Chapter and verse New Order, Joy Division and me

"Los Angeles produced the Beach Boys; Manchester produced Joy Division," writes former Joy Division band member Sumner. The Beach Boys' music was full of "warmth and sunshine," while Joy Division's music was "cold, sparse, and, at times, bleak," like Manchester. In meandering style, Sumner tells a story that is also sparse and bleak. In the absence of a stable family life, Sumner and his friends, including his future bandmate Peter Hook, discover music on the rough-and-tumble street corners of Manchester; he acknowledges that the music from the movie The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was the first music to "knock him sideways." From his first gig-at the Electric Circus in Manchester-he learns how to be a performer, and the songs that make up Joy Division's most famous album, Unknown Pleasures, grow out of that gig. Singer Ian Curtis's suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour dramatically alters the musical landscape for Joy Division, but out of the ashes of that band rises New Order, fronted by Sumner and Hook, whose music grows increasingly popular through the 1980s. Rock and roll success leads to excess, as the members of New Order descend into endless partying and drug abuse. Sumner's writing can flatten at times, but to fans of Joy Division and New Order, this will be a mere respite from an otherwise good story,. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A reticent British rock star opens upa little. The transformation of Joy Division, an influential cult band, into New Order, a phenomenally popular institution, is one of the most intriguing success stories in all of rock. With the 1980 suicide of frontman Ian Curtis, Joy Division had appeared to be over. Yet the remaining three members stayed together and changed their name and musical direction. Since then, they sustained a level of accomplishment and fan loyalty that transcends generations and that is beyond the expectations of its members. No one is better positioned to tell this story than Sumner, the guitarist who shifted sideways into Curtis' role as singer and who became the primary motivator in the shift into the electronic dance music that has made New Order a popular mainstay. Yet Sumner has never attracted the cult of personality that Curtis did, and he has been reluctant to reveal much of himself, even after his boyhood friend and longtime band mate Peter Hook left the group, charging Sumner with taking too much control and the other musicians with simply following the leader's orders. "I've gone into great detail here in order to set the record straight," writes Sumner, though Hook has a different story (see his 2013 book Unknown Pleasures), as even Sumner's account finds him taking more responsibility for the musical creation and direction, and the other members of New Order rarely seem more than bit players. The author's family life as an adult receives even less mention, except for an occasional reference to his children. But he's particularly good on his own Dickensian childhood, raised by parents who suffered from severe health issues. As for the tonal shift in New Order, he writes, "our music had become so incredibly dark and cold, we really couldn't get any darker or colder." Thus the band that had prided itself on its homegrown musical direction was increasingly in the thrall of club beats. Given the author's previous reticence, fans of both bands will find this memoir revelatory. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.