... well the whole fun of going to a NO show(back in the 80's) was to see how bad they could mess up their own songs. i think it wasn't till the late 90's, that they actually seemed more well rehearsed for live performance.

I remember the True Faith lyrics in Smash Hits. I couldn’t figure out the chorus back then.

It took them Decades to Face Up to that Fac.

(See what I did there. I’ll get my coat😕)

I have to stop swearing, splitting infinitives and talking about the Spice Girls. It's what I want, what I really really want to fucking do.

Dear Lord! Mercy!

And to complete the Factory LP collection (after the 3 x Tennant reviews and the new one that arrived today), here is the 'Brotherhood' review:



So, the 'Smash Hits' scores are in:

'Movement' 8/10
'Power, Corruption and Lies' 6.5/10
'Low Life' 8/10
'Brotherhood' 5/10
'Technique' 8/10

Thanks for those Technique and Brotherhood reviews, p.

I probably read them at the time but reading them again now kind of reminds me of a time when New Order weren’t gushed over by journalists as they are now. To many hacks back in the day New Order were a bit hit and miss.Kind of like I said in an earlier post on this thread though, those same people would now say New Order were always brilliant. The review of Technique is positive but not so much the Brotherhood one.

Other reviews that always stayed in my head were Steve Sutherland’s on of Low Life in Melody Maker. He conceded he was totally converted whereas before he wasn’t convinced. Think it was him that gave a scathing review of the Michael Sobell Centre gig just a few months before Low Life was released.

Miranda Sawyer reviewed Brotherhood for NME or Melody Maker and was completely bowled over by it. I read it before I heard the album and so was was expecting Brotherhood to be the greatest album ever made. Turned out it, for me, wasn’t quite that great. Good but not great.

Was that the review that called NO a beacon of light shining through the darkness, or something?
I think the BLT/All Day Long side of the record is superb. The other side, not so much. Game of two halves.

Not sure, maybe.Can't recall that bit.I do remember though that she went on about how the music stirs the soul like the pastures and rolling hills of England's green and pleasant land does, or something along those lines.

Thanks for posting these.
His review of Low Life verges on idolation. Too damn right, too. It’s a great LP.



I do agree with you in that a lot of the reviews in the 80s were less than stellar; just reasonable reviews.
I guess time elapsing has an impact on the gravity of music.

However, I do think though that Joy Division / New Order were pretty damn influential.
I won’t list all the bands that were obviously influenced by them (we all know who they are).

But generally, speaking, a large number of post-punk bands were influenced by JD, both at the time and those ‘revival’ bands
(Robert Smith changed the direction of his band having heard JD and The Banshees and realising that his band could be ‘more’).
Similarly, lots of indie guitar bands we’re influenced by New Order. Dance bands too. I would hazard a guess that a lot of the people producing dance music of the late 80s and 90s were pretty keen on the band.

This is the benefit of New Order being a hybrid band; their music appealed to musicians who were focussed on synths, guitars, or both. Not too many bands that you can say that about.

Influence is a bit of a weird thing. Where do you draw the line as to who influenced who?
You could say that influence is not necessarily about how many bands you directly influence, but also which bands you influence who, in turn, influence multiple bands.
I’m not saying that the band (in both of their incarnations) didn’t directly influence a tonne of bands (they did!). However, when you have big hitters such as The Cure, U2, Stone Roses, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Moby etc. paying homage, you know that they are not just influencing those big bands, but all the other smaller bands that were inspired by the bands I’ve just mentioned.

This is why the importance of The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk shouldn’t be underestimated. There are probably people out there making incredible electronic music that have never heard ‘Computer World’ (shame).

Just came across this website earlier today. Looks like this guy has a lot of the articles that I have and has scanned them in.
Just search for New Order. Lots (and I mean lots) of articles - some pretty rare.

https://mycuttings.blogspot.com

Great stuff!

Woahhh..... just had a browse through the old New Order cuttings on that blog.Lots of old features i remember reading or having that i'd long forgotten.Kind of, scary? I mean in that it all seems sooo long ago now.Like for example a Record Mirror interview from 1986 with pics of the band in a graveyard and the gravestones.Instantly remembered it.

Read both the NME and Melody Maker reviews for Brotherhood as had been interested to find those again after many years.The NME one wasn't done by Miranda Sawyer or indeed the Melody Maker one as i'd remembered.The NME one was in fact done by Factory's very own Cath Caroll and there wasn't anything in that review about England's rolling hills and pastures that somehow i'd recalled as being in there.So don't know where that memory came from.


Anyway, thanks for the link

Well, I’ve ordered a crowd-sourced scanner. One that’s portable but should be able to scan the larger formats of the NME etc.
It’s not due to arrive until February, but when it does, I'm thinking of giving this a go.

Not sure how long it’ll take me, but I think I’m planning on doing things on a year by year basis.
The first volume will be ‘76-78, volume 2 will be ‘79, volume three will be ‘80, volume 4 will be ‘81 etc.

I plan to compile everything I can from the years in question; scans from my collection, scans I’ve downloaded from the internet and images from ‘An History In Cuttings’.

Not sure how many years I’ll do. I’ll try to get up to 1990, then play it by ear.

I’ll let everyone know when I get to a reasonable enough point and see if there’s an interest from forum members to see this stuff.
I have a tonne of cuttings (hundreds, possibly 1,000+; some major, some minor), so it’ll take me a while, so would be nice to share at regular points.

I’d really like to start with a cutting of the ‘Bernard, Hooky, Terry and Wroey as Stiff Kittens’ mention that appeared in ‘Sounds’ in December 1976. Their first mention in the press.

I can’t remember if I have this or not, so if anyone definitely has this, I’d love a scan to get me started. I’m guessing this is fairly rare though.