Word: joyfully
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...Perpetual motion may help to save Sumner and his colleagues from that fate. This spring and summer, New Order top festival bills across Europe and the U.S., playing alongside young American bands like Interpol and the Killers, and British newcomers Bloc Party - all of whom are clearly influenced by Joy Division and New Order. The Scissor Sisters' Ana Matronic can be heard lending vocals to the New Order track Jetstream on Sirens' Call, while British music mag NME, a champion of young bands, this year honored the New Order veterans with a Godlike Genius Award for their career achievements...
...dark memory will occlude the band's sunnier disposition - May 18 marks 25 years since Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis hanged himself. His suicide ended the short but revolutionary run of New Order's precursor. Formed in 1977 by working-class Mancunians Curtis, Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris, Joy Division embraced the social anger and energy of punk and took it in a different direction - improvising with electronic sound and synthesizers. The band was on the cusp of commercial success, but Curtis, an epileptic who was tortured by his failing marriage, took a sad shortcut...
...soundtracks continue to win new adherents, too. "There's a sense of discovery for young bands, because Joy Division isn't that well-known commercially," says Sumner. Adds guitarist Phil Cunningham, a recent addition to the New Order lineup: "Everyone's got to have a starting point, and if you're looking for something that's emotionally driven, why not look back to Joy Division and New Order...
...Reformed as New Order in the weeks after Curtis' death, with guitarist Sumner at the mic, the band refused fans' calls to rerecord or play Joy Division tunes. "It would have been too painful; it reminded you of Ian too much," explains Sumner. He adds that the group needed to prove it could make it on its own living merits: "I didn't fancy being an Ian Curtis impersonator, really." That was never a danger. The 1983 song Blue Monday proved a smash hit with clubgoers - becoming the biggest-selling 12-in. single ever - and New Order further anchored themselves...
...Meanwhile, since ending a five-year hiatus in 1998 - which feuding band members at the time suspected would be permanent - New Order finally discovered the courage to confront its painful origins. "We were so glad to be back together, it just felt the time was right to start playing Joy Division songs again," says Sumner. "Also, it was the best way we could think of remembering Ian. It was almost like bringing him back to life - or as much as we could." Yet another reason for fans to be cheerful...