More than any other song on Technique, Dream Attack was the one song in the weeks and months after the album came out and then in the long hot summer of 1989 that became stuck in my head and constantly rattled around in my veins and bloodstream.It was ecstatic but at the same time melancholic, sad but at the same time optimistic.It was genius in its effortlessness.Bernard did say in the Melody Maker interview late 1988 a few weeks before Technique was released that he felt almost as if they weren't writing and creating the music , rather the music was coming down to and through them from some heaven or godly figure above and it seemed completely believable back then.I was actually surprised at the brilliance of Technique back then, when Substance was released 18 months before i had kind of thought oh they're running out of ideas by falling back on releasing a greatest hits.



Dream Attack is melancholic,optimistic, sad, hopeful, dreamy, touching, cool and a lot of other stuff that's impossible to put into words.

World In Motion review posted. Factory era done London here we come ...

Have just listened again to WIM and 'the b side' for the first time in ages to find my opinion of the song again.

WIM is frivolous but at the same time really clever and witty.You can't really listen to it straight after a classic New Order song like Leave Me Alone or Run, but it is a good song.It's a strange thing.It was clever and playful in a way none of NO's peers like Depeche Mode or U2 could ever have come up with.

I remember being aware in the early months of 1990 that New Order were going to release a song for England's upcoming World Cup campaign at Italia 90 but was wary yet hopeful it would be good.Sometime, a few weeks before it was released a friend who hated New Order told me he had heard it and said he did think it was a good football song- and he's Scottish! I hadn't then yet heard it and recall asking him what it was like and he described the fact it started with a football commentary bit and i was like ha! that's brilliant, there hadn't ever been a football song with something like that in before at that time as far as i knew (for years after the idea became ten 'a penny)

I first heard the song on the radio when i was at work one day a week or two before it was released.I actually think my first impression was a bit, oh they've just stuck a new beat over that tune Steve and Gillian did for that Reportage tv show.The football commentary parts are great though.I guess i took to the song more once i had bought the 12" and England's World Cup campaign gathered momentum.The lyrics perfectly describe "the beautiful game" and you have to take your hat off to Keith Allen for that, as far as i understand he wrote most if not all of them? Or at least he wrote the great John Barnes rap.

I sometimes wished the beat could have had a bit more of a thump, but maybe that wouldn't have suited the song so well.And i would have wished some of the keyboards from the beautiful Roli Mossimann 'b side' could have been more integrated in to the main version but that's minor quibbles.The song actually has a big ending ,true to New Order fashion, everything is thrown in for those last moments, the beery, celebratory "En-ger-land!" in there against Hooky's bass, Steve's addictive drums,Gillan's keyboards and the repeating football commentary "Well it is now!"

I love 'the b-side' and always play it after i've played the single version.Some beautiful synths and beats.

Haven't listened to the remixes much for years but i was lucky enough to be in the Hacienda one Saturday night in May 1990 just before the Italia 90 started and was on the dancefloor when the DJ ( could have been Pickering? Or Graeme Park? can't recall now) dropped the No Alla Violenza mix as the very last track of the night.It was the first time i had heard the mix and it was a great moment.Right place right time.

The sleeve was genius clever Saville - a map of the world as football panels and a blurred hot summer "sun" in the top corner stretching out towards a blue "sky".

Having said all that i'm not sure World In Motion is my favourite football song anymore.When the BBC kept playing it in the backgound of their coverage of Euro 2016 (or was it Brazil 2014? Or Both?) I often found myself thinking oh change the record.I sooner dig out Fat Les' Vindaloo if i want to stick a football record on to get me in the mood for an upcoming England match when they are in the Euros or World Cup every other summer (if they even qualify).I actually even like England's 1982 World Cup anthem 'We're On Our Way' these days.


1990 seems a million years ago now.England's semi-final defeat to West Germany a long distant memory from another lifetime.It bloody hurt big time back then and for years after whenever the clip of Waddle's penalty flying over the bar was shown on tv all the pain came flooding back.England's,again, semi final defeat to , again, the Germans, again on penalties, at Euro 96 actually hurt even more though and since those so near to the final yet so far landmarks for us English it's been an ongoing, repeating source of pain, embarrassment, anguish and shame every two years at major football tournaments ( or even less frequent when England don't even manage to qualify) .I don't see much change in the forseeable future.



Oh, also, i was once the proud owner back in 1990 (ok maybe proud isn't the right word) of a pair of EnglandNewOrder World In Motion shorts.

Edited by user 17 June 2017 01:45:36(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Pink Floyd 's brilluant and beautiful Fearless ,from Meddle, with You'll Never Walk Alone, was the only football song I heard before WIM. WIM is a fine song but not very inspiring. New Order's Such A Good Thing does capture the feelings of anticipation , the excitement of sport, the childlike reverence, and it is just as inspiring for any sport- a fabulous magnificent song, The one by Ian McCulloch and the spice girls is such a dreadful abomination and shameful and horrible it should be played never again

Well it wasn't gonna be her breasts!

p.s. why are/were you so obsessed with this group? They foisted shit music on us and were so promo & merchandise-heavy they were impossible to avoid. Those of us who got into indie music did so to avoid commercial dross...

Not a fan. But in those early, simpler times, I recall liking the tops they wore in the Wannabe video...

Excellent review of Regret and the interim period of side projects. Completely agree with your review on Republic as a whole. I too was hugely disappointed after Technique and the Electronic album. Like you at the time other music interested me more, for me the basic channel sound of Berlin, Jeff Mills, Rob Hood, UR from Detroit. But time has proved this to be a lot better album than I originally thought particularly side A.

The moody blues regret remix was the one I was always hoping for, but then New Order could have done some truly rousing versions of 'ride my seesaw', or 'question', but didn't.
Meanwhile ,
Republic is brilliant and groovy and the songs are easy to sing along with , especially avalanche

Getting a bit ahead here but on a Republic theme...

If only Times Change had always been a stonking instrumental.

That setlist looks awesome (unlike rowing, that's oarsome). It's like 1998 when they finally started digging out lesser-played tracks after 89 / 93's NO-by-nrs.
PS Special mention to the TOTP World for (a) Hooky miming like Pete Townsend to a synth and (b) Stephen looking even more mentally unstable than usual. Is he all right?

These arguments run like me in front of Spice Girls videos.
I got into NO through the triple whammy of Substance, Technique and Electronic. After that it was more the fun of collecting than the actual music. Then the triple shite of Republic, Rest Of and Raise the Pressure and Things Would Never Be The Same Again.
I have to go for a whole day without making any childish innuendoes. It's long and hard but I can pull it off.

"E"


Mind blown!

Where will it end?