Talking points: New Order’s VIVID Talk

VIVID Live Talk: New Order in Conversation with Mark Reeder
Friday June 3

Last Friday night the Sydney Opera House Playhouse theatre was filled with fanslooking to gain some insight from a band whose influence spanscountlessgenres of contemporary music.

Unsurprisingly, New Order’s VIVID Live Talk was at times hijacked by its moderator,Mark Reeder, who hasworked with both Joy Division and New Orderin some capacity for the majority oftheirtwo existences.

Reeder, much like many of the key players in the Joy Division/New Order story, grew up in Manchester. He moved to Berlin and became the German rep for Factory Records, later starting his own Electronic Music label MFS.

Mark started the night by telling the story of how hefirst heardabout Joy Division. Working in a record store in Manchester at a young age he met Rob Gretton (who would become Joy Division’s manager and a founding member of Factory Records) as he’d frequently come by the store. “He was a regular customer and he came to me one afternoon and said ‘last night I saw the best band in the world […] Joy Division”. Never heard of em’.

Reederheard the same anecdotefrom another key player at Factory Records. “[Factory Records co-founder]Tony Wilson would come in and buy the records I kept aside for him. He came to me one day and said ‘I just saw the best band in the world.’ I said what were they called? ‘Joy Division’.

Later,the talk started to function as a free-for-all of anecdotes and an opportunity to clear up some mystery surrounding the band. Mark Reeder’s peculiar fashion sense has led him to do things that are technically illegal; like smuggling records into East Berlin, trying to smuggle an East German army uniform out of the country and getting caught with Nazi stamps in the uniform’spocket. This was new information for New Order’s frontman Bernard, who had no idea until the VIVID talk that every time Mark brought them into East Berlin he saw smuggling something.

Other stand out moments include the band (still Joy Division at that time) admitting that for one packed-out show in NorthernEngland, they werepaid in frozen chickens, only to losesaid frozen chickens to the supporting act over a bet.

Discussions about New Order’slatest effort Music Complete saw them reveal the marked difference in their recording process. Now, the band recordsentirely from the home of usband and wife members Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert. Do the band members’ children enjoy listening to New Order? Yes, but only before they throw their own music works back at their parents.

The closing fanQ&A helped clear up some rumours, but more often than not just muddied the waters even further. Founding member Bernard Sumner detailed the tediousness of choosing a set list when you have as long a career and discography as theirs, often times having to cut one fan favourite for another.

Crucially though, the strength of the talk was in itslack of structure.With talking points ranging from their first gig with Gillian Gilbert in Joy Division, to performing benefit concerts with the likes of Iggy Pop (which led to Iggy performing on Music Complete), the live talk provided an abundance of usually veiled information and insight into one of the world’s longest running bands.