Copy arrived. First flick through and some great pics, even though one or two I think I’d already seen on one or two of the listening party things. Looking forward to getting stuck into.

Finished reading John Cooper Clarke’s auto bio just last night so its worked out timed nicely. One chapter in Cooper Clarke’s book covers his support of New Order in NZ and/or Oz in 1982. Interestingly he felt he was on New Order’s bandwagon on that tour whereas the band felt they were on his. Apparently Australians weren’t that enamoured with New Order because at that time the Aussies still liked to see a band work for their money with intricate guitar playing and all that. Not enough work ethic .They didn’t like the fact NO’s music mostly played itself on computers. Had always thought NO had been popular in Oz but maybe that came in time later on.

Not got to Technique part yet. About quarter through. Laughed out load numerous times so far.

Yes, and it finally spelt doom for the Sequential Poly Sequencers with them buying the Yamaha QX1s to replace them. That also meant the end of their CV/Gate-equipped analogue gear that couldn't be updated to MIDI.

Having suffered from exactly the same problems using tapes between computers with the ZX81, Spectrum and C64, I can imagine the problem with trying to use the micro cassette recorded on the spare Poly Sequencer in the primary that had been set up in Maida Vale was to do with the tape head azimuth being different between them. A jeweller's screwdriver to adjust the azimuth was an essential tool for using tapes with home computers (they even started making cassette recorders specifically for computers that had a small knob to adjust the azimuth and level meter to show where the highest signal level was).

Edited by user 09 December 2020 14:08:13(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Pretty difficult reading at times post technique. Definitely another side to the whole New Order story.

Steve writes that on Blue Monday 88 , Bernard “ improved the drum sounds”. Really? , um, ok. Revisited it and Beach Buggy and apart from a few interesting sounds it is still the utter dogs dinner it was the last time I listened to it back in... oooh, 1988? All those sucking on Milkshake on a straw sounds .... jeez. I once put Beach Buggy on a jukebox in a pub in 1988 and the derision from various punters was, well, interesting.Listening again , I’d forgotten they sampled the “1234” from Hurt and also Confusion 87 on Beach Buggy.

Just discovered after three quarters way through that at the back of the book is Steve’s recommended Spotify playlist for listening while reading . Maybe a better idea would have been to put that at start of book.Or a short note at start of of the book that there’s a recommended playlist at the back of book.Oh hang on , there is - in the chapter list at start. Doh, my bad.I’ll stick it on though for the last 100 or so pages I have to go.

Edited by user 11 December 2020 13:58:55(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

It was - being tired and emotional after a long journey through bank holiday traffic jams, arriving at Maida Vale with minutes to spare only to find the tracks they spent a day preparing had to be written off due to temperamental gear and having to come up with a new setlist at the drop of a hat. Bernard went ballistic, and you can see the aftermath of it in the broadcast.

As I mentioned earlier, he was pissed off enough about it to consign the Sequential Poly Sequencers to the bin and go out and buy the Yamaha QX1 MIDI sequencers to replace them. which led to them getting the RX11 drum machines and DX5 and TX816 synths

Edited by user 12 December 2020 12:49:42(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

This is interesting. Thanks for the info.

I love that performance. It's a bit of a car crash, but still very enjoyable. Love Bernard telling Steve to speed up In A Lonely Place and him taking out his aggression on his mike's pop shield.
Interestingly, the Radio 1 broadcast has a clip of Hooky playing the intro to 'My Girl', which didn't make it onto the BBC2 broadcast.

Sincerely hoping that the TV performance gets included in the Low Life box set.

Well, I've always thought it was Hooky. But you could be right.




Hmm. I either didn't know that or had forgotten. Damn.

I thought that this performance and the OGWT appearances were the two that would definitely make it onto the Low Life set. I know that Johnny James had mentioned that it was relatively easy to get BBC footage, due to licensing deals between them and Warners, so kind of expected these to be included.

The BBC did show a clip of it on that 'Synth And Beyond With Stephen Morris & Gillian Gilbert', back in 2018. so at least part of it must exist in their archive (the quality didn't look great though).

Bernard introduces Temptation as "an atmospheric song in an unatmospheric place", he did a bit of swearing on Blue Monday too, I get the impression he did not enjoy the experience.

^ See, i always assumed the "an atmospheric song in an unatmospheric place" was Barney referring to the song they'd just played, In A Lonely Place, and not the song coming up, Temptation.Thought that immediately at the time and stand by that.It was only years later when i noticed a few fans saying he was referring to the next song coming up.Opinions as always will differ but it makes more sense to me that he was talking about IALP as that is indeed an atmospheric song.I'd never describe Temptation as such but that's just me.

If i watch the session now it doesn't actually seem as much of car crash as it did live at the time.Barney fluffs the guitar at the start of AoC and hits a couple of bum vocal notes elsewhere yes but that's about it as far as fuck ups go.Yep, he definitely was angry but the songs on the whole are played without too many fuck ups.

I watched it live at the time after a workmate tipped me off saying oh that New Order band you're into are on the telly on Saturday.I was ecstatic at learning of this and come the Saturday afternoon carefully checked the family video player was working ok and got a VHS cassette ready and also a TDK cassette for the radio broadcast.


First song i was , wheh hey ! a new one, haven't heard this one before.So it was a good start.Things started becoming apparent in next song Age Of Consent though that Barney wasn't happy.That guitar fuck up was painfully cringeworthy and then he ripped the pop shield off the mic.At that point i thought, good one Barney, now your vocals are going to sound hissy and distorted.The synths though on AoC sounded marvellous - this was becoming quite a rollercoaster ride! I think i was actually disappointed when Blue Monday kicked in as i would have preferred another new one at that point that i hadn't heard before.But the version of BM was a big improvement on the only other live version of the song i had at the time , the one on the Kilkenny broadcast on Radio 1 the previous christmas.The rollercoaster ride took another dip though when Barney went wildly out of tune at one or even two points.

Thought the synths on In A Lonely Place sounded fantastic but at that point i was expecting yet another fuck up and it was getting quite uncomfortable and awkward viewing! Weirdly at the same time it was fantastic, like watching tv history being made.At one point i noticed people out in the street outside the house walking down the hill and i thought why on earth are those people not at home watching this??!!


Temptation started up and it was glorious but it was now abundantly clear Barney was totally fed up and had passed caring "Oh it's the last time, oh it's the last time, it fucking is!" Eventually it all came crashing to a magnificent end.Or so i thought, i realised it was still going on on the radio broadcast, they had kind of started up Temptation again and carried for another few minutes.That too eventually wound up and the parting sound was Barney (or Hooky?) playing a few notes of My Girl.

Obviously the first thing i checked was to see if the video recorder had recorded it all ok and if the TDK had captured the radio.Everything had worked perfectly.I was no the proud owner of the recording of television history.

Yeah, it had been cringeworthy and awkward at times and quite the rollercoaster ride but at the same time it was exhilarating and it filled my thoughts for months afterwards. I wondered what what my mate at work was going to say about it.I think it turned out out he hadn't bothered!

Oh, just remembered, i created this GIF in a bored moment a few years back

Yeah was quite saddening to read that bit about another drummer would be considered for the Big Day Out gig in Oz in early 2002 if Steve didn’t want to go. Steve was made to feel bad for wanting to stay home and care for his sick daughter. Jeez, FFS.

Like you say, Steve has done well to keep his great sense of humour. Thinking now when seeing video clips from late 90s and early 2000s he did look a bit fed up at times and sustaining a hernia during the Manc Apollo gig in Nov 2005 and being in pain for 18 months after would have compounded everything. I was astonished to learn he’d suffered a hernia yet carried on doing the gigs through the year or so after. Seems like he’s in a good happy place these days though . Great to see.

Just finished the book.
A great read and (obviously) highly recommended.


The whole 1992-2007 period was a painful (but interesting) read though. It must have been a pretty horrible time for him, going from one upsetting moment to the next.

I was impressed that, although he was critical of other band members to a certain degree, he was very much measured in his assessments. There were a few 'yeah, he pissed me off at times', but was countered with things like 'I reckon I must have been pretty annoying myself'. Steve also points out that, to be working that closely with individuals for so long, you're bound to find things that annoy you about them. It's only natural.

I'm just glad (and not at all surprised) that he resisted the temptation to lay into one particular member. In fact, he was generally understanding of that person's problems with the band dynamic. Although he admits that he rarely took sides, and tried to see both sides to arguments.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but Steve did seem to be a little critical of the band's management, Andy Robinson particularly. There are a few incidents where it appears that he felt that Andy wasn't very supportive.

There were a couple of really disheartening band decisions that shocked and slightly upset me.

Firstly, as Fotz mentions above, that 'Big Day Out' incident is really uncomfortable reading.
Rather than go along with Steve's wishes to not travel that far away from home (which, given his daughter's serious illness, seemed reasonable), Bernard and Hooky pretty callously suggested "no problem, we'll just get another drummer". Management agreed ("Problem solved").

Steve said that this incident made him feel 'easily replaceable' and must have made him feel like he wasn't really part of the band (they'd replaced Gillian; they could just as easily replace him). Pretty horrible really. And not the way to treat a founder member.

Secondly, during 'Republic', Stephen Hague had got a session drummer in to play the 'real drums' on the LP. This was a revelation and, again, is pretty shoddy treatment. Steve went along with it, rather than upset anyone.
Not only is this bad behaviour (this time from Hague, rather than Bernard & Hooky), it's almost unbelievable.
They got a session drummer in to replace arguably one of the finest drummers in rock music?! Madness.

Again, Bernard and Hooky probably should've been more supportive of Steve.

It's been said many times before but, had Rob been around, I'm sure that a lot of the problems could've been avoided.