New Order was the soundtrack to my late teens. Every Saturday night I’d hit the dancefloor at a scruffy little wine bar in Newcastle called The Gunfighter’s Rest. We’d dance up a storm to New Order and Erasure under the ultraviolet lights as the dry ice steamed out of our Dingo Dangler cocktails.
It was heaven.
We didn’t document every moment of our lives on social media back then, so I don’t have a single photo to show you from the Gunnies days.
All I have are the memories.
It took me until I was 48 to actually see New Order live on stage, when they appeared at Vivid in 2016.
I was having dinner with DD’s mate Cliff a few months earlier when he mentioned he’d bought two tickets to see New Order, but his wife couldn’t make it because she was going overseas. Talk about a serendipitous moment – I immediately offered to buy her ticket.
New Order has a special place in Cliff’s heart because he grew up near the original band members. He has all their LPs, including the latest ones.
I hadn’t been aware there were latest ones. My knowledge ended around the Blue Monday era.
Stunted playlist knowledge aside, finally seeing them live was the bulkest, most awesome fun.
Since then, the eldest has become a bit of a fan of the band too. I’ll hear the strains of their hits drifting out from under the bedroom door.
So when I heard New Order were returning to Sydney … to the Hordern Pavilion of all flashback places … I asked if he wanted to come along.
And so we found ourselves battling the Harbour Tunnel traffic last night with our hand sanitizer to see them perform.
Joke, we don’t have any hand sanitizer, it sold out weeks ago in our neck of the woods.
Interestingly, I saw absolutely no evidence of coronavirus panic in the throngs. The queues at the pub across the street were 10 people deep at the bar and the Hordern was a sweaty, heaving mass of humanity.
I tracked down my sister in the crowd, who also happened to be attending. Then I ran into a few school mums. We all jostled together and danced up a storm … with a few muttered comments about menopausal hot flushes not being ideal in such a steamy environment.
My favorite songs last night were Temptation and Blue Monday – they were transcendentally glorious. Those two songs alone justified the $95 ticket price. Magic.
The eldest’s verdict? He loved every minute. We raved about the gig to each other for the whole drive home, which was quite a long time, as it took 45 minutes just to get out of the carpark.
The eldest’s mind was also slightly blown when I said I was 14 when Blue Monday came out.
Speaking of stepping back in time, the eldest is a bit spoilt rotten on the music front this week and he’s heading to The Pixies with my ex on Saturday night.
He’s hoping there will be a mosh pit – the New Order crowd were a bit too low key for his liking.
It’s a hard life being 16 with a taste for 80s and 90s music.
UPDATE: Actually, cancel that … or should I say the Pixies have … they’ve just announced they’re ditching the rest of their Aussie gigs due to the Coronavirus. Although that pales compared to Trump just announcing all travel between the US and Europe has been cancelled. Far out!
Song of the day: New Order “Blue Monday
housegoeshome 
Leave a Reply