The best selling twelve inch record inch of all time, New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ has found an unusual critic – New Order bass player Peter Hook.
The band’s back catalogue has recently been re-released, along with a host of extras, and this has forced the group back into the limelight. New Order formed from the ashes of Joy Division and enjoyed critical and commercial success, before the splitting last year amid internal squabbling.
Despite several hit singles, including a number one with ‘World In Motion’, it is with ‘Blue Monday’ that New Order are indelibly linked. However, in a new interview Peter Hook has talked down the song, arguing that group actually made far better singles.
“I think it pales in significance compared to ‘Thieves Like Us’, which I thought was a far better song,” he said. “‘Blue Monday’ is like ‘Wild Thing’ by The Troggs. It grabs a hold of people and won’t let them go.”
The song has many myths attached to it, notably a catastrophic Top Of The Pops appearance. Hook added that the recorded track doesn’t have the original drum programming on it, due to drummer Stephen Morris being involved in an accident.
“Stephen’s very lazy and when he plugged in the DMX he couldn’t find a long lead, so he borrowed one off the kettle. To programme the DMX he had to put it next to the plug board under a chair. He caught his foot in the chair and the chair pulled the DMX, which pulled the plug out and wiped all the programming.”
“When you lose something thanks to electricity it’s never as good. So the drums that we did were never as good as the ones that were wiped!”
