As I have indicated at various times in various articles published here, my favorite rock band is the Manchester quartet that rose from the ashes of Joy Division. Upon the suicide of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, the remaining members recruited keyboardist Gillian Gilbert and rechristened themselves New Order. What followed was the transformation of a guitar-based band into one of the most influential synth-based bands of the 80s. Just about any alternative band since the mid-80s owes a debt of alliegance to New Order. Manchester was a particularly fecund breeding ground for post-punk bands, including A Certain Ratio and The Smiths, but it is New Order that remains the poster band for the city’s place in music history.
Several web sites are devoted to New Order and their multiple spin-off projects, but the premiere site for any serious New Order fan simply has to be Neworderonline.com. Neworderline is the centralized web location for any and all things that have to do with New Order. It is a community site, not the official New Order site, which could use a bit more attention, if you catch my drift. For anyone who considers himself or herself a serious Joy Division or New Order fan there simply is no other place on the entire world wide web that gives you half of what you can get at Neworderonline. Even if you are as obsessive as I am and own every single remix New Order has released to date-something much easier to do with the advent of the internet, but still a Herculean task-then chances are you already on the trolley about the site. Despite that, I’d be willing to toss a few Benjamins down on the table that there will be something here you haven’t discovered before. (For instance, a live version of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK by our Manchester friends!). On the other hand, if you count yourself among those unfortunately people who have never heard of New Order, this web site is the best place to start your journey toward finding out that pop music doesn’t have to be bland, artless, homogenized and packaged by Fox Television.
What will you discover at Neworderline? Constantly updated news about not only the band itself but the members of the band. Find out when new releases are coming out well before they hit stores. Neworderline, for instance, is a far better place for information about the upcoming Ian Curtis biopic than the movie’s official web site. In addition, the site offers biographical information about not only bandmembers but other essential components to the band’s success ranging from designer Peter Saville who is responsible for New Order’s truly unique and wide-ranging cover art to late singer Ian Curtis whose suicide marked the beginning of New Order after the other members decided to change the band’s name from Joy Division following his death.
As any fan of New Order/Joy Division knows, for a band that has released only handful of albums over the course of its multi-decade existence, but when you take into consideration all the compilations, live albums, singles and remixes dedicated to the band (not to mention all the music they’ve produced separately under their various side projects) trying to make sure you’ve collected everything they’ve ever recorded is a monumental task not for the faint hearted. Well, it used to be. Neworderonline features a discography section that is as stunning in its completeness as it is organized in its layout. If you think you know every piece of media on which a New Order song can be found, you will be surprised. Trust me. For instance, did you know that New Order provided a song for the soundtrack of World Rally Championship on Playstation 2?
The site’s audio/video section contains fully listenable (not 30 second samples) selections of a handful of New Order online mixes, b-sides, demos, promo versions, collaborations with other artists, midi files, live tracks and cover versions including a New Order version of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK. In addition, there are videos of pretty much every available video the band and its various side projects have ever made. There are the requisite forums where members can share your opinions with other fans, and a shop where you can purchase New Order-related merchandise.
Although there is an official New Order web site that is getting better and better, this was the first truly great New Order web site and undoubtedly will remain the place on the web that New Order fans go to first to find out what’s going on with the greatest band in the world.
