The second round of New Order’s outdoor shows will be an all-day event and homecoming performance held at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park on August, 24. The exciting hometown show will feature UK artists Johnny Marr and Roisin Murphy as supporting acts.

We are pleased to announce two UK shows, at Cardiff’s Alexander Head with @thecharlatans, and at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester with @Johnny_Marr and @roisinmurphy.

Presale tickets are on sale at 10am on 04/12 General on sale begins at 10am on Tuesday 05/12.#NewOrderLive pic.twitter.com/ddJvOEZoxy

— New Order (@neworder) November 29, 2023

In 2023, the iconic synth-pop band celebrated the 40 year anniversary of their legendary track “Blue Monday”, and announced a reissued edition of their best selling compilation album Substance 1987 to celebrate the occasion.

Moreover, founding member of the group Bernard Sumner recently joined forces with American band Gorgol Bordello to cover Angelic Upstarts’ classic punk hit “Solidarity” in order to donate profits to a relief charity in Ukraine.

When it was first recorded, the song was written in support of the anti-Communist Solidarity movement in 1980s Poland, and went on to be the band’s most famous hit. Now, Gogol Bordello have introduced a new, alleged modern meaning to the original track, with the lyrics relating to ongoing attack on Ukraine.

Sumner had also spoke out on his feelings towards the conflict in Ukraine in his recent collaboration with Mella Dee on the song “Riptide”. When speaking to NME about the song, he said: “It was all about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and I was just seeing that all of the time. I’d been in a vacuum so I wrote it about politics, really, and the war. I wanted to write it about something that meant a lot to me,” he added: “I didn’t know what else I could write a song about. It was a bit like that scene out of A Clockwork Orange where he’s got his eyes pinned back and he’s made to watch all these horrible films.”

Presale tickets for New Order’s outdoor UK shows will become available at 10am on December, 4, with general sale for tickets starting at 10am the following day on December, 5. You will be able to purchase your tickets here.

Tour dates:

22/08/2024 – Cardiff Bay – Cardiff
24/08 – Wythenshawe Park – Manchester

He explained that Be a Rebel was originally written for the last album, 2015’s Music Complete, but never made it on. Its new incarnation is a remix by Sumner himself, made during lockdown. Some fans have expressed disappointment that New Order’s long-awaited return only takes the form of an old album leftover being remixed, but nevertheless there is a buzz about it.

New Order rose like a phoenix from the ashes after the death of Ian Curtis and dissolution of Joy Division. After starting off in the shadow of their former band, New Order have managed to arguably surpass Joy Division in popularity.

Their first single Ceremony in 1981 used lyrics that Curtis had written a week before his death. This and their subsequent debut album, Movement, was fairly similar to the sound of Joy Division. Both Sumner and Hook seemed to be trying to emulate the dreariness of Curtis’ vocals and the lyrical content was equally dour.

It was after the band started spending time in New York City that they began to find their unique sound. The thriving underground club scene there in the early eighties was accompanied by the sounds of Chic, Sylvester and Afrika Bambaataa.

Sumner’s told Q magazine in 1991: ‘I literally saw the light when I was in New York with New Order and I went to this club… someone had spiked my drink with a tab of acid…and all of a sudden this electronic music – Giorgio Moroder, Afrika Bambaataa – made sense’. Sumner had seen the light, electronic dance music was the future.

From then on, New Order experimented more heavily with electronic equipment and synths, creating innovative dance tracks like Confusion and famously Blue Monday in 1983 that epitomise their fusion of post-punk and dance music. This movement from ‘dark gloomy gothic group‘ to ‘disco divas’ was described by Jon Savage as ‘incredible’. But the seeds may have been sown as early as the Joy Division days when Curtis used to bring Kraftwerk records to band rehearsals.

Blue Monday was New Order’s first big hit. That distinctive thumping dance beat from the drum machine and the video-game-like synths still get the crowds going. The iconic use of church organs gives the song a sense of reverence and Sumner’s vocals were by this time hitting the mark. This time there was no attempt to recreate Curtis’ voice because let’s face it, no one could.

With their 2015 release Complete Music, however, the band lost some of their early energy. Likewise, Be a Rebel is a pleasant listen, but ironically sounds more dated than their earlier output. Let’s hope the phoenix that is New Order will rise once again.