(Photo by Paul Husband) A Certain Ratio, commonly abbreviated as ACR, is an influential English post-punk band that originated in Flixton, Greater Manchester, in 1977. The initial formation featured Peter Terrell (guitar, electronics) and Simon Topping (vocals, trumpet), with Jez Kerr (bass guitar, vocals), Martin Moscrop (trumpet, guitar), Donald Johnson (drums), and Martha Tilson (vocals) joining shortly thereafter. In 1979, the band had the distinction of being among the first acts to debut on Tony Wilson’s iconic Factory Records, with their single “All Night Party” produced by Martin Hannett. During their early years with Factory, ACR achieved impressive success, securing seven Top Ten UK independent releases—most notably “Flight” and “Waterline”—and they initiated their album collection with “The Graveyard and the Ballroom” (1980).

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band transitioned through phases with major label A&M and Rob Gretton’s independent label Robs Records. During these periods, ACR’s activity varied. They made a notable return with their ninth studio album, “Mind Made Up” (2008), and have remained active in performance since, with their extensive back catalogue being reissued through a partnership with Mute Records. In September 2020, they released “ACR Loco”, their first new studio album in twelve years, followed by three EPs titled “A”, “C”, and “R” in 2021. In 2023, they released their eleventh studio album, aptly named “1982”.

Today, A Certain Ratio has unveiled a new remix by Emperor Machine—a moniker for close friend and collaborator Andy Meecham—of their track “Constant Curve”. This track will be part of their forthcoming 4-track EP, set to be released both on limited edition 12” vinyl and digitally on 22 September 2023 via Mute.

This remix sees Meecham revisiting “Constant Curve”, a song from the 1982 album that he originally co-wrote and contributed keyboards and electronic percussion to.

Explaining the process, Meecham says: “After the success of our previous collaboration, Martin [Moscrop] asked if I would record some synths for a new track. I loved it on first listen, so obviously I said yes. While working and writing some synths, I thought this is a great track, but it’s too short—it needs a Pettibone-style extended Dub mix, a proper extended 12” version with Donald [Johnson]’s drums more upfront in the mix, dubbed out guitars, and new vocal edit sections. I suggested this idea to the band, and thankfully they gave me free rein.”

The track can be found below.

The EP follows their latest album “1982” (released in spring this year), and includes three newly commissioned remixes of tracks from the album – Emperor Machine’s reworking, Werkha mix of SAMO, and Manchester producer Jade Parker’s remix of “Waiting on a Train” (feat. Ellen Beth Abdi & Chunky), alongside a brand-new track “Day by Day”, written and recorded with Ellen Beth Abdi.

A Certain Ratio recently announced a tour that celebrates 45 years of the band’s career. The dates will see A Certain Ratio perform two separate sets each night: the first set will represent the early years of their career from their Factory releases and A&M. The band will then reconvene for a set representing ACR from the early to mid-‘90s to 2024 including unreleased forthcoming material.

• 10 November – London, Moth Club – SOLD OUT
• 11 November – Preston, The Ferret
• 12 November – Glasgow, Stereo
• 15 November – Gateshead, The Sage
• 16 November – Reading, Face Bar
• 18 November – York, The Crescent
• 25 November – Brugge (BE), Cactus
• 2 December – Liverpool, 24 Kitchen Street
• 10 December – Manchester, Band on the Wall

A Certain Ratio will also be appearing at the following festivals:

• 19 August – Luna Festival, Coimbra, Portugal
• 26 August – Shambala Festival, Northamptonshire
• 27 August – Wrexfest, Wrexham
• 19 November – Shiiine On Weekender, Minehead
• 24 November – BBMix, Paris (FR)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Back in the 80s I was a teenager who grow up with Dark/Cold-Wave and Post-Punk music. I bought a lot of records mainly from British formations. Dark and desperate music symbolising that era. One of these bands were The March Violets. Songs like “Religious As Hell”, “Walk Into The Sun”, “Snake Dance”, “Children On Stun”, “Fodder” and many others kept my dark thoughts alive. Forty years later I still have these songs in mind and I was pleased to hear The March Violets are still alive and kicking. Jungle Records recently released a massive collector’s box  featuring five CD’s. “The Palace Of Infinite Darkness” brings us back to the golden years of the band. And there’s more good news as The Violets are actually busy working on new songs which will be released later on this year. Core members Tom Ashton and Rosie Garland kindly accepted to answer my questions.

(Picture credits by Bobby Talamine / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: The March Violets saw the daylight in 1981. More than forty years later what do you still recognise from the early musicians you were at that time?

Tom: That’s a great question! I’d like to think that although 4 decades have passed I still retain my open-minded approach to doing music. It’s not easy to ignore all the influences that creep in over the years and The Violets had a very independent outlook as to what we were trying to achieve with our music. The new album has turned out to surpass our expectations and ticks all the boxes that I wanted to carry over to this decade.

Rosie: I recognise my determination to do things, and not let life drift by. I had a drive to create, which has never gone away. In fact, it’s intensified over the years. I don’t put things off till tomorrow. I say yes to opportunities, and seek out ways to grow and develop as a writer and performer. Life is precious… and short. Do it all, and do it now.

Q: What did you keep in mind from the 80s which were real special, dark, and historical years and what has been the impact on your music and lyrical themes?

Rosie: I’ve always been a cuckoo in the nest. I write about outsiders, whoever they might be. People who won’t (or can’t) squeeze into the one-size-fits-all templates on offer and the friction that occurs when they try. I know this comes from being an outsider myself! We all have cobwebbed dungeons in the psyche. They are frightening places, and we are sold the lie that if we paint our world pastel shades everything will be all right. We ignore personal darkness at our psychological peril. Far wiser, in my opinion, is to explore the haunted castle and face those fearsome ghosts…

Tom: For me it wasn’t just an 80s thing at all. A lot of bands that influenced my playing in The Violets were products of the late 70s. Joy Division, Bauhaus, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks etc. What was great was how we took those Punk and Post-Punk influences and tried to create something new and definitely dark! I was obsessed with VHS horror back then (Video Nasties, I had them all!) and some of my ideas came from the music in those mainly Italian films, Fabio Frizzi, Goblin etc.

Q: Your hometown Leeds was a prolific ground for legendary Post-Punk formations. Is there any specific reason to it and what did you keep in mind from the scene in Leeds and the UK?

Tom: In the early 80s Leeds was not the shiny and affluent city it is now. Back then the Victorian buildings in the centre were still covered in black industrial age soot from thousands of chimneys. I think that’s the image I’ve been seeing in my head as I’ve been working on this next album as a way to capture those feelings I had when I first arrived there. I also loved the sense of community the scene had back then. There was a tangible feeling of being in the right place and time, which has stayed with me too.

Rosie: Tom is absolutely right. Leeds in the 1980s was shabby, chaotic and poor. Which is a fair description of we four Violets: children on stun most of the time. The musical importance of the North can be summed up in a quote from the late great Tony Wilson: ‘In the North it rains and rains. And yet we managed to produce the best music, the Industrial Revolution, the trade union movement, the Communist Manifesto and even the goddam computer. Down South, where the Sun never sets, you took all our money and what did you produce? Chas and fucking Dave.’ (Tony Wilson, 2007)

Q: Considering important (r)evolutions like internet, social media, streaming platforms, modern technology and equipment… it all looks that different from the 80s spirit. How did you experience all these evolutions and what are the pros and cons?

Tom: Back when The Violets started it cost us an arm and a leg to do our recording, even on a relatively low budget. We had to be reasonably well rehearsed and very focused on what we wanted to achieve. This is great discipline for a band and one of the biggest differences that technology has brought to the table for musicians (since home recording is now such good quality) is how to not get pulled into floating on the luxury of that technology. It’s so much better to bang your stuff out in the moment and release it warts and all. Back then we had no choice.

I love that the internet has now empowered bands. You can promote yourself and communicate with fans on a direct basis anywhere in the world! Wonderful, except everyone is doing it and you now need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Having said that it is still preferable to having the few gatekeepers we had to deal with in order to get noticed in the early 80s. We were one of the lucky ones!

Q: Your most prolific years and biggest success all happened in the 80s. How come?

Rosie: Sure, the 80s were a successful time for The March Violets, culminating in John Hughes’ ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’. It doesn’t get any better than featuring in a Hollywood movie! However, after The Violets, none of us stopped creating. Over the past 40 years, I’ve had three novels published with Harper Collins, plus a slew of award-winning poetry collections. Plus I’ve toured the USA, UK & Europe with queer cabaret. We are artists and musicians for life.

Tom: As Rosie says, we never stopped creating after The Violets folded. I played guitar in Clan Of Xymox for their US tour in support of the “Phoenix”-album. Got into FOH engineering and toured a lot in that capacity. I also spent a good few years scoring low budget horror movies culminating in the rather fab undiscovered jewel Accidental Exorcist in 2016.

Q: I think there was a real kind of unique 80s spirit. How would you explain it to kids today?

Rosie: All four Violets were at college. The Leeds Universities and colleges were massively important, bringing a diverse group of creative people together in a social environment without parental controls. The spread of Punk in the UK was initially through the universities. Also, I guess that if a band from your city makes it you subconsciously think well, if they can, why can’t we?

Tom: I’ve been out on tour in the USA a lot recently with the band Vision Video and I can actually attest that, having been there at the time, the spirit of the 80s is well and truly alive and kicking out there in the audience. It’s wonderful to see!

Q: Jungle Records recently released the massive box “The Palace Of Infinite Darkness” revealing next to the band’s biggest hits and singles still ‘Unreleased Rarities’. Who got the idea of this box and the unreleased songs? How did it feel getting back to the origins of the band and rediscovering these ‘rarities’?

Tom: The idea to do it actually came from Jungle Records, who we’ve worked with a lot over the years. Once we’d delved into the BBC Sessions vinyl album and “Play Loud Play Purple”-singles vinyl it made so much sense to dig deeper and see what we could find for the fans out there. It’s been a wonderful experience to go back and find all this stuff that never saw the light of day and shine it in public.

Rosie: Yes! I found a stash of 80s music cassettes down the back of a bookcase. Listening to them, we recovered songs we thought were lost forever. One example is “Virgin Sheep” from 1982. We’re recording it for the first time. It’s an example of how we are channelling March Violets’ history and bringing to it everything we’ve learned over the past 40 years.

Q: The box is also featuring BBC Recordings for the legendary John Peel sessions. What did it mean back then and especially getting in touch with John Peel?

Tom: John Peel gave me a huge chunk of my musical education like many others of my generation. On weekdays, aged 14 I was already in bed at 10 pm with the radio/cassette recorder under the covers, headphones on, listening raptly to his show until midnight. He would play a new album, side one and side two, without speaking between tracks because he knew we were all out there taping it! The name angel of the airwaves doesn’t even come close to describing how we felt about him. I finally got to meet him and his family when I was working on one of his Meltdown festivals on the South Bank in 1999. It was wonderful to be able to thank him in person.

Rosie: The Violets were one of many bands who thrived because of Peel’s enthusiasm and eclectic tastes. Whatever the musical style, all he demanded was it was good. We owe him everything. Simon sent him a copy of our demo tape tucked into a pot of Violets. Right away we got a phone call from him, inviting us to Maida Vale Studio. The rest is history. 

Q: I think it’s nearly impossible doing an interview without evoking Andrew Eldritch. How important has he been in the band’s history?

Rosie: Andrew supported The March Violets from the start. He even came in to KG Studios and helped us mix “Grooving In Green” and “Steam”, and we shared the bill with The Sisters on a number of occasions –including our first gig, in Keighley, Yorkshire.

Tom: I was in the Sisters briefly in ‘82 and played a couple of shows on guitar. I know he seems to have a bad rep out there but we always got on and frankly The Sisters at that moment were absolutely fantastic (not because of me lol)! A truly great band and off to do big stuff for sure no matter what. I was asked to join but it would have meant my leaving The Violets for sure and it was just too awkward to make the jump. We hung out a fair bit, lending each other records and watching movies on VHS at Village Place through the night. Stoned as idiots of course!

Q: What’s your vision about the contemporary music industry and underground scene? What do you feel when listening to young Dark-Wave / Post-Punk bands an do you sometimes recognize yourself in these bands?

Rosie: It’s encouraging to see new Post-Punk & Dark-Wave bands who honour the past whilst creating their own unique take on the scene. In fact it’s vital. Without new bands and new music, a musical scene atrophies and becomes a fossil of itself. It’s the reason why The March Violets keep writing new material, too. We are not and will never become our own tribute band, only playing the old tracks.

Tom: There is so much good stuff out there now! As I said earlier I’ve been out playing bass guitar with Vision Video in the USA. We did over 80 shows in 2022 and it’s been a revelation seeing and performing with so many great artists out on the road. Off the top of my head, Tears For The Dying, Entertainment!, Panic Priest, Secret Shame, Giallows, Bullet Ballet, Kaelen Mikla…I could go on… As far as recognizing myself in these artists, that’s too much self-ego, I’m just happy to be sharing the same dark outlook and dream and helping to translate it along with them.

Q: The March Violets are actually preparing a live tour. What might we expect and who’s coming to see you on stage today?

Rosie: Sure, we’ll play the classics. Our fans love them and we love our fans! We’re also excited to premiere new songs. And we also have numbers from the 80s no one has heard since 1982…

Tom: Yep all the classics and most definitely a couple of new numbers from the as yet unnamed 2023 album that we are currently working on. The line up for the tour in the UK is especially interesting as Vision Video are on the bill and we are thinking that we will see a fantastic mix of the old guard plus all the new acolytes to make the perfect crossover audience.

Q: You already mentioned working on a new album so can you give us more details?

Rosie: Tom, William and myself spent January 2023 in Tom’s studio in Georgia, creating and recording brand new material. It’s been so exciting: two of the most supportive, encouraging and talented guys I’ve ever had the honour to work with. Songs have been pouring out of us. Simply put, it’s been a revelation.

Tom: Yes, we just had a lot of fun in the studio and now I’ve got my nose down with writing/recording guitars and mixing for release later this year. As Rosie said, it has been wonderful to be creating under these circumstances and I think it will show in the new material. A new horizon for The March Violets!

Q: Ian Dury’s song “Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll” became a famous quote connected to musicians. Also to The March Violets?

Rosie: Yes! To quote the title of a great movie, the 80s were “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”. I’d always known I wasn’t like other girls, and came out in 1982. I had a gay old time exploring my sexuality. Still do!

Tom: Yes we have had our Rock ‘N’ Roll moments for sure, especially during the glorious 80s! I have many fond memories of parties and just general craziness that happened. Thankfully now we are more likely to be recording in slippers and drinking cups of tea. Maybe.

Q: If you look back to this amazing career, what comes directly into mind as most precious moment? And are you missing a few things you would like to have accomplished?

Tom: I can’t really imagine wanting anything to have worked out differently. It’s been a full life and I’ve met so many good people through music and this is going to keep on until I can no longer physically do it. Of course there are parts of the world I’d love to experience so here’s hoping we can get The Violets out to the Far East and South America and anywhere else that might have us!

Rosie: For me, a precious moment has to be getting back on stage in 2010, for the first time after throat cancer. I sang again, after fearing I’d never be able to. It was deeply emotional. As for goals – I have plenty. It’s important to have dreams, however may years pass. Right now, I’d love to play new cities and countries. Watch this space…

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside, and (briefly) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and James. Factory also ran The Haçienda nightclub, in partnership with New Order.

By 1992, the label’s two most successful bands caused the label serious financial trouble. The Happy Mondays were recording their troubled fourth album “Yes Please!” in Barbados and overspent their initial £150,000 budget with £230,000 reaching £380,000 in total. New Order from their side spent £430,000 on recording their comeback album “Republic”. London Records were interested in taking over Factory but the deal fell through when it emerged that, due to Factory’s early practice of eschewing contracts (New Order never had a formal contract with Factory), New Order rather than the label owned New Order’s back catalogue.

Factory Communications Ltd, the company formed in 1981, declared bankruptcy in November 1992. In 1994, Wilson attempted to revive Factory Records, in collaboration with London Records, as “Factory Too”. The first release was by Factory stalwarts the Durutti Column; the other main acts on the label were Hopper and Space Monkeys, and the label gave a UK release to the first album by Stephin Merritt’s side project the 6ths, Wasps’ Nests. A further release ensued: a compilation EP featuring previously unsigned Manchester acts East West Coast, the Orch, Italian Love Party, and K-Track. This collection of 8 tracks (2 per band) was simply entitled A Factory Sample Too (FACD2.02). The label was active until the late 1990s, latterly independent of London Records, as was “Factory Once”, which organised reissues of Factory material. Wilson founded a short-lived fourth incarnation, F4 Records, in the early 2000s.

Broken arms and drugs

Happy Mondays’ “Yes Please!” recordings are a story in itself. This was the fourth studio album by the Happy Mondays and Factory Records reckoned that following the succes of the non-album single “Judge Fudge”, the band deserved a budget of £150,000 for their next album, and as you read above, they didn’t spent £150,000, but £380,000 on their album.

After settling on producers Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, both members of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, Happy Mondays decamped to Blue Wave Studio in Saint Philip, Barbados in February 1992 where the sessions were plagued by a variety of issues. Frontman Shaun Ryder for instance developed a crack habit. A public relations representative from the band’s label Factory Records even had to issue a statement on Ryder’s behalf, denouncing his drug use. Dancer Bez from his side broke his arm three (!!) times. With little finished material and a lack of lyrics the band returned to the United Kingdom where Ryder was admitted into a detox centre. Recording continued for two weeks in May 1992 at Comfort’s Place Studio in Lingfield, Surrey, where Ryder did his vocals.

The album “Yes Please!” received mixed reviews from music critics. It did sell 50,000 copies by the end of the year but that wasn’t enough by far to keep Factory Records afloat. The band disbanded in 1993, and have reformed several times in subsequent decades.

Here’s some MTV coverage on the band’s “Yes Please!” from a time when the channel still was worth checking out.

And New Order?

They signed with London Records, the label that was initially going to save Factory Records. Apart from New Order also Morris and Gilbert separately signed with the label for their side project The Other Two, whose debut album was originally intended for release on Factory. “Republic”, released around the world in 1993, spawned the singles “Regret”, “Ruined in a Day”, “World”, and “Spooky”.

Tony Wilson made little money from Factory Records or the Haçienda

In the end Factory Records owner Tony Wilson made little money from Factory Records or the Haçienda, despite the enormous popularity and cultural significance of both endeavours. Both Factory Records and the Haçienda came to an abrupt end in the late 1990s.

Wilson died of a heart attack in Manchester’s Christie Hospital on 10 August 2007 aged 57 following kidney cancer for which he was unable to pay the treatment. A number of Wilson’s music industry friends, including former Happy Mondays manager Nathan McGough, their current manager Elliot Rashman and TV stars Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan, formed a fund to help pay for Wilson’s medical treatment.

Here’s a very rare interview with Wilson, one year before the label would fold followed by a splendid BBC documentary on Factory Records.

About New Order

New Order formed in Manchester, England, in 1980, founded by Bernard Sumner (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Peter Hook (bass) and Stephen Morris (drums), all former members of Joy Division, following the death of Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis on 18 May 1980. Keyboardist Gillian Gilbert joined shortly after. Joy Division had released two studio albums on Factory Records, “Unknown Pleasures” (1979) and “Closer” (1980); New Order continued on the same label, releasing “Movement” (1981), “Power, Corruption & Lies” (1983), “Low-Life” (1985), “Brotherhood” (1986) and “Technique” (1989). The 1983 single “Blue Monday” became the best-selling twelve-inch single of all time.

Factory Communications Ltd declared bankruptcy in November 1992 with debts exceeding two million pounds, driven substantially by two of its flagship acts overspending on recordings: Happy Mondays’ budget for “Yes Please!” rose to around 380,000 pounds recording in Barbados, while New Order spent roughly 430,000 pounds on its comeback album, “Republic,” ultimately released in May 1993 via London Records rather than Factory. A proposed takeover by London Records fell through when it emerged that, because Factory had operated without formal contracts, New Order owned its own back catalogue, leaving the label nothing to acquire. In 2025, New Order issued expanded archival reissues of its four Factory-era albums via Warner Music.

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As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

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(Photos and text by our UK correspondent Simon Helm) Original posters from The Factory club, along with the first steps of the label that housed Joy Division, New Order and Section 25, are being shown by Chelsea Space in Pimlico. Part of London Design Week, the show coincides with the release of special box sets celebrating the influential label.

Called “Use Hearing Protection FAC 1 – 50 / 40″ and curated by Jon Savage and Mat Bancroft, the show covers the period between 1978 and 1982. Among the exhibits are original sketches by Peter Saville, Factory Records letterhead, an invoice for a Joy Division performance, the original Factory Sampler record, and covers from releases by many Factory artists. It provides a concise overview of the origins of the label, which took shape in the immediate aftermath of punk.

The start

The entrance to the show features Situationist material from the heady days of May 1968 that influenced Tony Wilson. The first item that captures attention, though, is a copy of the original poster from the poorly attended Sex Pistols show at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. That 1976 performance inspired the legend that, although poorly attended, most of the attendees started a band. That list includes members of Buzzcocks, Joy Division and The Smiths.

The selection of merchandise available for sale at the venue includes Unknown Pleasures and Section 25 tea towels, “Use Hearing Protection” t-shirts, Factory badges and a keychain featuring the torch-carrying hound recognisable from the first New Order 12” single, “Ceremony.”

Designed by Peter Saville

A key presence in the exhibition is Peter Saville, the designer who shaped the look of Factory and created the iconic works reproduced in the merchandise. His use of found material and its reincorporation into the visual identity of Factory product is touched on, but in a more compact way than the extensive Peter Saville Show at London’s Design Museum. The show confirms that his eye and hand were integral to the way the label’s products were presented and appreciated.

Boxsets

The first box set to come out will be “Use Hearing Protection: Factory Records 1978-1979″. As well as four vinyl LPs, it will contain three posters, a short film, Factory stationery and an egg-timer design reproduced from the original Factory catalogue items. An included book will have photos by Kevin Cummins and interviews with Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton, Joy Division and others. It is released on 11 October 2019.

The second is “Factory: Communications 1978-1992“, which spans the label’s history. It will contain eight LPs with 63 tracks, including songs from New Order, Joy Division, Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Electronic, A Certain Ratio and Section 25. It was first released on CD in 2009 and comes out in the new format on 8 November 2019.

Use Hearing Protection FAC 1 – 50 / 40 continues at Chelsea Space until 26 October 2019.Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 11am-5pm and Saturdays 10am-4pm. Official site: chelseaspace.org.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Division made their television debut on Tony Wilson’s “So It Goes program” in 1978. For the show “∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) New Order + Liam Gillick: So it goes…”, New Order deconstructed, rethought and rebuilt a wealth of material from throughout their career: familiar and obscure, old and new.

“∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) New Order + Liam Gillick: So it goes…” will be released July 12 on triple vinyl, double CD and digital formats. You can listen to “Sub-culture” live from the 2017 Manchester International Festival right below.

The new live album was recorded live on July 13, 2017 and includes the full show as well as three additional tracks recorded over the residency to give listeners a full representation of the breadth of material performed. The album is featuring tracks such as “Disorder” – from Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” and not played live for 30 years – up to 2015’s “Plastic” from New Order’s “Music Complete”.

Created in collaboration with visual artist Liam Gillick – who has previously presented solo exhibitions at venues such as Tate Britain and MoMA in New York – and orchestrated by composer-arranger Joe Duddell, a fellow son of Manchester and a frequent New Order collaborator, the live show was performed by the band with a 12-strong synthesiser ensemble from the Royal Northern College of Music.

This summer New Order will be performing at festivals throughout Europe and have just announced a headline tour for October playing Prague, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

• June 7 – Aarhus, Norway – Northside Festival
• June 13 – Oslo, Norway – PiPfest
• June 16 – Athens, Greece – Release Festival
• June 30 – Werchter, Belgium – Rock Werchter Festival
• July 7 – Dublin, Ireland – Trinity Summer Sessions
• July 12 – Lucca, Italy – Summer Festival
• July 18 – Bristol, England – Harbourside Festival
• July 21 – Cheshire, England – Bluedot Festival
• July 24 – Rattvik, Sweden – Dalhalla Festival
• July 27 – Benidorm, Spain – Low Festival
• August 12 – Girona, Spain – Cap Roig Festival
• August 15 – Praia do Taboão, Portugal – Parades de Coura Festival
• August 18 – Biddinghuizen, Netherlands – Lowlands Festival
• August 25 – Portsmouth, England – Victorious Festival
• September 21 – Madrid, Spain – Weekend City Festival
• October 3 – Prague, Czech Republic – Lucerna Music Hall
• October 5 – Munich, Germany – Philharmonic Hall
• October 7 – Berlin, Germany – Tempodrom
• October 11 – Paris, France – Le Grand Rex
• October 14 – Brussels, Belgium – Forest National
• October 17 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – AFAS Live

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Peter Hook & The Light return to North America from late April to early June 2018 with a run of shows performing Joy Division and New Order’s legendary Factory Records compilation album “Substance” live, sequentially and in their entireties. The tour sees Hook and The Light return to some of the venues which witnessed those acclaimed shows as well as adding new venues and cities.

The tour begins on the Northern West Coast in late April ’18 and sees The Light play a mammoth 28 dates over nearly seven weeks ending up in Florida in early June ’18.

Released in August 1987, New Order’s “Substance” was originally conceived as a way for Factory Records boss, Tony Wilson, to play the New Order singles on the CD player of his new Jaguar car. “Substance” became the best selling New Order album ever upon its release, the double LP going on to sell 2 million copies in America alone.

Peter Hook & The Light have toured Joy Division and New Order’s albums extensively since debuting “Unknown Pleasures” back in 2010 with dates all across the world.

Here are some videos to wet your appetite.

For more on Joy Division, see Reissue of two 1980 cult releases by Basement 5 imminent – both… on Side-Line.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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