Everything You Know About “Blue Monday” is Probably Wrong I New British Canon
Emerging out of the embers of Joy Division, New Order spent the 1980s smashing together the worlds of punk and disco. In 1983 they gave the world a shuddering party starter that took elements from Black Gay club music, Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Spaghetti Westerns and British melancholy. Such a revolution in sound that “Blue Monday” perhaps became the biggest selling 12 inch single of all time.
Perhaps, because the myths surrounding “Blue Monday” are belligerent and numerous, impeded by each member of the band having conflicting accounts of their 1980s. Many of the rumours and legends about the song are provably wrong, and yet still persist. It may be the song to get indie kids to the dancefloor, but what do we really know about this 7 and half minute groove-automaton? This is New British Canon and this is the story of “Blue Monday.”
#bluemonday #neworder #musicdocumentary
Fact-checking by Chad Van Wagner.
00:00 Introduction
00:56 "Everything's Gone Green" Joy Division to New Order
08:17 Recording Power, Corruption & Lies
12:37 "How Does It Feel?" Creating Blue Monday
21:42 The Release of Blue Monday
27:19 Sunkist & The Enduring Legacy of Blue Monday
Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me, Bernard Sumner, 2014, Transworld Digital
Substance: Inside New Order by Peter Hook, 2016, Simon & Schuster
FAST FORWARD Confessions of a Post-Punk Percussionist Volume II by Stephen Morris, 2020, Constable
The New Order Story (1993) dir. Kevin Hewitt
“Episode 7 Power, Corruption and Lies” New Order, Transmissions Podcast, Dec 2020
“Episode 8 Blue Monday” New Order, Transmissions Podcast, Dec 2020
“New Order” Paul Rambali, The Face, Jul 1983
“When There’s No More Room in Hell” Chris Bohn, NME, Jul 1983
“New Order: Shaming the Nation” Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, Jan 1986
“New Order: Shock Of The New” Chris Roberts, Sounds, Apr 1986
“The Perfect Kiss” Barry Walters, Spin Magazine, May 1988
“Tell Me, How Does It Feel? New Order and the 'Blue Monday' syndrome” Len Brown, David Quantick, New Musical Express, May 1988
“New Order: Praxis” Paul Mathur, Blitz, February 1989
“New Order: Joyful Division” Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 12 May 1993
“Peter Hook Interview” Q Magazine's 1001 Best Songs Ever, 2003
“Let it bloody happen…” Andrew Male, Mojo Magazine, Nov 2008
“New Order: The Making Of 'Blue Monday'” Stephen Dalton, Uncut, Dec 2008
“Joyless divisions: The end of New Order” Rob Fitzpatrick, The Guardian, Jul 2011
“New Order - How We Wrote ‘Blue Monday’” Barry Nicolson, NME, 2012
“How we made: New Order's Gillian Gilbert and designer Peter Saville on Blue Monday” Dave Simpson, The Guardian, Feb 2013
“Peter Hook [Joy Division, ex-New Order]” Greg Prato, Songfacts, Oct 2014
“Bernard Sumner Talks to Northern Soul” Andy Murray, Northern Soul, Oct 2014
“NEW ORDER’S ‘BLUE MONDAY’ SUNKIST COMMERCIAL” Oliver Hall, Dangerous Minds, July 2015
“ELECTRI_CITY_CONFERENCE 2015” Chi Ming Lai, Electricity Club, Nov 2015
“Peter Hook Talks Getting Knocked Out At Worst Gig Ever” Gordon Smart, Radio X, Mar 2018
““It felt like we were changing the world”: inside New Order’s seminal ‘Power, Corruption & Lies’” Andrew Trendell, NME, Sep 2020
“Chosen Time” Dave Simpson, Record Collector, Nov 2020
“The Story of Kraftwerks Electric Cafe” Tobias Fischer, Beat, Jul 2022
“New Order interview: Power, Corruption & Lies” John Earls, Classic Pop, Sep 2022
“Forty years of New Order’s Blue Monday: who inspired it and who it inspired” Alexis Petridis, The Guardian, Mar 2023
Soundtrack
Luar - Citrine ( / luarbeats )
Jesse Gallagher - The Golden Present
Luar - Anchor ( / luarbeats )
You can also follow me here:
Twitter: / trashtheory
Facebook: / trashtheoryyt
Instagram: / theorytrash
Or support me on Patreon:
/ trashtheory
Every now and then I get people asking for a playlist of every song mentioned in my videos: Well here's a Spotify link for this one: open.spotify.com/playlist/4ZV8Iqao1OVUMSK9yRvP1T?si=b26d9bd47d104401 And the KZhead Music link: music.kzhead.info/channel/PLooaZ33lSalctQuuxsOfBo_PFm0BFDkuC.html&si=fH98z5OtYo5r_rOq
I was today days old when I first found out that the lyrics were not: " I see a ship in the harbour, Sitting in a shallow bay. " I've been singing it that way for a good 40 years. 😒
Almost as good as Sunday night vinyl playlist by thadeous on Spotifry
I'm glad I'm not the only one that heard it as "shallow bay," @@monotonehell , but I may have realised my mistake a little sooner 😀
@@Alan_Duval 😅
*This is so very well done.* Good show.
I was a club DJ in the 80s, and I can honestly say that Blue Monday ushered in modern electronic dance music. It was my most requested song. That track was responsible for the term "floorgasm". It is one of the few electronic masterworks which will never get old.
💯
Where, when? There are so many of us that would absolutely love to hear any stories you have to share of that time!
that's amazing, what would be some other tracks in your set that would get close to the so-called "floorgasm"?
New Order BLEEDS the 80s and nothing got everyone to the dance floor faster than Blue Monday!
@@christopherhughes8402 started as a part time fill in at a little gay club called Allan Golds in Tennessee. Later The Nucleus. Then a lot of Insomniac one off events in the South. Probably a hundred Sci Fi and Fantasy conventions. A ton of house parties, frat stuff etc. Played top 40s dance, then later moved into Acid House, then Trance and Progressive House. Much later Psyrrance. I have a ton of stories, but not enough time here. Thanks for asking! Hope you were around then. It was crazy fun. Will say, I once had a guy hold a drink over my mixer and threaten to electrocute me because I wouldnt play country. Once had a full costumed drunk Klingon curse me in Klingon and threaten to cut my head off unless I played Metallica. Security handled it both times. Hilarious.
“How can these mancunian heterosexuals know about this?” Fucking hilarious and iconic line right there
Not what "iconic" means. Something you've literally never heard before can't be "iconic".
Actually, the definition of 'iconic' is "of, relating to, *or having the characteristics of* an icon,"@@Jayfive276 As such, a newly heard comment that seems like it should become "widely known and acknowledged especially for distinctive excellence," is a perfectly reasonable use of the word, but even failing that, the comment came from Neil Tennant, who certainly is an icon, so the phrase is definitely "of" or "relating to" him.
@@Alan_Duval Instantly iconic reply, @Alan_Duval what a legend
We recently saw "The Unity Tour" with Pet Shop Boys and New Order... A great show!
@@Alan_Duval how is the idea that mancunians have never heard disco or more elegant electro krautrock like Kraftwerk is not iconic in any what whatsoever. It’s full bollocks.
There’s a reason so many modern pop stars sample songs like Blue Monday. It’s just one of the biggest bangers of all time, honestly. The bass, the rhythm, it’s pretty much perfect and sticks in your head like nothing else. I don’t think I’ll ever be completely sick of the song no matter how much I listen to it.
insane to think that bass line came from a spaghetti western!
They took that sparse, somewhat cold and distant early synth sound and made something you could shake your ass to. Absolutely lovely
Shake your arse. An ass is a donkey,
the amount of times i have listened to this song is truly obscene. it's one of the best pieces of music ever made.
Seriously this has to be one of KZhead's best music channels... Every episode is a belt down of good writing and presentation. Thank you
Can't recommend this comment enough 💚💜
Yea and watching makes me feel nostalgic in a way idk ig cause of the throwback of the years
And you can tell he writes it himself not using AI. I’m not an AI hater, but i am already tired of the plastic fake style of AI writing, showing up in KZhead videos.
Yeah totally agree. The research is phenomenal. I really love the music samples.
I agree. But... The episode on the KLF released a couple of months ago was completely ripped off of a feature-length documentary called "who killed the KLF?", directed by Chris Atkins. I happened to have seen the documentary just the day before and the KLF episode was just stolen right off. I mean footage, interviews and everything. Just cut down to make it shorter for KZhead and over-dubbed with a slightly re-written narration. This was not a compilation of various old BBC footage, but a film released in 2021. Chris Atkins was not credited by "the new British canon" So, it makes me wonder about the journalistic process of this channel. I've seen him borrow clips from other YT creators, with credit (doctor mix and Synthmania for example} It was an upsetting realization because I really like the content of this channel. Go look for yourselves... kzhead.info/sun/pNKPeZ2qkZRoo3A/bejne.htmlsi=p1zGtEJxsNqVmBUD
Straight up, this was possibly one of the most beautiful well written and edited documentaries I have seen. No joke. I really did enjoy it that much.
While this is true, the lazy diction and affected phrasing brings it down for me.
Me too, it’s really hard to find such a well-documented and written video nowadays
I remember a buddy from grade 9 having this 12inch. I had a large wooden console stereo at home and after school we went bonkers to this tune. That old wooden stereo had the bass!
@@MrMarketingGuy if you had a 12-in You would be showing it around too
This kind of musical archeology just makes me love these tracks even more. The goofs and recording idiosyncrasies that contributed to Blue Monday, the fact that it was made to be something they could set up and run while they walked off the stage to get pissed in the dressing room, the impossibility of actually playing it live, make it so much more enjoyable! Thanks for this!
Add to that the question "How the fuck we going to play this live"! Legendary
The first time I actually came across Blue Monday was in the Kylie Minogue performance at the Brit Awards ! I was obsessed with that remix as a teen and played it all the time. But when I discovered the original by New Order in a commercial on tv, I was blown away. It's one of my favorite electronic tracks, a timeless classic. The bass, the synth, the singing, it's intoxicating. There's nothing like it.
That Kylie mash up and performance was epic...well worth a watch!
@@garrywallace1007 she really was amazing for that
Great story. The influence of Italo disco, and the Hi-NRG sound that helped create Italo disco, are just a couple of the many reasons that I consider 78-82, leading into 83's Blue Monday, to be a golden period of popular music.
@@MrMarketingGuy Google can still find it, but it isn't there anymore on the Quietus website, and it has been excluded from the Internet Archive, too. Weird.
Also Krautrock which includes Moroder and also the incredibly influential Krautrock (Kraftwerk who influenced everyone)
Oh do you "consider"! we must all bow down and kiss your ring coz you are the famous 80ssynthfan48. I shall sacrifice a horse to you as soon as dawn breaks.
I'm 32 and obviously nowhere near old enough to remember New Order in their prime but they're my favourite band by quite some distance. I've not even watched the full video yet, but I know I'm going to enjoy it. I'm so grateful you've covered this incredible band.
They were @ their prime circa 1984-1986……absolute class…….should quit now but Bernard wants his pension.
There are three tracks that had a massive influence on my early teen years and the reason I loved to dance back then. The first one was "Pump up the Jam" by Technotronic, the second Eurythmics with "Sweet Dreams" and Blue Monday. And I never get tired of any of them. To this day. Thanks for the fantastic work on this!
"Pump up the Jam" is, of course, the peak of all human civilisation, as confirmed by Philamena Cunk's awesome documentary on absolutely everything.
Word.
A few years back I Dj'd my 35th high school reunion in California. Hands down, this was the most requested songs of the night. I've had the pleasure of Dj'ing in Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece and just as the video states, the song always fills the dance floor.
It still takes me back to being a 13-14 year old in the 80's. Discovering Joy Division, New Order, Eurythmics, Alison Moyet, Bananarama (for other reasons ), The Police, Blondie, XTC, everything Paul Weller and so many many more. WHAT A F*&%king decade to be alive. The 70's were shit hot too. The 90's I barely remember but I think I had a grin on my face for 10 years.
Oh and of course Confusion featured in the movie Blade. What a raving banger.
Excellent episode!! Thank you!! I was 11 in '83 when I heard the song for the first time. My best buddy had a bigger brother who had just bought himself a stereo system and blasted this out in their living room. My. Mind. Was. BLOWN!! 😂
Bollox. By your photo you must have been in your 30s in the 80s
@@Chloe-cv6wm 🤣
I was just entering my teens when I got into New Order in ‘83, so all of this is vastly enlightening. Thanks for making this.
Thank you for not on;y surpassing the Swedish previously go-to Blue Monday documentary that disappeared too quickly from the Internet, but for making one of the best short documentaries I’ve ever seen. You are so good at what you do. Thank you.
Brilliant, insightful and incisive as always! Great video thank you. True fact about 'Blue Monday': in a secondary school in Newport Pagnell in 1983, me and my little gang actually drove our maths teacher crazy mad by tapping out the beat on our desks every single time she turned her back to write on the board 🤣🤣 Oh how we LOVED that song! And yep, still unsurpassed today.
Martin Hammett stole massive $$$ from the band and he was drunk and stoned all the time. Those first recordings are miracles. Also, New Order has their own sound entirely, which is amazing during that era. They are the best post punk/new wave band of their era (and I will highly praise Birmingham boys Duran Duran as well who are fabulous musicians)
There really wasn't massive $$$$ around at the time. Martin fell out with Factory (Gretton/Wilson) over the Hacienda plan because he thought it was a waste of money, drugs aside his interest was equipment. His pride and joy at the time was a digital delay line for example, something that would be trivial today but in the late 70s/early 80s was insanely expensive because the technology just wasn't there yet. It was 40 years ago so recollections will vary. Were you there?
yeah. hannett wanted em to get a fairlight. tony wilson took the money and used to buy the hacienda. to essentially swindle New Order. But i dunno, i do wonder if New Order ever hid some of those profits and declaring lack of profits so revenue wudnt catch em like they did in 1985.
Around three decades ago I was shopping at a record store that was going out of business and they happened to have one of those original Blue Monday vinyls with the fully punched out floppy disk covers. Being a huge New Order fan and a programmer I snatched it right up even though I didn't have a working turn table at the time. I just thought it was cool, I had no idea just how special it was at the time. Apparently no one else did either because I bought it for just a dollar or two. Got a bunch of great vinyls on that same haul including The Germs (GI) and the Beach Blvd comp among several others.
Sumner having a wee smile when Morris fks up on the live TOTP performance. Absolute gold! 😂 (Great vid again by the way. )
Its unbelievable how many things you can put in a video, and it's still so easy to watch! Love your content bro!
I grew up in Wayne's World/Long Island, New York, in the 80s, and I completely missed the 80s scene. I was forced to listen to Led Zeppelin constantly, and I was led to believe that LZ was the only good music. Then I caught the tail-end of the 80s and regretted every second spent listening to Robert Plant. Then, years later, I saw 24 Hour Party People and became enraged and depressed all over again. Thanks for this channel, I intend to binge away. And I, too, miss Every Frame A Painting.
For me my JD/NO adventure started with "Atmosphere" played by John Peel on the BFBS late night broadcast in Germany in 1980 and it will never end ...
Nice.
Festive 50 them were the days !
I am enchanted with your channel! I was lucky enough to grow up in Los Angeles in the 1970s-1980s, the heyday of punk and New Wave, especially as heard on KROQ 106.7; "the Rock of the Eighties"....
Such a great video. For me, Power, Corruption and Lies with Blue Monday is peak New Order.
It’s always a good day when there’s a new Trash Theory video 😊😊😊
I have the fondest memories of thrashing around on the dance floor to Blue Monday. It's one of the best songs ever, the way it builds, the way it synthesizes all of those influences into a cohesive whole - stunning! Great video - thanks. Love your channel!
Punk and Disco have been "colliding" since Heart of Glass and Capitol Radio 2
Thank You for another outstanding video. Joy Division and New Order wouldn't have happened without Hooky's Base specially in Blue Monday! 💙💙💙💙💙
New Order is such a great band, listening to those early songs, how they took their influences and created something cool and original, some of those early songs sound like what some indies bands are doing TODAY, like to a tee....idk what to think of that. Great video as always
Excellent episode!! Blue Monday has always been my favourite song (and yet not my favourite New Order song, that's Bizarre Love Triangle 😉) so this was a delight. I'd highly recommend for any JD/NO fan the podcast Transmissions from which the Neil Tennant clip at 32:46 is taken from, it's a great overview of the bands' histories up to the release of Blue Monday, with interviews with every NO band member and plenty more guests. Still hoping for a Season Two to cover the period post-Blue Monday, but considering the drama between Hook and the rest of the band, would be difficult to get all those ducks in a row again.
very much agree with the bizarre love triangle love! it's one of a handful of songs i can pull off the top of my head i consider perfect, along with the stop making sense version of this must be the place :)
I was recently at the British Music Experience Museum in Liverpool...and the original lyrics to Blue Monday - handwritten by Barney presumably - are on display there...something special that....
I genuinely cried from joy when Sparks were mentioned, it's about time their crazy influence is talked about on this channel
This channel is just amazing. Even when i don't know or care for a song/artist, the installments are wonderful. But when i do like a song/artist, they are absolutely sublime. Thank you so much!!!
In 95 I was into raves. Got into New Order. In 2015 I found Joy Division. I was shocked to find out how both bands morphed together.
20 years....
@@davidcross701good things take time sometimes. I got into Flowers Travellin Band in 02. 30 years after they released the album Satori, thanks to the album being used as a soundtrack to a film.
The first time I heard 'love will tear us apart" in the late 80's I was absolutely in love with the song. Later I found out about the connection to New Order and was confused as hell lol! Still a huge fan of both bands. I have both bands on original pressings which I hope to never part with!
Always an excellent deep dive with your video essays. Thank you. Thanks also for the playlist. I was introduced to Blue Monday and New Order in 1983 aged 14 by a friend at school - I didn't "get it" and instead sought out "Power Corruption and Lies" favouring "Your Silent Face". It did however cement my ongoing love for New Order and in time increasing admiration for Blue Monday's role in turning me onto dance and electronic music across all of its genres in decades to come.
Awesome vid! The TOTP performance is hilarious! “That was where the acid wore off” 😂😂
Best music channel on KZhead. Meticulously researched and documented. I've learned so much from this channel while taking a trip down nostalgia Lane, often with detours I never expected. Keep up the great work!
Great video - Last Halloween I went to a house /techno party. The first dj played Blue Monday and the whole party stepped up a notch in movement and atmosphere. An hour or so later the second dj arrived and by coincidence he played it too. Again it sounded magnificent and the whole room buzzed with extra energy.
At 17 years old , one of the first times I had used my new Walkman , fresh batteries , headphones on , Blue Monday comes on my favorite FM station. My tiny mind was blown. 40 years ago now and I remember that moment very clearly.
New Order did some OG genre defining move with Blue Monday, and any fan of synthpop, new wave and eventually synthwave should be immensely grateful for that.
I was wondering when will Blue Monday eventually be featured in New British Cannon. Not disappointed, your videos are always amazing.
I enjoyed this story so much that I was sad when the episode ended. Great work. Thanks.
This episode is your pièce de résistance. Thank you for making this. 🍸
As always you smashed this episode out of the park. The wait is always worth it. Now I'm back in anticipation mode for the next TT. Will have to bide my time re watching my favourites. This one has been added to that list.
As a NO super fan, I must say that video was exquisitely researched. Thanks so much for putting it all together
I’ll second that. Very well done.
I can add this small thing. When I was working in Our Price Records at Brent Cross Shopping Centre, north London, back in the day, and sales were down, all I had to do was put on Blue Monday, and people who had no interest in the genre would come to the counter, ask 'What's this?' and buy it. I was a Northerner working in a Southern town, but even so, it worked.
I can't tell how much I love these early New Order songs! Been at the concert of Peter Hook last year and it was frikking awesome.
The joy division/new order library of music and stories is my favorite and every new fact I learn makes me love them and the legacy so much. So Inspiring, great video as always!
I’m new here and must say that this was an incredibly well crafted documentary. I was unaware of just how many musical influences went into this single track. I’ll never hear it the same again. Thanks for the awesome content!
Love the video. I was introduced to New Order via True Faith which seemed to get my teenage angst perfectly at the time. Substance ended up being the first “grown up” album I bought (the double cassette version). One of the best purchases of anything Ive ever made. Most of their earlier stuff went over my head when released but listening as a teenager just blew my mind. Bizarre love Triangle, Thieves like us, Ceremony and so on. But to be absolutely clear on the genius of New Order. They released the best football song ever in World in Motion (way better than that 3 lions crap). “Happy” Blue Monday and here’s to Mancunian heterosexuals!
Your videos are always informative and entertaining, and reminders to go back to relive some cherished music whilst discovering tunes I missed. Cheers!
Love when you dive into the Manchester scene!
How can you not when New Order practically owned the Hacienda!
CEREMONY, Leave Me Alone, and Age of Consent! How did I not know about these songs until now?!!! Especially Ceremony. I'm telling you, this song is where it's at. These songs need to be blasted all over everyone's posts. Get them in films. THESE THREE EARLY SONGS NEED TO BE PROMOTED. [Remaster Ceremony ASAP and release it]. This is the melancholy sound I've been looking for. People will not believe the songs are decades old. These early New Order tracks have the same kind of vibe that is becoming the mood of 2024. See Cry (Cigarettes After Sex); Waste (Kxllswxtch); After Dark (Mr. Kitty).
Done it again, did ya. Making a Monday more groovy!
The first serious record I bought was Confusion. The Sound was new and electirc however the cover art by Peter Saville summed up the 80's for me, together they spoke of the future. I ended up doing a BA in Fine Art a few years ago and my Disertation topic was Peter Savilles art work for New Orders huge collection of Singles and Albums. Groundbreaking.
Hey mate! That's a really nice story. I'd love to read your dissertation because I'm in the same study field, is it possible? Cheers
@@JoaoGMiranda Hi I was about to say proberbly not as It was 7 years ago and I thought I'd lost the doc, but I just found it on an old hard drive :D Thing is its 82 pages long. No idea how I'd get a digital copy to you. I've just followed you on Instagram so could possinly chat via email if we can swap through instagram, not sure?
I read somewhere that Morris said that the iconic snares and kicks on Blue Monday were actually pre-installed on the Emulator, or that it came with a floppy disc of preprogrammed drum sounds and they just ended up using those. Great video either way!
I only got to know "Blue Monday" in 1988, when I was about 14. A radio station I used to listen to had an ad playing the song for a new local dance club, and I quite literally went a bit out of my mind for a few days wanting to know what that was. Then my friend told me something called Substance had just been released and I went and bought that double vinyl based on that song alone. Over 35 years later, I still listen to this song about once a month and it secured a place in my "top 20 desert island songs" list. (I also recorded a "Blue Monday" cover using an "imaginary rock band" configuration and, while it didn't come out quite as expected, is still a great proof-of-concept that I'd love to bring to the real world with a real band.)
Back in the day I learned about Blue Monday and it's iconic LP long before I was actually into NO. I've enjoyed this song for so long that I didn't expect to learn more about it but you did it! Thanks from a fresh subscriber 👍
I've been waiting for you to do a New Order video. I'm the biggest New Order stan I know... own every Factory Records vinyl and CD, read every book, followed them on tour in South America... and I still learned some new things from this video. Top notch work as always.
Still have my original 12” single of Blue Monday from 1983…. And everything else released by New Order…. Best band ever!!!!
Every time I see one of your new videos, I know it's going to be a banger. These are always just top notch.
Magnificent work, as always. And it brings back a lot of memories from this time, back then. Ninth grade at school, this was the thing!
thank you for this video! i always liked the idea that there's some thoughts on domestic abuse in the lyrics, too. especially the opening lines with the "-you've laid your hands upon me" kinda fit that theory i think. but admittedly, it's also how i personally relate to the song as a survivor. blue monday and all day long off brotherhood are definitely my favourites for this reason.
Always good to hear some real critical analysis of the industty, the creative process and the spaces in between.
New Order is so special. I adore their music. They have such a wonderful balance of punk freshness, dance vibes, and complex feelings about the parts of life regularly simplified in pop music. I love their early stuff especially, Everything’s Gone Green and such. Amazing.
Thank you for the new video! I have always been fascinated by New Orders music. Would you consider doing a video on Gang of Four?
I remember another time they did it live on the BBC for 1984's Rock Around the Clock marathon. Barney in short shorts pitching his vocal an octave too high and nearly strangulating his bollocks. Faster but slower...
Best channel on KZhead. I'm surprised though that you didn't mention the credit card commercial with the Geisha. That's where I became aware of the song.
Fantastic video. Can you guys do one on Bill Nelson or David Sylvian? They are legends and deserve some credit
+1 for David Sylvian. "Brilliant Trees" is one of my favorite LP's, but I know nothing about what he did before and after that.
Or do the Japan story
Yeah, he was in the band Japan before that, and their career is great, and then his first solo LP was Brilliant Trees which is just amazing, and he went on to do a lot of the that same kind of thing, just a good all round musician/artist. Same goes for Bill Nelson, he was in the band Be Bop Deluxe before his fantastic solo career.
Bill Nelson - Contemplation. And it’s Prologue. Have it in cassette form only. Could never find a digital version. Always want it.
@@AKACitizan101 that is one of his all time best compositions
I didn’t expect this story to include GERRY & THE HOLOGRAMS (a classic Absurd Records release)… 48 Chairs ‘Snap It Around’ 7inch being another classic. Love the Manchester scene!
That B-side (Increased Resistance) is SO GOOD, btw
Outstanding work, as always. Now you have to do one about "Theme From S-Express" 💚💜
Thank you for making a video about my favorite band. This was good for the soul!!!
My favourite band too. Plus JD so a two for one
Blue Monday was released in March 1983. The Walk was released in July 1983... And from my understanding The Walk was written before Blue Monday. But Blue Monday was released first. They used to be SUCH a GREAT band. *sigh
Brilliant work TT, on a band that remains canon in my life, thanks for the research. Power Corruption & Lies still gets me after 40 years, I love playing it to young folks and ask them to guess when it was recorded.
Great video, thank you. I remember buying this when it came out. It just sounded so different and fresh when I was a kid. Then came Relax and so many other great early 80s iconic tunes that really opened up the world for me and our generation.
Thanks for the great video! In 1985, I bought the 12-inch of Blue Monday, and yes it has the holes. I still have it, along with Joy Division and other New Order albums. However, having seen them live 3 times during the 80s, the performances were always pretty dull compared with the other bands I was seeing. It didn't dull my appreciation of them, though!
Got into JD and NO after getting a transistor radio for my birthday and listening to some dude called John Peel play loads of songs I'd never heard of by a band I didn't know even though I was from the same town, and sounding really sad and depressed. I wrote down a lyric 'Walk in silence' thinking that it was a good line and some mates from school the next day were all sad and depressed about some bloke topping himself. One of them leant me a tape on the card names 'Disorder' 'Isolation' 'She's lost control' fucking weird words not like 'She loves you' or 'All you need is love' and from the moment I pressed play, that was it...
Funny how this came up. I was on a minor New Order kick, especially with "Age of Consent," probably my favorite NO song, along with "Love Vigilantes." "Blue Monday" never gets old.
This video prompted me to look through my album collection, and I have 6 of theirs, including the 12 inch single with the holes in the cover as well as the Power, Corruption and Lies album with the holes in the back side of the cover. I also saw them live back in the day and thought they sounded great. This back story is all news to me.
I absolutely adore your docs. They are the best of my youth man…
Back in 1982, I was working for British Gas, me and another engineer were replacing the central heating unit at Bernard Sumners house (council house in Irlam near Manchester) the other engineer accidentally set fire the house, everybody urgently evacuated the house but me, I saw a master tape reel in the hall labelled Blue Monday I saved it and the rest is history
I don't know how you do it, but the last line of every single one of your videos has me itching SO BADLY for more
Yet again Great vid...Love the work involved Thank you
This is your best work, an impeccable documentary of one of the greatest songs ever. Excellent video
huge jd/new order fan here.... i can't wait to dive in!!!
This documentary is brilliant thankyou so much. I was a teen when it came out and i still love it to this day, and this is so good to watch how it was developed. Its a masterpiece and will always be loved. ❤
🤣 I was literally just listening to Blue Monday. It’s my absolute favorite song. I recall reading Pete Burns’ autobiography and he makes great mention of being a huge Sylvester fan and trying to get that sound with “Spin Me”. I think the creatives in that era could all see a phantom bubbling from underground and early disco and were seeking ways to manifest what the sound of the 80s eventually became. Despite the racism and homophobia Disco faced, I love that it was given new breath by bold artist who weren’t going to be phased by bigots and wanted to get the people grooving. High vibes
The octave bassline in You Spin Me Round is a giveaway of the influences.
Disco essentially was the precursor for house and techno in the 80’s. In the UK it was never as vilified as it was in the US, the whole ‘disco sucks’ backlash seemed to be to tied in with redneck racist mentality. To me disco produced a lot of fantastic music and is part of the lineage from the James Brown 70’s funk era into early house. That’s what I think is so cool about New Order, that they were so influenced by the New York club scene, that separates them from Joy Division. That led directly to them building the Hacienda as well which also played a big part in UK music history.
it wasn't racism....it was rock music fans that were tired of everything and everyone doing "disco". It got over played and over used on commercial radio and the genre became a caricature of itself (see the song "Disco Duck"). Disco was ruined by overexposure by the corporate music industry. Yeah, Tina Turner had no white fans.....as did Michael Jackson (sarcasm). I'll give you the "homophobia" aspect because disco's roots was in the gay clubs, but the "Disco Sucks" mantra was applied to both white and black artists.
@@tr1522 Oh OK - just homophobia, but not racism? That makes it OK then... (that was also sarcasm).
@@lucasm3879 please point out where i said either of those things are OK
Another brilliant dissertation Sir. Highly entertaining and memory provoking. Thanks!
Great video thanks for doing this one. I was an eighties clubber and this record never EVER failed to fill the floor. Probably the most quoted 'fact' where I come from is the loss of money on the productioon.Depending on who's telling the story I've heard everything from 50 to £2.50 a copy!
Thanks for this, on this bluest of Blue Mondays. I remember seeing NO in 1988, and at one point during Blue Monday nobody was playing anything, just the drum machine and sequencers pulsating. They could’ve left the stage and gotten some pints. 40 years on power corruption and lies is still a masterpiece.
Thank you for teaching me so much about my favorite song that I had no idea. Incredible video!
That Flunk version of Blue Monday was my wake up alarm song for years. I should use it again.
I see what you did there
I don't. Care to explain?
@@InkAndPoetToday is “Blue Monday” day. It has that name because it’s considered as the saddest day of the year in theory. Nothing to do with the song or the band.
@@Mezzanine_ ah thank you
@@Mezzanine_Great info, thanks!
I saw it at 20:55 I'm embarrassed it took me so long. 😂
Your videos are fantastic. Thank you for making them. I see both things I remember and things that I missed.
Fantastic research and writing, and a really entertaining run through all of the so many disparate elements of this song. Embarrassingly, when this first came out, I got so stuck on the lyric "I see a ship in the harbour," that I assumed that "Ikannan" was a "shallow bay" somewhere. I never did find it 😕
Bernie plays an excellent melodica on Truth.