose driving, hollow bass informed much of the Joy Division/New Order sound provides much of the stage action of the band. Despite being the wrong side of 50 he plays with wild energy, running about the stage leaning over the edge a few feet from the crowd, while Bernard Sumner, with the exception of the odd bit of his crap dancing and a “Thank you Liverpool” largely sticks to his Mic and guitar After that it’s back to the Post-Punk school with a performance of confusion anthem ‘24 Hours’ and we notice how much Sumner’s voice is like that of Curtis.
When playing the Joy Division tracks, with their ominous rhythms and taught, tingling licks, the band are lit in slight green and blue and play with the concentrated intensity they were known for in their first incarnation. With the New Order anthems the audience is lit up in many flashing colours and the band let there energy free by leaping about - this is music to be part of not to be appreciative of. Hook’s bass acrobatics promote much excitement from the front of the crowd which is harshly put down by the security, prompting Hooky to remark about “the cunts in the yellow vests” behaving themselves better.
Sumner promises to “get the rocky numbers out of the way” and a new song ‘Working Overtime’ is almost Punk-Pop in its sound, them perhaps returning to their roots, after which, once again without warning, they perform ‘Transmission’ with a screaming intensity that would give many of today’s brooding rock acts a run for their money.
The audience varies in its attentions. Some get lost in the music and presumably there memories, leaping around, others sit stock still in thought. The tent has surprisingly good acoustics and for the size of it the atmosphere is not one of being lost in a cavernous shed. When they play the danceier numbers, rather than repeat the records they create a fuller, more pounding sound; extended, stretched and played with. ‘Temptation’ which Sumner calls “My favourite New Order song ever” is taken on for about twice its running length and the whole audience gets caught in the melody. When they put out a full, pumping thick and cool version of ‘True Faith’ that raises it from Indie dance to Rave Rock.
A mention of football from Sumner causes some tension; Liverpool and Manchester so often united in sound still have little time for each other when it comes to the football field. But all is forgotten when after some messing about they end on ‘Blue Monday’ which is taken from its tight electronic core to something alive and explosive. Sumner gets lost in his bad dancing and Hooky dumps his Bass for a while to bang the electronic drums.
They leave and there some while before they return for an encore. Finally back on Summner apologises for the time they took but, apparently the extra Guitarist decided “it was a good time to take a shit”. They finish on ‘Shadowplay’ and ‘Ceremony’ – the last track they recorded with Curtis’s involvement. In a slightly Rock n Roll moment, Hook throws his Bass firmly to the ground in a mess of feedback but his Punk credentials are dented slightly as his cute daughter runs on stage to meet him as he walks off.
These guys not only invented it and changed the face of alternative music but the Mancunians still have it. Even minus the man who originally sang them, the Joy Division tracks are still gripping and the New Order brand of danceable Indie melancholy is yet to be bettered. All praise the old order.
