NEW Order's long-awaited concert at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow tonight - Thursday, October 5 - comes four decades after they played a brief series of dates across Scotland.
In the course of five nights in April 1983 they staged two shows in Edinburgh, one at Stirling University, one at Tiffany's in Glasgow - and the fifth in Ayr.
New Order had been formed in 1980 after disbanding their previous incarnation of Joy Division following the suicide of their lead singer, Ian Curtis, in May of that year. Joy Division had played four Scottish dates in October 1979 - the Glasgow Apollo, the Edinburgh Odeon, Aberdeen's Capitol Theatre and Dundee's Caird Hall - in support of the Buzzcocks.
In November that year they were in concert at the Market Street Cinema, in L.A.. "Simple Minds were supporting us but came up with that old trick of delaying their appearance so they seemed like the headline band", recalled bass guitarist Peter Hook (who left New Order in 2007), in his book Substance: Inside New Order.
Music review from 2015: New Order at O2 Academy, Glasgow
"Terry [Mason, tour manager] and I rumbled it pretty quickly but our lot were at the hotel so, withou back-up, we stormed their dressing-room, kicking hell out of the door shouting 'Come out, you -------!' They were screaming like little girls inside. We carried on kicking until they came out and went on".
By they time they played the Scottish gigs in April 1983 - supported by The Wake, whose bassist, Bobby Gillespie, would go on to launch Primal Scream - New Order were poised to release their second album, Power Corruption and Lies. Their landmark single, Blue Monday, was making its way up the UK charts. Audio of parts of their mini-Scottish tour can be found today on YouTube.
Of the second Edinburgh date, at the Assembly Rooms, Hook recalls: "I remember [The Wake's] bass player [Gillespie] saying he'd had his six-string bass stolen and could he borrow mine? I wouldn't normally consider it but I took pity on him and he borrowed my bass for the show".
The Joy Division Central account on X/Twitter quotes Sumner, the lead singer, telling the crowd at Stirling University's Pathfoot Hall, on April 13: “Will the, er, person who threw beer on stage at the beginning kindly see us in the dressing room 'cos we'd like to buy him another one afterwards".
"The only logical conclusion to New Order's dedicated projection of non-image, no interviews, little publicity and rare public performances", he wrote, "would seem to be the group's disappearing leaving only the music as the message.
"This honest if slightly naive approach to life in the pop business has brought them a large and loyal following and a comfortable position as the Eighties' answer to the faceless and timeless Pink Floyd.
"What lies ahead, though, when the music seems to be going stale? The last and ironically most successful single, Blue Monday, forced them into an incongruous appearance amid the glitter of Top of the Pops, but showed to these ears worrying signs of a descent into repetition. Are they sitting too comfortably?
New Order review from 2012: 02 Academy, Glasgow
"Comfortable is, in fact, the last word that could have bee applied to their appearance last night in the flesh. New Order are not about logic or neat conclusions but emotion, raw and untidy. Simultaneously more powerful and more subtle live than on record, they held an adoring sell-out crowd in awe".
He added: "While their sense of stage presence was minimal, and vocalist Bernard Albrecht [a name once used by Sumner] spent some of the time kneeling hidden by the bobbing heads in front of the stage, their grasp of the sensibilities of a generation remains as firm as ever.
Peter Hook's own memories of that show are vivid. "Wild gig", he narrates in his book. "Glasgow has always had a wonderful affinity with Manchester.
"This gig, right on Sauchiehall Street, was very busy and raucous right from the start. The coppers always walked around in threes.
"There was a lot of missiles and spit coming from the crowd and I remember one black-haired punk with fingerless black gloves on being a real pain.
"As the gig ended there was much gesticulating from us on stage to the audience. Suddenly Slim [the band's formidable roadie] went down through an opening in the flight-case wall, striding through it like Leonidas in 300, the leader of the Spartans.
2005: SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS [T in the Park]
"All the audience fell back as he screamed, 'I'm sick of this! I'll have the lot of you, you Scottish b-------!' and you know what? They stopped. What a standoff. Slim v Glasgow. And you know what? Slim won.
"They backed off, exiting outside to carry on fighting in the street. As we left we could see people putting their chips down, running into the melee, throwing a few punches and then coming back, picking up the chips to continue eating. Weird and wild. I love Glasgow".
Ayr, the final stop on the Scottish tour, was, he added, "was much more refined".
* New Order play the OVO Hydro on Thursday, October 5, supported by Confidence Man. neworder.com. Peter Hook's 2016 book, Substance: Inside New Order, is published by Simon & Schuster.
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