NME has always loved Joy Division and New Order - so we invited Peter Hook to have a nostalgic root around our archive cupboard. Hooky's new book 'Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division.

http://www.nme.com/nme-v...me-archive/1834496942001

Strange, I thought Hooky only ever looked forward.

All those years I had been convinced that the NME never helped at all and were almost biased against JD/NO, then the Godlike geniuses award happenes and from then on they're best mates (all of them, not just Hooky)?

I remember nothing, sorry different. As I recall, both NME and Melody Maker wanked themselves dry every time there was a peek out of NO. You have to remember in the 80s they were (a) inverted snobs versus the Simply Reds of this world, and (b) desperate to fill shitloads of space. A band like New Order - able to shift copies but still fashionably 'indie' - were right up their proverbial street.
And yes, Technique got a 9 out of 10 ('This is a very Fine Time indeed' - pure Oscar Wilde) and (like Republic) a massive two-part interview from abroad.

Edited by user 17 September 2012 07:47:20(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I remember NME and Melody Maker being pretty favourable apart from Steve Sutherland. Can't recall which one he wrote for but actually he turned round and gave Low Life a great review

I can't really remember a particular instance, apart from McCullough claiming that Hook and Gretton had mental deficiencies all the way back in Joy Division. I hadn't had acces to NMEs in the 80's, so I haven't read the actual reviews until late '90s. It was just a general feeling that the press were giving New Order a hard time, or at least harder than other acts. Things like "Factory against the London media/music industry". Classic us against them stuff. Part regional, part pseudo-political, part whatever.
Of course, it might all have been a part of Tony Wilson's genius ploy?

Ms Girl (whose posts I always enjoy) is right of course, it ain't really important, just interesting. I got into NO circa 89 and I have definite memories of both MM and NME going weak at the knees over 'em - maybe Technique was the breakthrough? Hell, MM was one of the few rags to give One True Passion a good review - Q slated it ('Hook, Line and Sinking'). In 93 I was nuts over the band but even I drew the line at descriptions like 'the most important band since the Beatles or the Stones', 'the inventors of 80s music', or Bernard as 'a Brian Eno for the nineties!' - but that was Paul Lester for you. Hell, this was three years after a footie record, the period of super-disappointing 'Republic', and three years before super-disappointinger RTP!
Maybe it was Technique that did it, but journos like Lester creamed their pants every time the band was mentioned. The only negative thing I remember reading was NME's review of 'Spooky' who said it was the first decent thing they'd done all year 'after a truckload of remixes, an anti-climactic LP and a duff spin-off (Other Two): The synths seem to swirl round forever and it's been a criminally long time since I wanted a NO record to go on for three minutes, let alone forever.'
I could be wrong as it's been a long time and I was more interested in drinking and masturbating back then, but these're my memories...

Thank you LG! I always like reading your contributions.
The reason I remember that period so well is that it was way before the media explosion and there was a certain pride in sauntering down to your local newsagent's every week and scouring the press for info then sharing it with all my friends, sorry friend. Sad innit!

Peter going back in time you say!?!

My interesting correspondence with Leather Girl has got me trying to remember how MM and NME perceived NO back in my passionate period ('89 - '94). It's been bleedin' years and maybe it's down to Technique but I'm sure they were held in quite some regard. Memories:
1990 - NME gave Revenge a cover story, MM gave One True Passion a VERY RARE good review and NME called I'm Not your Slave (a shite mix of a shiter song, even superfan Claude Flowers disliked it) 'good and chart-bound, no messin'. Other publications' Revenge reviews could be lukewarm (Select '"A new lease of life"? Despite rumours of loud guitars and Hooky's reputation as a beery yob, no radial new direction is apparent') but were often savage (Q 'Hook, Line and Sinking... God this is bad. Really bad. Not even so bad it becomes interesting, just - urgh! Where do I begin?... 1 star and that's just for It's Quiet, which is too little too late')
- The Lec, whose output was a staggering one, 6-month old 45, did a coupla gigs SUPPORTING Depeche Mode with a HANDFUL OF UNFINISHED TRACKS... And look what happened http://www.feeleverybeat...nme18august1990page1.jpg
1991 - Lec's album gets droolingly received as 'one of the greatest albums ever made' http://www.feeleverybeat...melodymaker25may1991.jpg
The Other Two's Tasty Fish - to my mind, presisely the kind of synthpop the mags (and Tony Wilson himself) looked down on, got another front-page feature and masturbatory interview: 'the pop single of the year'.
1993 - 3 years on from a fucking footie record, in the midst of a shite (by their standards) album and a single UK mainland gig, and (we didn't know it but) before a wilderness period... NO are 'the most important group since the Beatles or the Rolling Stones' (NME), 'incapable of making an anything less than great record' (Republic, anyone?) and 'the inventors of 80's pop so GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND START GROVELLING' (MM)...
Sure, there were dissenting voices. I mentioned the Spooky review before and both mags gave World a bad review (NME: GO AWAY!, MM: bland, mercenary, perfunctory), but that's understandable with groups as gutsy as Nirvana and Suede going around.
94 - Fuck all for a year then a Christmas package. Were Simply Red to pull a stunt like that they'd be massacred. Not NO, in fact journos seemed happy to have something to say about them again.
So there you go, booze and porn may have buggered my memories slightly. But this was the kind of thing we were reading back then.