TRIVIA : NEW ORDER

Rob Gretton, the band's manager for over twenty years, is credited for having found the name "New Order" in an article in The Guardian entitled "The People's New Order of Kampuchea". It came down to a choice of the various people's suggestions, with some of the others being "Barney Steven and Peter" and "The Witchdoctors of Zimbabwe". Between the four of them (Barney, Steven, Peter, and Gretton), New Order drew 2-2 with The Witchdoctors of Zimbabwe. It is said that only Peter Hook's refusal to be part of a band called The Witchdoctors of Zimbabwe swung it in the favour of New Order.

The band adopted this name, despite its previous use for ex-Stooge Ron Asheton's band The New Order. Yet the link with Joy Division (whose name came from the Nazis' term for concentration-camp sex slaves) made it hard for critics to ignore the fascistic undertones the name carried with it, the term "New Order" being featured in Hitler's Mein Kampf as "the new order of the Third Reich". The band publicly rejected any claims that the name had anything to do with fascist or Nazi sympathies.

Born Bernard Dicken in Lower Broughton, Salford, Sumner later changed his name to Albrecht, before finally changing it to Sumner, he has always refused to explain why he has used different names. He's also been reluctant to discuss his family background. In 2007 it was revealed his mother had cerebral palsy and that he had been adopted by his grandmother. Sumner married Sue Barlow on 28th October 1978. Sumner lives in Alderley Edge, Cheshire with his second wife, Sarah. He is a keen supporter of Manchester United football club.

In 1983 Sumner co-produced, with Donald Johnson, the band Foreign Press and 'The Great Divide'/'Love in a Strange Place'. EMI 5430 (12" 12EMI5430) Foreign Press (aka Emergency) had had a long history with Sumner through both Joy Division and New Order. In 1989, Sumner joined up with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr to form Electronic. He has also recorded tracks with fellow Mancunians 808 State and Sub Sub. Sumner appeared as a guest vocalist on The Chemical Brothers' 1999 album Surrender, on the track "Out of Control", and in the 2005 Chemical Brothers show at the Brixton Academy, Sumner appeared live on stage as a special guest on this track.

He has also done several remixes, such as Technotronic's "Rockin' Over the Beat" and served as a record producer for other Factory Records acts such as the Happy Mondays and Section 25.

Peter Hook was a co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division along with Bernard Sumner in the mid-1970s. Following the death of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, when the band reformed as New Order, Hook played bass and has remained with them throughout their career until his departure in 2007. In the late 1980s, Hook also worked as a producer for bands such as Inspiral Carpets and The Stone Roses. In 2003 he contributed his distinctive bass to a number of tracks on Hybrid's album Morning Sci-Fi, including the single "True to Form".

He has also recorded albums with Revenge (One True Passion) and two albums with Monaco (Music For Pleasure and Monaco) as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist.

He formed Monaco in 1995 together with David Potts, the only remaining member of Revenge.

Hook lives in Alderley Edge, Cheshire with his wife, Rebecca, and their daughter Jessica, who is 9. He also has 2 other children from a previous relationship, 22 year old Heather and 18 year old Jack. He was previously married to the actress and comedienne Caroline Aherne.

On 4 May 2007, Hook announced on Xfm that he and New Order singer/guitarist Bernard Sumner were no longer working together, effectively spelling the end for the band; the band later denied disbanding. He is currently working on a new band project called Freebass with bass players Mani (ex-The Stone Roses) and Andy Rourke (ex-The Smiths).

Stephen Paul David Morris (born 28 October 1957 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England) is a musician in the Manchester based rock band New Order. Although he is primarily a percussionist, he also plays keyboards. He was also a member of Joy Division and attended the same school as Ian Curtis. He is also a member "The Other Two", a band made up of Morris and his wife, Gillian Gilbert.

They have together two daughters, Mathilde (Tilly) and Grace. Their daughter Grace has Transverse Myelitis, its effects are something like a spinal injury and it has left Grace paralysed from the waist down. Grace has largely recovered, but she still continues to need care and treatment, consequentially Gillian has stayed home and not toured with the band since 2001, Gilbert was replaced with replaced by Phil Cunningham in New Order's line-up. Gilbert reasoned that it would be easier to replace her than it would Stephen.

Gillian Gilbert (born Gillian Lesley Gilbert, 27 January 1961 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England) is a British keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist and member of New Order.

She has a sister, Kim, and her family moved from Manchester, the birthplace of Gillian, to the nearby market town of Macclesfield when Gillian was at a young age.

Gilbert is the Other Two's lead vocalist, and her voice can be heard on five New Order tracks: the 1981 single "Procession"; the 1983 single "Confusion"; "Avalanche" from the album Republic on which she sang a single word, "faith"; "Doubts Even Here" from their first album, Movement, on which she provided a spoken-word background vocal.

The band name "The Other Two" refers to the fact that the other New Order members, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook, had already released solo records when the first The Other Two record, the single "Tasty Fish," came out 1991 and peaked at 41 in the UK Singles Chart.

New Orders first release "Ceremony" was actually written by Ian Curtis and there is two recorded versions by Joy Division, the first version is on the album "Still" and is from their final concert at High Hall, Birmingham University on May 2nd 1980, sixteen days before Curtis' suicide. The second available on the Heart and Soul 4 CD box set is from a rehearsal tape made in April/May 1980. In both recordings the vocals are partially inaudible. The song was brighter in tone than typical Joy Division songs and a departure from their earlier recordings.

Sumner said that he had to put the Ceremony rehearsal tape as sung by Curtis through a graphic equalizer in order to determine the lyrics.

There are also two versions of the song recorded by New Order, both with the b-side "In A Lonely Place", the first one was recorded in March 1981, this version was recorded without Gillian Gilbert. It was released on Factory Records (FAC 33). Martin Hannett (Joy Division's producer) produced the record. Peter Saville designed the sleeve graphics.

The 7" record was issued in a stamped gold-bronze sleeve, it features the following etchings on the runout groove, A Side - "WATCHING FOREVER" and on the B Side - "HOW I WISH YOU WERE HERE WITH ME NOW". The 12" sleeve was a completely separate design: typography on a green background with a later version featuring a Cream/Blue design.

The song has been covered by a number of artists, including Galaxie 500 (on their 1989 "Blue Thunder" EP), Xiu Xiu (on their debut EP from 2002, Chapel of the Chimes) and The Echoing Green. On November 9th, 2007, the band Radiohead covered the song on their "Thumbs Down" webcast.

"In a Lonely Place" was covered by the band Bush for the soundtrack to the second movie in The Crow series, The Crow: City of Angels. The track was produced by trip-hop musician Tricky.

With the release of Movement in November 1981, New Order initially started on a similar route as their previous incarnation, performing dark, melodic songs, albeit with an increased use of synthesizers. The band viewed the period as a low point, as they were still reeling from Curtis's death. Hook commented that the only positive thing to come out of the Movement sessions was that producer Martin Hannett had showed the band how to use a mixing board, which allowed them to produce records by themselves from then on.

A change in musical direction was brought about when New Order visited New York City in 1981. The band immersed themselves in the New York dance scene and were introduced to postdisco, Latin freestyle, and electro. Additionally, the band had taken to listening to Italian disco to cheer themselves up, while Morris taught himself drum programming. The singles that followed, their second single "Procession" (FAC 53/FBNL 8) with the b-side featuring an edited version of "Everything's Gone Green", and followed by "Temptation" (FAC 63), indicated the change in direction toward dance music.

Both New Order and Joy Division were among the most successful artists on the Factory Records label, run by Granada television personality Tony Wilson, and partnered with Factory in the financing of the Manchester club The Haçienda. The band rarely gave interviews in the '80s, later ascribing this to not wanting to discuss Curtis. This, along with the Peter Saville sleeve designs and the tendency to give short performances with no encores, gave New Order a reputation as standoffish. The band became more open in the '90s; for example, the aforementioned NewOrderStory (and in particular the longer UK version) featured extensive personal interviews.

New Order albums, and Factory Records products in general, frequently bore the minimalist packaging of Peter Saville. The group's record sleeves bucked the 1980s trend by rarely showing the band members (the Low-Life album was the exception with the cover featuring Stephen Morris) or even providing basic information such as the band name or the title of the release. Song names were often hidden within the shrink wrapped package, either on the disc itself (such as the "Blue Monday" single) or on an inconspicuous part of an inner sleeve ("The Perfect Kiss" single), or a cryptic colour code invented by Saville (Power Corruption & Lies). Saville said his intention was to sell the band as a "mass-produced secret" of sorts, and that the minimalist style was enough to allow fans to identify the band's products without explicit labelling.

New Order released many singles for songs not included on albums. Singles were released in many formats and often with varying track lists and exclusive artwork. According to Tony Wilson, Factory intentionally released other singles, LPs, and compilations in non-UK markets to increase their collectibility. Indeed, the complete New Order discography is far too sprawling for most fans to collect in its entirety, and the compilations released by Factory and other labels are notoriously incomplete.

New Orders' highest charting single in the UK charts was "World in Motion". The song was released under the name Englandneworder, and was produced for the England football team's 1990 World Cup campaign. As a result it features several members of the 1990 English team, as well as comedian Keith Allen, who co-wrote the lyrics. Originally it was going to be called E for England but the FA, worried by the reference to the drug ecstasy, vetoed that title.

New Order have to date had a total of 6 No.1's in the US, these are :

"Touched by the Hand of God" (FAC 193) - Reached No.1 on the US Dance Chart in 1987.
"Blue Monday 1988" (FAC73-7/FAC73R) - Reached No.1 on the US Dance Chart in 1988.
"Regret" (NUOCD1) - Reached No.1 on both the US Dance Chart and US Modern Rock Chart in 1990.
"World (The Price of Love)" (NUOCD3) - Reached No.1 on the US Dance Chart in 1993.
"Crystal" (NUOCD8) - Reached No.1 on the US Dance Chart in 2001.

The single "Crystal" released in 2001 and taken off the album "Get Ready", Singer/guitarist Bernard Sumner originally gifted the song to German record label Mastermind for Success and it was recorded by label artist Corvin Dalek. However, DJ Pete Tong heard the song and declared it to be the best New Order single since "Blue Monday", leading Sumner to reconsider the gift and have New Order record and release it.

Backing vocals for the track are provided by Dawn Zee, who regularly tours with the band.

The song is tuned flat. Whenever New Order performs this song live, the song's key is a semitone up.

The video, directed by Johan Renck (otherwise known as Stakka Bo) does not feature New Order; instead, it depicts a younger band miming to New Order's music and words. At the end, a large number of people coming on stage towards the end to pull them off stage.

The fictional band is named "The Killers" (the name appears on the bass drum in the video). This name later inspired a real band of the same name, who lifted a number of elements of the layout of the set in the "Crystal" video for the their own video "Somebody Told Me". In 2005, at Scotland's T in the Park festival, New Order performed the song with The Killers' frontman Brandon Flowers singing the main vocals in a guest performance.

In 1989 John Denver sued New Order over their single "Run 2", claiming that the song and in particular the instrumental part was too similar to his hit "Leaving on a Jet Plane", the case was settled "out of court" and the single has been out of print ever since, it was the third and last single to be taken from their album "Technique", the single was remixed by Scott Litt hence the "2" in the title, only 20,000 copies of the 12" were ever released.

"Fine Time" was released in 1988 and was the first single from their album Technique. The b-side "Fine Line" is simply the a-side without Bernard Sumner's vocals. The US 12" version is unusual in that the pattern of beats in the song produces a noticeable swirl effect in the vinyl.

Full-length versions of "The Perfect Kiss" and "Sub-culture" were originally only available on the 12"'s (edited versions feature on the album "Low-Life"), both of these extended versions eventually were included on 1987's Substance. The music video for "The Perfect Kiss" was directed by Jonathan Demme. The song "Elegia" was featured in the Academy Award-nominated short film More by Mark Osborne.