Old Tricks for New Order

While taking it nice and easy during a week long break from work, I had the sadness to read an interview with the original four members of New Order conducted to promote their latest compilation album.

Sad because it seems Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner have still not buried the hatchet from whatever petty squabble caused the break up of the band a couple of years ago. Interviewed separately (Bernard with Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert), they share a few barbs with Hooky calling his old chum "a twat" and Sumner talking over his disappointment of the bassist's supposed exploiting of the history of their bands and the Factory label.

First things first, as a huge fan of Joy Division/New Order, I too found Hooky forming a band to play the old material a little bit off. But that's just me - it's his music and I'm not going to say a man should be denied the chance to make a wedge. After all, nobody is forcing me to go watch a sub-karaoke version of New Dawn Fades.

And if anything, Hooky could also respond with the fact that the band are promoting yet another compilation. I mean, really - for Joy Division we already have Substance, the Heart and Soul box set from a few years ago and some "Best Of" that was rushed out on the back of the Control movie. New Order has Substance, The Best Of, Singles and International. Plus the Retro box set that seemed to have been compiled to piss off as many fans as possible. Surely knocking out more of the same, using the gimmick of putting material of both bands on the same album for the first time, is equally as shameless a mining of the past as getting some of your mates from the pub to churn out Unknown Pleasures to the punters.

At times like this, what we have to remember is the music. The various members of our favourite bands can crap on their legacy with their rows and reissues, but before we let it get to us, we need to just play the songs. A run through of Lowlife or Technique or anything from Substance is enough to allay our fears and prove that, yes, New Order really were one of the best bands of their or any time.