http://www.vanityfair.com/onlin.../new-order-amfar-concertBritish band New Order is known for its inescapable dance music—that quintessential 1980s sound. After years of on-and-off performances, they began playing together in 2011 (spurred on by concerts to raise money for an ill friend) and their popularity soared, with tours in different parts of the world and a performance at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012. The post-punk rock band performed at amfAR’s Inspiration Gala in New York on Tuesday, playing some of their biggest hits, including “Bizarre Love Triangle,” “Your Silent Face,” and “Blue Monday.” VF Daily sat down with the group, including founding members Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, to talk about how they began this new chapter together, fans’ thirst for their music, dirty politics, the continuing fight against AIDS, and how they are different from One Direction.
VF Daily: How did it come about that you ended up performing at the amfAR Inspiration Gala?
Bernard Sumner: Obviously, it goes without saying it’s a really good cause, there’s a worldwide epidemic of AIDS, and amfAR is trying to find a cure by 2020. And I believe that one guy has been cured already, in Berlin, and a child, in Mississippi. There’s a big trial going on in France. And, you know, there are lots of other things that are worthy causes as well, there’s lots of illness that perhaps pharmaceutical companies don’t fund because there’s not a great deal of profit in it.
I think that amfAR is setting a good example by picking up the battle and raising funds privately, and trying to find a cure for AIDS. And if they set that example with AIDS, then perhaps other diseases, as well, can do the same. Because, you know, governments don’t really give a shit about some things, and pharmaceutical companies are mostly interested—not completely, but mostly interested—in what makes the most profit. You know, like diet pills, or Phil takes a drug to primp your libido—what’s it called? That thing you take, it begins with “V”?
At these events, amfAR always says the goal is to someday not have to have these fund-raisers anymore, to cure the disease.
Sumner: Well, the day that they do cure it is going to be the biggest party of all, and we want to be invited.
Your band came to prominence in the early 80s, when AIDS was really becoming an epidemic. Does that sort of make you the perfect band to play an amfAR benefit?
Sumner: At the beginning of the 80s, I think it was just burgeoning, wasn’t it? And then it became more prevalent throughout the 80s, and people didn’t know much about it, where it came from. No, I don’t think it does, because it’s not really stopped.
It really became a bigger issue after you started the band.
Sumner: It did, yeah, but it wasn’t our fault.
Phil Cunningham: We can be held responsible for a lot, but not AIDS.
Sumner: We were a bit promiscuous in those days, of course. But we didn’t start it. But, hopefully, we’re going to help finish it.
Did the band formally re-unite in 2011?
Sumner: No. We never really split up. It was a continuation, really. We just took a break. We just had a bit of a break, really. And then we started working again, together. Gillian rejoined the band, and we’ve had a second life that’s been very successful. We actually started off by doing a couple of concerts for a friend of ours who is from New York, a guy called Michael Shamberg [Michael H. Shamberg], who directed all our early videos. We were on a small, independent label in Manchester called Factory Records, and Michael was Factory New York, and he got very, very ill. It was a brain virus. The first couple of concerts we did, we did as a fund-raiser for Michael. And so, thanks to Michael, really, it pulled us all together again. And then those concerts kind of grabbed a lot of attention.
Since you started playing together again, is there anything you would call a high point?
Gillian Gilbert: The Olympics, I think. That was exciting.
Cunningham: It’s been really exciting visiting some countries we’ve never been to, as well. We played this massive festival in Mexico, the Corona Festival.
Sumner: I think in South America people are very, uh, they have no inhibitions, and wear their hearts on their sleeves—what’s the word? They’re very expressive, demonstrative.
Cunningham: I think they’re really hungry for music as well, and it’s all new to them, in a way. I was chatting to someone in Chile, and she was saying when we first went there, you’d be lucky if you had one big band through there a year, but now it’s different. So people are just like children, really, with the music, they want to drink it in.
Sumner: So what you’re saying, Phil, is we go down well not because we’re good, but because they’re desperate. [All laugh]
Sumner: We played at the Formula One circuit in Sao Paulo, and that was amazing, because when we drove from the stage, the car took us down the Formula One circuit at 200 miles an hour.
Sumner: But that was a great place to play. The audience were really up for it.
Cunningham: It was like being in One Direction. [All laugh] Well, obviously not. They take drugs, and we don’t do that.
Tom Chapman: Wrong Direction.
Do you find the fan reception is better than you expected, now that you’re touring? People here tonight are so excited, they were reeling off their favorite songs.
Sumner: It’s weird, people used to want your autograph, now what they want to do is to take your photograph with an iPhone. And sometimes they’ll pop their arm around you to hold their iPhone, they’re shaking when they take it. And that is strange, because you think, if only you really knew what I was like, you wouldn’t. [Laughs] So they put you up on a pedestal, really, I suppose. But a lot of people very kindly say that the band provided the soundtrack to my life, you know, and that’s the ultimate compliment, I think. As long as it wasn’t a horror-film soundtrack.
