NO: 09 MAR 1985 Tower Ballroom, Birmingham
Setlist
Sunrise, The Perfect Kiss, This Time Of Night, Elegia, Sooner Than You Think, Subculture, Leave Me Alone, Denial, Age Of Consent, Temptation, Confusion
Soundcheck (45 minutes): Confusion (instrumental), The Perfect Kiss (instrumental), This Time Of Night (instrumental), Subculture, Elegia
Sunrise
Fans shout out 'Peter Hook' like a football chant.
TJ: "Barney was in a very good mood throughout, didn't seem too concerned about the feedback they were getting at times. It was actually quite a weird one as the sound shifted quite a lot during the set - Sunrise sounded like bubbling monitors, we were right down the front in front of Barney and you could hear the monitor mix louder than you could the PA sound. "
BS: (at 0:39) "Thank you, thank you."
Tapes feature "That Bird"...who shouts out something between 0:35-0:38 and calls out 'Barney!' at 0:45. Who is she??? C'mon, one of you must know! Maybe not an ex-wife or something like that... :)
The vocals come in pretty late.
BS: "Thank you, thank you."
A bit of tuning before the Order gear up for their next number, which is The Perfect Kiss, with a particular punter trilling away.
lyric: "Tonight I should have stayed at home/ Playing with my big fat cock."
Some distortion in the 6:40 - 6:50 range.
This Time Of Night is next.
TJ continues:
"It was sorted out for Perfect Kiss but the bass sequencers went haywire at the start of This Time of Night. Barney missed the first vocal line of the song because he was gesticulating at Oz to take the top off the sequencers, which were spitting through the foldback."
Elegia
BS: "Well, there's a few poets in the audience, this next one is very...quiet...and beautiful...just like all of you...until we start playing again." (thanks to TJ for the correction)
Bass levels really high on this, probably causing whoever's manning the mixing desk a bit of consternation.
BS: (gesturing to roadie) "Semi-acoustic guitar." (addressing the audience) "Oi, does anybody know how to tune it?"
Sooner Than You Think follows.
TJ adds:
Subculture ad-libbed lyric, "I like fucking in my sleep, when it gets late at night, I often have a wank when my penis gets up tight, I sit around by day, thinking about womens' legs, I often think that women are just like brown eggs" (typical Bernard rhyme!!)
BS: "Thank you, thank you very much (off-mic) Here we go."
(imitating midlands English)
BS: "Can't understand this gibberish y'all talk over here...down here, mate, down here, down here, down here. I can understand 'fucking', I know what that means. Does anyone know? Something that we don't get very much of."
TJ's commentary:
"He was pissing himself after Sooner Than You Think over some of the comments at the front, the best of which was "play something YOU know!"
Subculture
BS: "The song's called fucking. It's all about Birmingham."
lyric: "I help them, how they fuck. My penis gets so tight. I sit around by day. Thinking how to get between these legs. I often think...[can't make out last bit] I...[something]...
Sings "fuck" instead of "shaft".
BS: "I want him to tell you, punter, punter."
Barney plucks one of the strings on his guitar.
Leave Me Alone
Amazing Hooky intro, too bad it was a bungle.
Here's what TJ has to say about it:
"Hooky's bass on Leave Me Alone was on the wrong string for the first 30 seconds! Only time I've ever seen him play it on the 6-string, from memory he pinged a string in Sooner and it was still being fixed. Bass is back to normal on Age of Consent though."
Barney ends it all with a wanky guitar flourish.
BS: "Pretty flashy, pretty flashy."
Denial
Hooky calls out "ready" off-mic.
Drums speed up as the song starts.
lyric: "Believe me, this feeling don't last forever."
Midway, Bernard namechecks Killing Joke.
TJ explains:
"During Denial, the "Killing Joke" reference was to the audience's reaction to his riffing stance during the guitar part, Hooky was laughing at him pulling a face."
Cut between songs.
Age Of Consent
BS: "Don't like that one. So we're gonna to play this one instead."
Lots of feedback during the first part of the song, and a bit later as well.
Bernard yells out, "Bastard" before the 'I lost you..." bit.
Segues into Temptation.
TJ comments:
"The Age of Consent/Temptation segue was interesting because the lights changed at the end of Age of Consent, everyone thought that was it as the lights went down momentarily, then we recognised the sequencer."
BS: "We'd like to dedicate this song to Birmingham...and all the people who live there, including everyone from Glasgow. Whoo! I'm not a cunt, I'm not a cunt, I'm not familiar with hardly nobody."
[not sure what he's saying during the last bit]
Huge feedback squall at end.
BS: "Thank you good night."
BS: "Thank you. More sincere than Howard Jones and twice as cheap... I believe that of anyone." (again, thanks to TJ for the assist)
I asked whether Howard Jones was on the bill. TJ replied with the following:
"Nope, this one was opened by the Stockholm Monsters. Barney was taking the piss out of Howard Jones because the Jones thing had criticised New Order in print the week before, saying they just walked on stage and didn't thank the crowd for applause."
Cut here.
BS: "This is for the ones who stayed. Could any of the road crew give me a bass guitar? Bass guitar? (to the audience) Do we still know what one is?"
Confusion
BS: "This one features Mr. Arther Baker. Terry, where is he? In our presence tonight. 1-2-3-4."
Bernard (or is it Hooky) yells out "Terry". Bernard's vocals are raised about two or three lines.
Appears to slow down near the end, right before they Heys! and the synth sweeps. Ends in a sampled bass loop.
Soundcheck
The old Anthologies listing (the date is incorrectly listed as 26 APR 85 on that page) which lists a 14 minute long soundcheck version of Elegia, which unfortunately isn't present on the soundcheck tracks that are online from Fractured/Image.
Confusion
A few breaks in the tape at the start, as Hooky can be heard to say "Ready" and call out Steve's name.
The Perfect Kiss follows.
This Time Of Night
BS: ...some of your two sequences there. [sentence I can't make out] Oh, [something]...through the foldback, Ed. Put...through the foldback. Uh, I thought it was going to improve the...sequencers...load the sequencres.."
[monstrously loud sequencer levels through the PA, quickly quieted down]
BS: "Hold on, hold on boss."
BS: "A bit more bass through the snare drum, Ed."
sings "We are"...and makes another comment directed towards Ed.
Features Bernard's axe playing the main guitar line to this song.
BS: "One two, one two. You have to take that down... One two, one two...take the sequencers down..." And more 'one twos' and level-related comments. Would take too long to note all the directions down, so I'll exclude these from the rest of the writeup.
Somebody yells out and Hooky responds.
Subculture
Bernard complains about the intro being too bassy and makes other comments regarding the sound.
Hooky prefaces the second take with a bit of bass...this time there are vocals.
Elegia
Bernard complains about a really loud voice coming through the monitors. It sounds there was a bit of an audience for the soundcheck.
Hooky makes a comment at the start.
There's a great bit where Barney comments, "My sequencer's gone really out of it. what's gone wrong? Arrrrgggghhh!"
BS: "Our fault, our fault."
PH: "Sorry, sorry."
punter: "I'll go get your prizes!"
BS: "It's a change isn't it. Gives you lot some confidence it yerself."
PH: "God knows you need it."
A bit later on...
BS: "We've been out of the club circuit for a long time, you know." (as he's tuning up).
Rest of what he and Hooky say here I can't make out, though Hooky too starts complaining about the sound of the Emulators.
At the end Hooky asks, "You all right, love?" Mate replies to the affirmative.
Reviews on NOOL
This is the gig that Mick Middles alleges they did a two song encore for the cleaners half an hour after everyone had left. No they didn't! The encore was one song, Confusion, about 15 minutes after leaving the stage. Most people had gone but there were enough still there to appreciate it, including a taper or two.
Source: NewOrderOnline.com (Tim)
Parts 1 and 2 of Neil Hollins' recording (AUD #3)
Versions
AUD #1 SDw - Sony WM-D6c / ECM-909 ANA1-ishBoth tapes feature "That Bird" ...who shouts out something between 0:35-0:38 and calls out 'Barney!'
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