Monday's Long Song

In July 1986 Factory Records held a festival to celebrate ten years since punk, the Festival Of The Tenth Summer (specifically it was to celebrate ten summers since the Sex Pistols played Manchester's Free Trade Hall on 4th June 1976, the gig that set it all off). There were ten events and the festival had its own Factory catalogue number- Fac 151. 

Between the 12th and 20th of July there were: a Peter Saville exhibition at the City Art Gallery; a fashion show at the Hacienda called 'clothes'; an exhibition by photographer Kevin Cummins at the Cornerhouse; a book with contributions from Richard Boon, Cath Carroll and other Factory/ Manchester associated writers; six music events held in different venues with groups including Margi Clarke, The Durutti Column at the town hall, The Bodines, James, Easterhouse, Happy Mondays and The Railway Children; a new music seminar in the Gay Traitor bar in the Hacienda; some merch including t- shirts, postcards, badge and a boiler suit designed by Saville; an exhibition of music related graphic design at Manchester Poly; some music related film screenings (Stop Making Sense, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Rude Boy, Pretty In Pink, the premiere of Sid And Nancy); and finally, G- Mex The Tenth Event, an all day festival in a former railway station that only a few years before had been a semi- derelict car park with The Fall, The Smiths and New Order at the top of a bill that included John Cooper Clarke, ACR, OMD, Sandie Shaw, John Cale, Margi Clarke, Pete Shelley, Luxuria and Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders (!). 

New Order have a box set about to come out, an expanded edition of 1986's Brotherhood. I'm not trying to convince you to buy it. I won't be- I definitely don't have £179.99 for an expanded edition of Brotherhood. It looks fairly poor value for money (the album remastered on vinyl and CD, a handful of extras including some extended versions released elsewhere, some demos from Japan and a couple of previously unreleased mixes, plus a pair of DVDs of live appearances including - and this is the most interesting part of the box set- the G- Mex performance in full plus a set from New York in the summer of 1987 and some other live songs). Last week The Perfect Kiss at G- Mex was released onto YouTube. The whole gig will hopefully follow, New Order headlining the Festival Of The Tenth Summer, following all their contemporaries on stage with a climatic set that opens with Elegia (from Lowlife) and takes in several mid- 80s classics, and then Ceremony (with Ian McCulloch providing guest vocals) and finishing with Temptation. No encore. Eight songs in, we have New Order and the full nine minute majesty of The Perfect Kiss live. 

From the moment those synth drums come in its clear they're on it. Hooky gives a blast of bass. More drums, a rising sense of anticipation. Bernard eventually steps to the mic, and utters the immortal words, 'Vodka. Vodka. Vodka'. He stumbles around a little looking at his guitar, with a look on his face that says, 'what's this for?'. Hooky's bass takes the lead and Bernard finds the mic and the lyrics. Bernard's guitar break is as it should be, Stephen and Gillian have everything covered. At three minutes Bernard comes back for the second verse, some of which he misses completely, some of which he sings while cracking up laughing, presumably at his own words, and equally presumably the ones about staying at home and playing with his pleasure zone. At four thirty eight Hooky moves to the synth drums and hammers away, and then loses a drumstick which throws him for a moment. Stephen brings the frogs in. Bernard plays cowbell. I say plays- it's got little relation to the rest of the rhythm but he's giving it all his concentration. They all get it together for the ending which is huge, guitar, bass, drums, synths, frogs, the lot, steaming on to the conclusion. And towards the end, Bernard gets his vodka. More vodka. New Order in their full mid- 80s glory, battling with their sound and equipment while inventing new musical forms, totally unprofessional and sounding magnificent. 

The Perfect Kiss (12" Version)