New Order in 1983, at the dawn of their bold reinvention
© Kevin Cummins
Stephen Morris’ new memoir Fast Forward about his New Order life follows his Joy Division book Record Play Pause. After Peter Hook’s books Unknown Pleasures and Substance, and Bernard Sumner’s autobiography Chapter And Verse, Gillian Gilbert is the only member of New Order not to write a book about the band. “I’ve never really been into the idea of writing a book,” she reveals. “I’m not into books about bands. The only one I’ve really liked was Just Kids by Patti Smith. Someone gave me that and my first thought was, ‘I don’t want to read about another person in a band.’ I’m living that life myself, and I don’t want to read about how someone made such-andsuch a song. Patti’s book - and Stephen’s - are more about their life than the music, which is more interesting to me.”
The Power, Corruption & Lies era was a fruitful period for New Order. Their four standalone 12" singles made around the time have also just been reissued. The boxset also feature two gigs’ worth of live footage on the bonus DVDs, although Gillian admits: “I shouldn’t say this, but I haven’t bothered watching the boxset gigs. When I watched the Channel 4 documentary Play At Home that’s in the box, I just worried about how fat I looked. I was only watching it to see how I looked back then, rather than if I played well. But I was able to appreciate how good the band were - I’d been really nervous before watching Play At Home, but I ended up thinking, ‘That was you, that’s how you were at the time, and that’s OK.’ So I would now like to watch the gigs.”