Vivid LIVE Artist Talks: New Order x Paul Morley

Writer, broadcaster, and cultural critic Paul Morley has written about music, art and entertainment since the 1970s. He first wrote about Joy Division in 1977 and New Order in 1980, and wrote and co-directed the neworderstory documentary in 1992. He still cannot believe how good Blue Monday is, and it might not even be their greatest song.

I started writing in 1970s Manchester, England, and over the years as so much has changed New Order have turned into one of my favourite subjects. There is always something to say about them, because more than most pop groups there is a lot to find out, they never go out of style, their music possesses a kind of magic, and their record sleeves are amongst the greatest and most original in pop history. For a group that don’t  tour much, that only release a few records every now and then, that don’t as such have much to say, that spend a large amount of time in the shadows - even when they come out to play football, consult with Quincy Jones, live their lives, argue or laugh amongst themselves and frolic on the beach -  they leave quite a trail to follow, which can lead you into the city, out into space, across the blasted moors, through the internet, the 80s, 90s, the 21st century, onto the dance floor, the radio, the stage, the screen, into your headphones, into the history of the 12” single, the history of independent music, into photographs of a very specific and yet very hallucinatory time and place, and now into the orchestra.

How have they managed to do this?

Paul Morley presents his views on the magic of this band and then he and Myf Warhurst will talk about the historical and the present day New Order, their various collaborators and lasting influence.