We Break Easy

I think there are slim pickings from New Order's Gillianless reformation since the turn of the century. Live they've been good but the recorded stuff less so. In the summer of 2001 they announced a new single and album after a long lay off. We were on holiday near Whitby- our first holiday since I.T.'s bone marrow transplant the year before. It is I.T.'s fourteenth birthday today, which makes August 2001 seem further ago than ever, when he was only 3 and we had no idea what the future held for him. Or us. The in-laws and Mrs Swiss' sister, husband and infant daughter came and we all stayed in a holiday house. I was on holiday between leaving one workplace and starting at another. I knew the new New Order single was out on the Monday we were away. I was not confident of being able to get it from Whitby or anywhere else nearby but set out regardless and found a sole copy of the cd single in Woolworths in Whitby. The cd single and Woolworths no longer exist. Whitby has survived. Bought the single, took it back to the house, liked it- for three reasons: Steven's drumming intro, the return of clanging guitars into New Orderworld and the fact it wasn't a total stinker. Brother-in-law H was less impressed. Bernard's lyrics are of his 'wrote them on my teabreak ' standard ('here comes love, it's like honey, you can't buy, it with money). The album that followed Get Ready (shit title) had a couple of other good 'uns especially the beautiful closing ballad Run Wild (written for Steve and Gillian's child, undergoing life threatening illness- these things strike a chord with me) but had its fair share of filler too. Really, they should have called it a day after this. I listened to this just now- I still like it, it sounds like prime New Order although I'm not sure it's as good as memory told me. But I did see Bad Lieutenant do a great rendition live at The Ritz a few years back.

Crystal (single version)