British rock band New Order, which arose from the ashes of post-punk band Joy Division in the early 1980s, has broken up, according to a Web posting by the group’s bass player.
“I’m relieved really hated carryin on as normal with an awful secret so lets move on shall we?” Peter Hook wrote in a blog published on Wednesday on his MySpace page.
Hook first revealed the split as an aside during an interview last weekend with Manchester radio announcer Clint Boon, when he said, “… me and Bernard (Sumner, New Order singer/guitarist) aren’t working together.”
Hook and Sumner have been working together since the mid-1970s, when they co-founded Joy Division, the gloomy combo best known for the mournful single “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
After singer Ian Curtis hanged himself in 1980, the pair – along with Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris – formed New Order, and recruited Gillian Gilbert on keyboards.
The group issued its debut album in 1981, and went on to enjoy enormous success throughout the decade with such singles as “Blue Monday” and “Bizarre Love Triangle,” and albums like “Power, Corruption and Lies” and “Low-Life.”
New Order was less prolific during the 1990s, as its members took on side projects. The band’s most recent album, “Waiting for the Siren’s Call” – a follow-up to 2001’s “Get Ready” – debuted at No. 46 on the U.S. pop album charts in May 2005. It did better in Japan, opening at No. 3, and in Britain, at No. 5.
I didn’t even realize they were still together… Pity.
so wierd you posted this - just yesterday i got home from work and popped in “Brotherhood”. Ironic.
It’s a good thing i think because their last album was pretty awful (Jet Stream has to be their wort song ever). I am glad that i finally got to see them in Chicago a few years ago. It’s too bad they never did a bigger US tour in recent years.
I saw them at a big day out about 4-5 years back… I thought they were good (I was only about 17 at the time, so I wasn’t huge on them, but appreciated what they were doing)… although I was expecting ‘confusion’ from the blade soundtrack, that must be a remix or something… anyway, yeah they were good, however for those who have never been to an australian big day out, the two main stages are DIRECTLY next to each other, in the same area (ie. if your standing in front of one, you can walk 20m in the other direction and ur at the other one) and all the headliners will alternate, i guess to give the next one time to setup with minimal wait time…
ANYWAY… new orderplayed right before the prodigy, bad choice by the organisers… all the prodigy fans were standing in the new order area waiting for prodigy to start and were patient… for about 10 minutes, then started chanting “PRODIGY, PRODIGY” and booing throwing shit etc…
I must say the Prodigy was one of the best shows I’ve seen, however I never appreciate seeing a band get treated that way… then again aussies are into that shit sometimes I guess… New Order didnt care, they just kept playing.
On a semi-related note, the opener for the chili’s recently was harmar superstar (spelling?) he was AWESOME, hahaha, so funny, the crowd was full of knobs booing etc again because he took his clothes off etc and jumped into the crowd… but omg… he was funny as… booing at his drummer, asking if it hurt his feelings, drawing on the crowd… very good. music was very funky too, hadnt heard much at all before that.
Well, fuck.
Well its about time I think. They really were 1 hit wonders, nothing compared to the Joy Division incarnation. They were terrible live and Sumner is an English lout. The last Glastonbury set they played they finished with a song for English soccer fans; " we’re playin for England… ENGLAND!" Enough said. Hook was the only redeeming member I think as he did have his own bass sound and play and he was the most articulate. The drummer was always twitching (probably drug induced) and never really said much worth listening to.
Mick… i disagree. New Order was very important, and they actually didn’t write the lyrics to “World in Motion” - a guy named Keith Allen did.
I can understand how some people might listen to some of their later stuff and think they “suck”. But they were very important in electronic music. IMO. I’d have to say that Regret is a brilliant record. If someone was to ask me what CD to get I’d say to grab Substance then get regret.
Finally - I think that they have one of the top 5 videos of all time. One of the few bands to actually play live in their video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWn0FjYSazU
edit: and just for the record this is another “top 5” video IMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCjpyPqwXNA
One of my all-time favorite bands. Read about this on NOOL. It’s sad they’re through, but they’ve been around so long, I’ve kinda been expecting this, so I’m not crushed or depressed about it. They had a long run, put out a ton of classic songs, and made their mark on music history. Not many bands could fuse organic and electronic music the way New Order did. I saw them live only once - on the Technique tour in '89, and it was fantastic. Yeah, more often than not, they didn’t sound amazing live (Bernard never pretended to be a great singer, nor was he), but that didn’t diminish any of their recorded output one bit.
Too bad we may never hear the 7-8 leftovers from the Sirens sessions. I’d bet most, if not all of those songs are better than Jetstream and Working Overtime. Regardless, that album had a few fine tunes, even though there were some bad song titles, and horrible artwork (talk about an easy payday for Saville).
Favorite albums: Technique, Brotherhood, Low-life
Least-favorite: Republic
Album everyone should have in their collection: Substance 2-CD comp
Top 5 songs:
True Faith
The Perfect Kiss 12"
Temptation '87
Thieves Like Us
Age of Consent
Worst 5 songs:
Jetstream
Working Overtime
Rock The Shack
Guilt Is A Useless Emotion
Liar (or any filler from Republic, for that matter)
1002
Only heard a few songs by them: nothing particularly special either. Joy Division, on ther other hand: one of my favorite bands ever.
From www.neworderonline.com :
A source close to the band told NewOrderOnline that the news about the split is false, New Order still exists despite what New Order’s bassist said. Peter Hook can leave the band, but this doesn’t mean the end of New Order.
We remind you that the claims of New Order’s split originated from Peter Hook’s blog on MySpace, apparently he didn’t warn the rest of the band that were surprised about this news.
Joy division were Peter and Bernard’s band initially, and becoming New order the band is truly democratif and have been treated as such,.
They are still a band but obviously things are being made increasingly difficult as Peter makes claims of a split.
Hah. Either way it’s not really NO without Hooky.