Get Ready - New Order

Contrary to what some might like to tell you, the 80s were not a musical waste land. Yes it was the decade of Kylie and Jason but to suggest that this was the epitome of musical output is rather like saying Steps represent 90s music’s high water point. My point being there was a lot more to the 80s than bubble gum pop, bad hair cuts and poor fashion sense. The pop scene may have thrown up an assortment of talentless muppets but the alternative musical scene yielded a number of gems throughout the decade. The likes of The Smiths, The Cure, Echo and the Bunneymen, The Chameleons, Depeche Mode, U2 and standing above them in all in suitably majestic fashion, New ...

Sometimes it’s better for legends to die young, go out with a bang, than for them to linger on trying to revive past glories. Joy Division virtually set the template for that particularly dark, intense strain of post-punk which spawned the likes of The Cure, The Chameleons and the Banshees, whilst house music would be very different were it not for New Order’s adoption of New York dance rhythms in the mid-80s. What I’m trying to say is that New Order have always been innovators, pioneers, and fearsomely independent. That all changed when, just 3 years after the awesome “Technique”, their label Factory went bust. Factory is something ...

It's been 9 years since the last studio album by New Order after the band's unspoken break up, almost cemented by a best of compilation 2 years after 'Republic'. But the band are back together after singer and guitarist Bernard Sumner's primary reconciliation with bassist Peter Hook. And all side projects are less focal, now that 75% of the Joy Division tree have teamed up together again and promised and delivered a real gem. And a new New Order album seems an important sort of soundtrack to rekindled interest in the classic Mancunian music scene. This album is also in memory of recently deceased former JD/NO manager Rob Gretton. It ...