We received a promo folding card reproducing the artwork of the CD, doors opened and we succeeded in running to the front of the stage, even if that meant that I didn't see some stairs and funnily ran virtually on air for endless seconds before falling down to the floor (with no consequences luckily, and immediately getting up), but that earned me an applause from the few already inside and it was worth it, since I don't think there have been many concerts in the last 14 years where you could see New Order so amazingly close. The support bands (from Manchester, of course): Hanky Park make a very positive light guitar pop (but it's not Britpop), inserting sometimes great bass and drums, the rhythm section giving a good flow to the tune. Nothing special and nowhere near to the amazing excellence of Gabrielle's Wish or Doves (who supported New Order in 1998), but pleasant enough. Elbow play something more original, the melodies are rather epic, but they don't become boring like, for example, Manic Street Preachers; the instrumentation is intense, the guitarist especially has some talent. They have some intuition and talent.
And now the band we came to see: New Order, introduced by Alan Wise as in the 1998 concerts, after a dedication to Rob Gretton they started with Atmosphere. Billy Corgan has been a discreet presence, didn't have any of the protagonisms I feared and played like a normal session musician, so respect to him, and especially to the very young looking Phil Cunningham who did a great job on keyboard and guitar. Him and Corgan together didn't succeed in replacing Gillian, and this confirmed just how important she is to the sound of the band, the sound was definitely not the same as if she'd been there, but played a great performance anyway, and one of the reasons is just they didn't pretend to replace her sound but created one of their own. Even more than the fabulous Barney and Steve, hero of the night has been Hooky, a true rock beast jumping from side to side of the stage and playing with amazing energy, clearly having fun.
It's been exciting hearing completely new songs to us, now we're happy we didn't hear the whole promo. Close Range especially is a very powerful song, with excellent strong rhythm and a great ending by Hooky. I don't know how it was behind us, but there's been a problem in a couple of songs with the mixing of Bernard's voice. A mixer should be placed in the middle of the audience to realize what we hear just in case to adjust something, but this time I think the mixer guy worked at the side of the stage with headphones, so he didn't realize Barney's voice sometimes has been covered when the bass and three guitars were playing at the same time, at least that's what it was heard at the front, where we also had a hard time surviving because of the pogo, the crowd surfing and the pressure of the fans, all part of the charm anyway. The best moments of the concerts were Crystal, which live is even better, a great vocal performance by Barney, and old rediscoverings Love Vigilantes and Your Silent Face, the unexpected Ruined In A Day... I also adored Turn My Way, Isolation, True Faith... well, everything really, maybe except the messy guitar stuff played by Corgan in the final part of Blue Monday, but we appreciate the effort anyway. I think the Apollo concert will remain untouchable but this has been anyway one of their best concerts ever (probably Hooky's best performance), maybe the most exciting because we were so close to the band and heard the new songs. I hope the video gets released also because a camera man filmed us as well. Of course they have no intention to do it, apart from maybe, but just maybe, putting something on the Internet (reliable source).
After the gig that kind bouncer gave me Barney's set list, here it is:
Atmosphere
Slow Jam
Crystal
Regret
Love Vigilantes
Isolation
KW1
Turn My Way
Close Range
Touched
Bizarre Love Triangle
True Faith
Temptation
Love Will Tear Us Apart
____________________
Ruined in A Day
60 Miles An Hour
Blue Monday
KW1 is Your Silent Face (acronym for KraftWerk 1 because it was inspired by the German electro pioneers) and Touched obviously is Touched By The Hand Of God. The last three songs are the encore.
After buying the T shirt we went to Cream without going to the Grafton Room, were there was the "fake" aftershow party for the audience, a clever but cruel invention, I hope someone of the band passed there as well. I was happy to see such an historic venue. There were projections of the Get Ready artwork, of the New Order logo and promo pictures of the band and cards with the red bar. We met Arthur Baker (a nice smiling giant), Billy Corgan (who was also kind and kept an admirable low profile at the party as well), Mani from Primal Scream appears in a picture taken with Bernard, spotted were also Phil Cunningham and Bobby Gillespie. Andrew Robinson confirmed himself as the friendliest of the bunch. From what I've seen, if someone must replace Rob Gretton I'm happy it's him, he's a classic down to earth Manchester guy, a bit like a less eccentric Tony Wilson (hopefully with better businness intuition...). The music played was techno underground, very loud. Only negative thing of the whole night (apart from not meeting Hooky), I lost the wristband somewhere, it's a pity because it didn't look anonymous like the average, but featured the New Order logo. Of course this doesn't make the experience we had less glorious and brilliant!
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