In late 2011, New Order reformed to play two benefit shows for long-time friend and collaborator Michael Shamberg.
It came as a surprise to many who believed the influential Mancunians to be well and truly over following a very public split with bass player Peter Hook in 2007. All the more surprising was the announcement that original member Gillian Gilbert, who’d left in 2001, was back after a decade outside the group.
Five years on and New Order are enjoying a resurgence on the back of last year’s Music Complete, their tenth studio album and best since 2001’s Get Ready. However, as current bassist Tom Chapman explains, at the time of the reformation there wasn’t much of a plan beyond those fundraising shows.
“We booked two concerts – one in Belgium, one in Paris,” he says. “We just thought, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ There were no future plans to tour or carry on as New Order. We just thought we’d do those two concerts for Michael and basically test the water.”
He adds: “We didn’t know what the reaction was going to be with myself playing bass, as well.”
It wasn’t long after those first shows that New Order again became an active band. Eventually, the thought of new material started to cross the minds of Chapman and the rest of the group.
“From those two concerts, we started getting offers from promoters around the world and started touring extensively. That probably lasted for two years. We felt it was the natural progression for the band to start writing material and be creative. We didn’t want to run the risk of becoming a dinosaur band where you can tour the hits around the world over and over and never inject something new into your live set.”
While New Order’s two previous albums – 2005’s Waiting For The Sirens’ Call and 2013’s Lost Sirens – were relatively guitar-heavy, Music Complete owes far more to the band’s electronic leanings. This was a conscious decision, Chapman explains.
“I think the brief, really, was to write material that would fit into our live set,” he says. “We saw the reactions of the crowd with our live set when we’d come to the electronic part, so we were trying to replicate that. I think that really influenced the musical direction of Music Complete when we started writing it.”
As the new member of the band, Chapman says entering the studio with one of the groups he grew up listening to was maybe a little strange, but those feelings soon disappeared once they got down to work.
“They’re fantastic musicians. They have a lot of musical integrity and it just felt really exciting,” he says. “We didn’t really know at first how it was going to pan out with the writing, but what happened is there were different teams of writers: myself and Phil [Cunningham], Steve [Morris] and Gillian, and Bernard [Sumner] on his own. We would present sketches of demos that we had or musical ideas. We’d put them on the table and go, ‘What do you think of that?’ From that, we’d develop that idea and make it into a song. It was very much a joint effort, really, as writers. The mood was good. We wanted to take risks as well, musically, and do something exciting.”
New Order will be taking another risk when they come to Sydney for this year’s Vivid LIVE festival. Two of their four Sydney Opera House shows will feature the Australian Chamber Orchestra. It will be the first time the band has undertaken such a collaboration.
“The only similar thing I can think of was when we played at Carnegie Hall two years ago with Philip Glass and Iggy Pop,” says Chapman. “Myself, Bernard and Phil were invited by Philip to play at the Tibet House concert that takes place in New York. We were involved there with a quartet. That’s probably the closest experience we’ve had working with classical players and classical instruments.
“We have never played with a full orchestra before and we’re really very excited about it. I think it’s going to be very, very special. Our friend Joe Duddell, who arranged the strings on Music Complete, will be with us, conducting the orchestra.”
The additional element of the orchestra gives New Order the opportunity to possibly present a set unlike any other they’ve done before. Chapman says they’re still finalising the details.
“We’re sort of thinking about what we’re going to do, new songs and new arrangements. It’s very exciting. We’re planning to use old material and some songs off Music Complete, maybe some songs that we’ve not played live yet. I won’t say too much because I’d like it to be a surprise.”
New Order have a fairly full diary over the coming months. Prior to their Vivid shows, there’s a Japanese tour; later they’ll be hitting the European summer festival circuit with slots at Glastonbury, Roskilde and Lollapalooza in Berlin, among others.
After that, Chapman says, more touring could be on the cards but nothing’s concrete. “Looking at my diary, we’re booked to play festivals through to September. I don’t know what’s going to happen after September,” he says. “With New Order, there’s never any plans for the future. We kind of do things on a gut instinct and see what happens.”
[New Order photo by Nick Wilson]
New Order’sMusic Complete is out now through Mute. New Order appear at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, as part of Vivid LIVE 2016 Thursday June 2 and Saturday June 4 (with the Australian Chamber Orchestra), plus Wednesday June 1 and Sunday June 5.
