Had to miss out this one due to the unforeseen circumstances. Never been to Ally Pally, one venue I have for a long time hoped to visit and experience a gig there, even though unpopular among the concert-goers. Sounds like a cracking show. Found this comment on setlist.fm, “Best performance I’ve seen from new order” — was it that good?

It was technically very good.
Maybe too good - I kind of miss Barney fucking things up (although he did mess up the lyrics to Decades, as mentioned above). :-)
There was always the risk, back in the day, that the band were either awesome or terrible-but-still-awesome depending on their mood / technical problems / size of the backstage rider. Nowadays things are a bit more polished.

What I will say is that it was probably the happiest I’d ever seen the band. Although there wasn’t much banter, there really seemed like an enthusiastic energy about them. Tom and Phil seemed to be loving it. Barney too.

The crowd seemed to really love the energy and it was also probably the best response from a crowd I’ve seen in the modern age of the band.

A great night. Glad I went. Long train journey home now.

Edited by user 10 November 2018 04:04:14(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

It was certainly very slick. And long.


I tried to warn y'all on this very thread!

Further Debaser thoughts & musings:

That setlist went up really quickly. Maybe someone was doing it on their phone at the gig? Those tracks took over two hours to perform: 8.30pm to 10.45.

Having missed the MIF gigs, I was thrilled to get Subculture and Vanishing Point in the setlist. Not entirely surprised, but thrilled. My first ever experience of those ones live.

This may sound obvious, but it really is so much better at the gig than when you watch back on Youtube etc. I moan about Bernard's vocal stylings on here sometimes but was pretty happy with him last night. There may be no need for Youtube clips of last night though, as there were professional cameras at the gig. Both on tripod and shoulder mounted in the crowd. The question now is: where do we see the recorded results? I think the days of Live DVDs are fading away. Amazon or Apple Music exclusive perhaps?

Vanishing Point had a different ending to the MIF (or Technique) version. Either that or the acoustics were weird were I was!
Blue Monday sounded different (from 2015) to me too . Specifically the bit at around 4.48 on the record - the little bassy synth 'solo'. Unless that was also the acoustics?

True Faith no longer has the "Perfecto" piano. When did they drop that?

Double Decker london busses with NEW ORDER on the front are the best busses!


PEOPLE TALKING!

It wasn't just behind you, it was almost impossible to get away from. I honestly think some people just go to these things because it's "an event", and one of their friends suggested it. Or they know two songs: TF and BM, and they're just waiting for those. The rest of the time they want to talk. They don't know the songs and they're not interested in listening. Alas, you can't instruct a sizable portion of the crowd to shut up (unless you're on stage wth a mic) so you have to suffer it. It was the one thing that pissed me off during Subculture and VP. I wanted to drink them in, not listen to to some Spanish people yammering away at a million miles an hour. Grr!!!

I miss the days when more people bought records and less people went to gigs. The tickets were cheaper and those who went were there because they were into the band, not because they have disposable income that they don't know what to do with.
Rant over.

Disorder totally got me in the mood for JD last night. I'm not sure the rest of the crowd agreed, but I was absolutely loving that track and it made me want some more guitary/human sounding tacks. However what we got from tracks 8 through to 18 was incredibly slick and synthy. A lot of those synths were, I presume pre-programmed. So the complete opposite to the very humanly-played Disorder. I mean obviously the songs were brilliant NO songs and a lot of good work has been done in the programming - hence the slick sound, but as Perspex Orange suggests, there's not much room for human fuck ups here.

Tom's Bass: is it sounding less Hook-like (in tone) on the old NO songs than when he first started, or is that just my imagination?

At least when we did get to TF,BM and Temptation, everyone seemed to join in. Even the 'casuals'. Imagine if it had been like that for the whole gig! [But some people actually left between BM and Temptation. Pastic Fans! - no not the song] Temptation even got the "oohs" going in a way I haven't heard for a long time now. Better than Brixton 2015, that's for sure.

And then we got the JD encore. Quite frankly I was happy to see the 'casuals' piss off. BYYEEE! It felt like just genuine music fans were there for the final three songs. And again I was totally in the mood for JD and it felt like a nice change from all that slickness.

Ian imagery: I have mixed feeling on this. On the one hand it sort of puts him on stage with the rest of the band. On the other hand, it perhaps turns him into a T-shirt icon. And I still think the "Joy Division forever" thing is just CORNY (to use a Bernard expression).

As for the venue, unless you live in North London it's a pain to get to, but a reward when you do. Lovely space, great views of the city, and it offers some room to dance (unless you were squashed down the front - which Bernard showed some concern for). I like the intimacy of Brixton Academy but 2015 was so packed you couldn't move.

Overall: good gig as long as you like things slick. Eyes peeled for the video.

I have mixed feelings about this too. I think it’s a bit overdone and I think they should scale it back a little. Just show the Atmosphere video (with it’s shots of Ian), like they do, during the performance of that song.
But to keep showing various images throughout the JD numbers feels a little OTT and forced.

It also smacks a little of ‘hagiolatry’ (word of the day, folks!).

As regards talking, there wasn’t much by me thankfully. What did bloody annoy me though was the tallest guy in the audience, initially standing next to me, then gravitated later in the gig to directly in front of me.

And then he wouldn’t keep his head still. I was trying to peer around him, but he literally kept moving every 5 seconds or so, for no bloody reason. It also didn’t help that a guy just off to his right (and partially obscuring my vision when Mr Tall was moving his head) had the BIGGEST HAIR for an old guy I’d ever seen. He was probably only 5ft10, but his wispy hair added a good 4 inches.

Oh, and the other highly annoying thing is having to watch half the gig through everybody’s bloody camera phones.

Grrr.

I quite like watching some of the more “professionally” filmed amateur stuff on YouTube and I know that I wouldn’t get this without people using camera phones. However, what I would like to say to the majority of people is, ‘don’t bother filming. Enjoy the gig and wait until somebody who was in a prime spot down the front uploads the whole song(s) to YouTube.’ Mostly these other people just randomly film 30 seconds anyway.

I sound like a right miserable bastard.

It was fantastic last night. Bernard seemed in a very good mood and his voice sounded the best I’ve heard it. Great atmosphere. Loved Decades and Disorder from the JD songs but could do without atmosphere and especially LWTAU. The sound I thought was really good at the venue and although a sell out still room to dance. The songs that survived the MiF all sounded superb (vp, ultra violence, subculture) glad Academic made it back in the set. Hard to pick a stand out moment all superb. Even some of the NO tracks I’ve got a bit bored of hearing sounded fresh such as blue Monday. Really glad I went another superb NO gig.

Here’s hoping, as they all seem to be getting on so well, we get some new music next year.

Well well well.Never seen or been aware of that before! They kept that quiet! Thanks.

Bernard still made the obligatory cock ups. He ALWAYS comes in too early for the guitar riff half way through True Faith, he came in half way through “and they gave it away, like in whistle down the wind” on VP, I’m sure in subculture he sang the line “I like walking in my sleep”.

Also, holding the mic out to the crowd to sing he chorus to BLT didn’t really work it seemed. Nor does holding the mic near to Phil or Tom guitar/bass while they play (the sound comes out of speakers, not the stings doh!).

As mentioned by someone else, the YouTube clips don’t really tell the story. Bernard’s vocals were pretty spot on in the live arena. And some great use of effects I thought (eg ultraviolence) to enhance them.

hats

That was MEN ARENA 98 as I recall.

Audio of 3 tracks I recorded:

https://soundcloud.com/u...ew-order-live-subculture

And some videos I uploaded:

https://youtu.be/qA7HaG3Rca8

https://youtu.be/0jmhmLBM3nA

https://youtu.be/p5hl4w49T84

https://youtu.be/AAhK1z2p654

Cracking gig!

^Thankyou for posting that review, Debaser. Or as Bernard might say ..kyou.

Had to google “elan” though to clarify it. Never heard a description of Bernard’s singing as a with a “ dark elan” before.

uncountable noun
If you say that someone does something with élan, you mean that they do it in an energetic and confident way.
[literary]
This small part was taken with elan by a promising young tenor. with élan, you mean that they do it in an energetic and confident way.
[literary]
This small part was taken with elan by a promising young tenor”

Edited by user 13 November 2018 06:34:19(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Let"s hope 2019 brings a tour of several more songs not played for years , and maybe an intermission, with two sets of maybe 13- 20 songs per set, and a new release of new songs , and meanwhile Peter tours T and R all over the USA Like PF ,it is actually a blessing to get two bands touring , and who knows, maybe while Bernard takes a few months to write lyrics for a new cd , Tom and Phil and Steven and Gillian could try a little fun tour for a bit , playing even more songs with tapes of Bernard singing ,or they all sing, 4 part harmonies . PF and NO really are the best bands ever.. What a time to be alive and in love. Cheers

Also the full Cuntrol instrumentals, but...