NO: 26 OCT 1981 The Ritz - Manchester


Setlist

Hurt (instrumental), In A Lonely Place, Dreams Never End, Truth,
Procession, Senses, Chosen Time, Denial, Everything's Gone Green

Playlist (Fractured/Image)
 
 
From STG posting by 'snotters':

This gig sees New Order as noise terrorists! Just about everything that
can go wrong, does go wrong here. The first couple of minutes of Hurt
(debuted here at the Ritz) has to do battle with the hapless dj still
playing music over the p.a.! Then the "hum" prevalent throughout a lot
of the gig starts at the beginning of In A Lonely Place - an annoying
hum going through the p.a. which the tape picks up! Barney eventually
suggests to the sound guy to turn off ALL the lights - that seems to do
the trick.

There's a classic Gillian-related blooper - she plays Senses in the
wrong key, for the duration of the entire song!

But in typical New Order style they turn disaster into triumph by
playing what is in my opinion one of THE most powerful live performances
they ever gave, in Everything's Gone Green. Well, a piece of sonic
experimentalism loosely based on Everything's Gone Green, at least. It's
so powerful it hurts!! It thunders along relentlessly for 15 minutes
like a juggernaut - play this one LOUD and see what I mean!

The quality, despite the p.a. problems, is in my view pretty good - on a
par with Hull 82 I would say. Plus this tape has some amusing audience
banter (including some booing at the end of the set - surely a first for
a New Order recording?!).

And craigie* has made a copy of his master available, which is even better
than the Snotters' version.
 
photographer unknown, shared by Vitor Manuel
 
My notes:

As relayed by 'snotters', you can still here snippets of the PA music
over the intro of Hurt, which is debuted here.

(Snotters) Punters at 1:40:

girl:  "I'm cutting now[out?]"
guy1:  "You're staying..."
guy2:  "Get out of the fucking way..."
guy3:  "We're all piggybacked..."
guy2:  "I know."

Great improvised melodica, it's jazz-like in feel.

Buzzing really starts up between Hurt and In A Lonely Place.

(Snotters)

guy:  "[something] match...drum-fest..."
guy:  "background noise in the f..."  There's a brief edit in the tape
at 0:29.

The craigie* version has different banter here.

BS:  "Maybe it's in the foldback..."  Somebody then imitates a radio
dispatcher's distorted muttering.  Synth fires off randomly, too.

Incredibly enough, Bernard sings through all the din.

(at the end we have this interesting conversation between the band and
the audience)

PH:  "Jon...(?)...Anything like this is with the lights, this happened
on the last one...[muttering, hard-to-decipher]...geez"

(Jon = Jon Hurst?)

BS:  "All the hu... the lights can take all the lights out."

BS(?):  "I'm real sorry."

PH:  "Sorry."

BS:  "Try again...it's not going up front."

voice:  "No, it's going up front...but there's a bit on the, on this synth
as well...maybe the lights are triggering the synth, being real sensitive."
[presumably the crew handling the lighting rig]

BS:  "I'm real sorry about this."

Punter comments, "Like a fucking science class, this is, innit?"

You can hear this on both versions, louder on the Snotters version,
as the person who may have said this may have been very close to the
taper.  On the craigie* version, this person sounds a few feet away
to the left.

Dreams Never End

Still more buzzing.

BS:  "Just break the lights, Rob, just forget them." 
That seems to quiet the buzzing.

(at end)

BS:  "Will you turn the back lights up a bit, please."

punter #1 (on both versions, more distant on craigie*):  "Wot was that?"
punter #2 (satiated):  "That'll do".

Truth

More problems.  Gillian fires off the intro sequence to Hurt instead,
and has to switch back to the right one.

Bernard injects a few extra whoops, the antecedent of what is now
a somewhat annoying vocal idiosyncrasy of his.

Procession

A bit of guitar tuning before the synth starts in.

punter:  "This is the new one". 

lyrics:  "Hits me where it hurts me, hits me where it hurts me, so
hard."

Boing effects, and more tuning.

Senses

As reported, Gillian's synth bit is completely off.

Yet more tuning, and a brief edit between tracks.

Chosen Time

And still more tuning after this one.  Punter says "Ceremony", but
instead gets the pounding drums of Denial.  The synths go out of
tune again for a bit.

Unique bass-and-drums ending, very nice!

Everything's Gone Green

This version is almost sixteen minutes long, and has a popping/gurgling
bass sequencer effect I've not heard elsewhere.

(Snotters)
punter1:  "Thought this is the long one."
punter2:   "Eh?"
punter1:  [repeating himself] "Thought this is the long one."

Very good punishing, aggressive version.

punter (at 13:54):  "I want that...[mumble}"

Most people cheer, but somebody very close to the taper (if not the
taper himself) emits a loud "Boo".  Not sure if this is heartfelt or
not.  Music comes over the PA just as the tape fades out on Snotters'
version, where craigie*'s version fades out right before that.

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