Well that flew by in no time.Though i was surprised Steve didn't include TPK 12" after the end! Great info, insights and previously unseen pics again from Steve.Loved the pic of Gillian relaxing on at Cheetham Hill rehearsal room at the TPK video shoot.Wow , that pic of outside , place looked rough! I was refreshing Steve's twitter feed and also dipping in to the listeningparty website where the feed updates itself without having to refresh the page so i could also catch the tweets from Gillian, Tim and Dave Haslam.



Interesting how Steve mentions about Elegia came about after they were invited to do music for a 15-20 minute art film from a Dylan Jones, the then editor of id magazine.The film never happened but it reminded me that Elegia was eventually used in a short stop-motion mixed-media film from the early 2000's called More, by Mark Osborne and was nominated for an Academy Award and awarded the Best Short Film at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

Edited by user 30 April 2020 13:25:12(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Had to read through some of the tweets again this morning, last night Steve's, Gillian's and Dave Haslam's were coming so thick and fast it's sometimes hard for an old bugger like me to keep up a times or at least digest.


My memories of Low-life :

Hearing 5 or 6 of the songs for the first time on John Peel's show a week or so before the album was released.Scrambling to get a cassette in to record what Peel was playing.My heart was pumping like mad at hearing the new songs.At that time i hadn't got into buying live bootleg tapes of New Order's shows despite reading the ads in the back pages of NME every week! I didn't start collecting the live bootlegs until around the time of Brotherhood.So i hadn't heard any of the new songs before i heard them on John Peel.Oh except for Sooner Than You think when they'd played it at the Radio 1/BBC thing in 1984.


The day the album (and TPK 12" the same day) was released i still vividly remember rushing into town on my lunchbreak to the record shop and getting my eager hands on the LP and TPK 12". The Low-life cover was just beyond fantastic, the coolest record cover ever, it and the TPK cover just felt so utterly new, the newest thing ever.I had never realised before how something could just feel so bloody new! It had an ultra modern feel but at the same time it had a kind of 1960s vibe about it, maybe it was the black & white thing.Kind of 1960s updated to meet the future.


Low-life was the sound of that whole summer (and well, year) of 1985 for me, played it constantly.It was the best album ever, even better than PCL.That summer 1985 i couldn't understand why everyone was wearing bloody U2 tee shirts for The Unforgettable Fire and all that nonsense when New Order were far better, far more interesting and a lot more bloody fun!

Snapped up the white cassette box version soon as it was released later that year.And the added bonus that the 4 postcards of the band included were obviously from the same photo session but were different pics different from the vinyl version .

One particular line of Bernard's from the album that immediately took to and loved and that stayed in my mind was the one from Face Up. "We were young and we were pure and life was just an open door".Quite!

Very quickly it felt like the music and particular Hooky's bass lines were running through my veins constantly, the music was in my blood and filled my thoughts 24/7.It was soul music .Well obviously not Soul music in the generally accepted way like of Marvin Gaye, Aretha and all those but it spoke to and touched the soul, it reached the soul in many strange ways to the 17 year old me.

Edited by user 01 May 2020 02:39:13(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Yes that clip Johnny James posted sounded more like where Hooky got the idea for his bass parts on Blue Monday. Think I’d heard that Morricone piece in that doc where Hooky is interviewed and in which he says that’s where he got the idea/inspiration from for his bass in BM. But yeah the twinkling in the Morricone piece is also probably where elements of Elegia were inspired from.

There’s another Morricone piece , can’t remember which, and can’t recall off top of my head which spaghetti western it was but there’s a spot in the Morricone music where after a quiet bit , the guitar crashes back in like a bull in a china shop and which Bernard’s guitar also does towards the end of Elegia.

Quite a bit of admiration from S&G for Hooky's basslines. I thought that was pretty decent of them.
Obviously, they love his bass lines (who doesn't?), but they didn't have to comment. They could've just commented on other non-Hooky elements of the songs.

It would be nice to think that, perhaps, both parties are moving towards an olive branch offering.

I think anyone in their right mind must love a Hooky bass line. He is the greatest bass player. Not technically, but who cares about that. The sound he got from his bass for NO was incredible.

I do have a vision that in my head NO last ever concert and Hooky comes on stage to join the others for one last time. To end the gig with TLU and then Leave Me Alone. Wow just imagine. It could happen with NO I’ve come to expect the unexpected.

I'll believe that when I see it.
Stephen once put LowLife at the top of his list. I always thought It nosedives after the second half, but feels like I've been here before.

Edited by user 06 May 2020 10:17:12(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Followed this earlier tonight.

1. Well i never knew Hooky joins in with the singing on Interzone.Learnt that tonight.
2.Simon Le Bon chipped in and mentioned going to see JD support The Cure and even bought Ian Curtis a drink.Who knew he was a fan eh?
3.Hooky posting a video of him putting on and later after the end taking off the vinyl but he didn't stop the turntable first! I always think you'll damage the record like that , but then i guess DJs do it that way.I would always stop the turntable first myself but that's just me.

I caught it on 'catch-up' earlier today.
Although I enjoyed it (who doesn't love an additional listen to that masterpiece?), I didn't enjoy it as much as the two New Order ones.
Simply because Steve had really done his homework and provided some excellent rare photos of the band at work, rest and play, along with some great shots of the band's equipment.

Much as I love Hooky's recollections, theres no substitute for some visual stimuli. And a good old-fashioned Polaroid of the guys hanging out in somebody's front room does the trick, IMHO. I honestly love old photos like that. Shows the band are human etc.

Cummins' photos were also all the ones we've seen hundreds of times before.
Awesome as those one are, I'd have loved to see something new from him. However, we know that he didn't take many photos of the band at the time, sadly (film was expensive for a relatively young and inexperienced photographer, as he was at the time). I'm guessing that there aren't any JD photos from him that we've not seen.



There's always been some speculation about this, so it's good to have it confirmed. I heard him say it in a recent interview too (may have been Jack's live chat this week).

I will say though, that the left channel voice still sounds a bit like Ian to me. On the other hand, it kind of also sounds like Hooky in parts.
I think I've always thought it was Ian (despite the speculation) as it kind of sounds similar to the 'rougher than normal' vocal that Ian provided to the same song on the aborted RCA LP.

But, if Hooky says it's him, who am I to doubt it?

No question that the right channel vocal belongs to Ian.



I saw one or two tweets from him on the 'catch up' but they missed out his one about buying Ian a drink (I think they only include selected texts from 'outsiders' in these 'catch-ups').

They did include one from him that mentioned that he saw them at the Moonlight Club gig in 1978! The Moonlight gigs were actually in 1980.
I shouldn't get too annoyed by wrong dates, but it kind of matters with JD, doesn't it?
When a band only exists for two and a half years, to suddenly 'shift' one of the very last gigs by two years, it's a little jarring.



This was a really nice touch. Well played, Hooky. Great to see that ruby red vinyl spinning!

Edited by user 23 May 2020 13:49:51(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Listening to Interzone i'm struggling to find and hear Hooky on there but what do i know.Hmmm....


Yes the clip of Hooky putting on the vinyl at start and then taking off at the end and his short message to camera was a nice touch to be fair.

As for Simon Le Bon, yes i don't doubt he saw JD live and met and bought Ian a drink but the dates didn't seem to add up but hey..

I think the difference for me between Unknown Pleasures and Closer, ooh going a bit deep here, is that UP seemed more rooted in the here and now of every day life in an industrially decaying Britain and Curtis’ struggles with more earthbound issues. Closer on the other hand seemed to be on a higher plane. The first impressions I had and still have is Curtis has moved on to examining the follies of mankind down the ages, or even him trying to make sense of God and religion. The music itself on Closer had progressed from UP to a kind of more difficult, brutal and complicated sound. Atrocity Exhibition and Colony probably being prime examples. Unknown Pleasures was more of a punk album, well it would’ve been even more punk if it wasn’t for Martin Hannett’s incredible production. I think as UP was more punk it was more immediate. With Closer the band had matured and learnt a lot more.Closer is beautiful in its brutalness, if that makes sense!

Tim Burgess has confirmed there will be a Closer listening party on the album's 40th anniversary release date 18th July.

Gilliam Is their secret weapon! And Steve is their secret weapon! Bernard is their secret weapon also! And Tom is their secret weapon! And as for Phil, he's always been their secret weapon! Shame about Hooky cos he was their secret weapon!