History: When New Order played Rochdale

New Order are one of the UK's most successful and durable bands. They were founded in 1980 by the three surviving members of Joy Division after the tragic death of singer Ian Curtis.

New Order are perhaps most famous for their best selling 12 inch single Blue Monday and their 1990 football song World In Motion (featuring a rap by John Barnes) which topped the British charts. One of their first ever gigs was in Rochdale.

Ian Curtis had died on May 1980 on the eve of Joy Division's first American tour. Understandably, the tour was cancelled. Curtis's death was a huge blow to his bandmates, family and many, many fans. He was an effective, if unlikely, frontman for a band as surviving television footage shows. The band's famous single, Love Will Tear Us Apart was a Top Twenty hit soon after.

The band were at something of a crossroads and eventually changed their name to New Order.

New Order went from being a trio to a quartet with the addition of Gillian Gilbert on keyboards and occasional guitar. Gillian had grown up in the same street in Macclesfield as drummer Stephen Morris and was his girlfriend. She had been in her own punk rock band, The Inadequates and had attended many Joy Division gigs. By joining New Order, Gillian's presence allowed Bernard to concentrate more on his singing.

At this time the popular music scene had very few female musicians in (the largely male) bands – the names that spring to mind are American Tina Weymouth, bassist in Talking Heads and Australian Lindy Morrison, drummer in The Go -Betweens. Women in rock and pop tended to be solo, lead or backing singers. None of New Order's contemporaries such as Depeche Mode, Japan, Simple Minds, Teardrop Explodes, Echo & The Bunnymen and Public Image Ltd had a female musician in their ranks. There were some all female bands that had sprung from the punk era such as The Runaways, The Slits and The Go-Go's. So Gillian Gilbert's role in New Order was highly unusual and significant.

New Order's concert on Friday 19th December 1980 at Rochdale College

– the same building on St Mary's Gate that is now known as Hopwood Hall College – was presumably in the main hall. I remember attending public meetings there in the early 1980s. This is roughly where the Riverside Salon is now situated. Promoted by the council's entertainments department, tickets costs just £1. The support band were another Factory band, Crispy Ambulance whose singer, Alan Hempsall had once stood in for Ian Curtis at a gig in Bury.

On a band fan forum, one David Allison writes “Great night. Tony Wilson was drunk and I was young and more into punk so who was this band playing this music?”

(Tony Wilson was, of course, the Granada Television presenter who also ran Factory Records and later helped set up The Hacienda.)

The Rochdale gig's set list is also provided on the New Order website; the band played nine songs including two future singles – Procession and Ceremony. These were both Top 40 hit singles the following year on Factory Records. A friend of mine attended the gig and has helped fill in the picture; he told me that “Hooky's bass was too loud” and “there weren't many there”!

I am hoping that my article will jog some memories of Style readers who were also present at the gig. Perhaps somewhere in the Rochdale borough there are rock bands with both young men and women, with all involved making an important contribution.

A few major rock musicians have employed female musicians over the years: David Bowie, Jeff Beck and Prince spring to mind. But these all came after Gillian Gilbert's participation in New Order.

Gillian's understated style can be seen on umpteen YouTube videos, not least when New Order (notoriously) performed Blue Monday live on Top Of The Pops forty years ago.

In a decade of attention-seeking divas, it was wonderful to see a female musician in command of her instrument and being a positive role model to the audiences.

Richard Lysons

With thanks to Rochdale Local Studies Library and Marc Gleeson