Substance

New Order play the State, Liverpool, supported by James.

Tony Wilson heard about this because somebody had said to him, ‘Have you heard this new song by the group Blue Monday – ‘New Order’? Isn’t it on your label?’ A

She was a schoolteacher – we used to attract a lot of teachers, funnily enough – and we, er, ‘got on’ so well that she decided to fly to join us when we reached New York.
Great. Trouble was that by the time the band arrived in New York, I’d already met another girl in Toronto, and she’d decided to come to New York as well. So, when I arrived in the Big Apple, I had two girls coming to see me, plus Ruth, as we had taken to rekindling our liaison occasionally.

English girls held on to their virtue like it was a prize. Which it is, of course. Now that I’m older, I realise that. But when you’re twenty-seven, it’s a pain in the arse, because all you want to do is get your end away

drink or drinks containing:
• Pernod (LARGE amount)
• Orange juice (small amount)
• Sparkling white wine (LARGE amount)

Otherwise, not too much of a splash. (Although in 1998 an American metal band called Orgy had such a huge hit with it that we were sent awards which said: Congratulations on writing ‘the most played song of the year on US radio’.)

Neil Tennant also tells a story in the The New Order Story about hearing ‘Blue Monday’ for the first time and it breaking his heart, it being the very track he wanted the Pet Shop Boys to make: ‘“I’m Keeping My Fingers Crossed”, it was called,’ he said.

New Order: ‘Merry Xmas from the Haçienda’

fifty seconds into the twelve-inch version you can hear someone screaming.

What I used to love about ‘old’ New Order was the willingness to experiment. This instrumental was only ever meant to be just that, an instrumental. Later, if Barney couldn’t get a vocal the track would be changed, sometimes out of all recognition, to facilitate the vocal, robbing us of great moments like these, which to me speak more than a thousand lyrics ever could.