At the ripe age of 16 and together with six school mates we headed off into deepest Ladywood for our first live exposure to the band known formerly as Joy Division. JD and NO were a bit of a cult band at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield with a couple of mates being influenced by their older brothers, one of whom at been at the last ever JD gig at Birmingham Uni. Blue Monday had obviously influenced us but it was Lowlife that did the trick and the opportunity to see them live could not be missed.
So, on to the gig, we eventually got into the venue at @ 8.30pm and the first support was The Wonder Stuff, their third or so gig I think. Not bad, fast guitars and the first hearing of "Unbearable" a top track. Then onto the Happy Mondays, a bunch of extremely pissed skinheads. Birmingham didn't know what had hit it! Soon most of hit was hitting the Mondays with beer and ashtrays flying at the stage.
The Tower Ballroom (which still exists) was a top venue and favoutite of New Order, being the third time they had played it. There were two 12ft plastic palm trees in the middle of the dance floor which were somehow still there at the end of the gig.
And so to New Order, the crush at the front was a nightmare and I soon lost one of my shoes and had to move back bumping into various gangs of lads moshing, this went mentle by Sunrise the third song. Having moved back I had the chance to watch the band in action and they were enjoying it. The start to Thieves Like Us was completely out of tune and Gillian just laughed. Towards the end of the set a storming Temptation (always my favourite). Hooky then uttered the words "and how do you follow that you may say, well this is how" before moving into the opening lines of Ceremony which nearly brought the house down. State of the Nation and a double encore of Wierdo and the Perfect Kiss followed but nothing could top the Temptation and Ceremony double bill.
A fantastic night and I was hooked. Was anyone else there?

Wasnae at it....I was only 11

But I do have the bootleg from this gig, years later, Gillian mentions in an interview that this was her favourite ever gig.
The band were in good spirits all right, and there were definitely a few shady moments...like there always are!
The heckler who shouts out "Yer a Pop group" quickly gets threatened by Barney & Hooky, the words "We might be a pop group.....but you're a fuckin wanker" spring to mind

I'm sure Barney offers him onstage fer a fight an all. Havnae listened to that gig fer a while

"Lecture me with poetry...tell me that I can"

You following me? I've posted the review on Neworderonline too. Didn't realise Gillian said it was her favourite gig, must be because of the balls up during Thieves Like Us! I could understand the 83 gig there being a favourite as they played LWTUA for the first time since JD. The Birmingham Powerhouse gig is funny too as Hooky and Barney offer out the DJ.

yes mark...i was at the above gig....great mini tour....they played malvern the night after...then went to london for a couple of shows....b-ham and malvern were and are two all time classic gigs...brilliant set list and great little venues...where the atmosphere was fantastic..

This is bringing back memories - what a night it was in amongst all that crushed red velvet and plastic palm trees.

This was definitely one of the best ever shows - Supported by a young and hungry Happy M's and an even younger Wonderstuff.

I seem to recall that Miles from the W'Stuff came on and did one track sat on his own on the edge of the stage about ten to fifteen minutes before the full W'Stuff set - anyone else recall this?

This was the first UK show after the release of Brotherhood and the band were on fantastic form. They did a short UK tour taking in the Town & Country Club and a couple of others.

I even got in and taped the soundcheck earlier in the afternoon!

This is also the day that they did their first signing-session @ HMV on New Street - an experience that put them off doing another for a whole heap of years.

I think I'm like a lot a others - this is up there with the top 5 or 6 NO shows. The other one that springs to mind is Preston Guildhall in (I think) 85 when it all just went fucking crazy with bottles and fists flying about two songs into the set.

I also loved that Big World Cafe thing they did for Channel 4, four tracks only in the Brixton Academy, packed to the rafters with more people than should ever have been allowed in. Despite the atrocious support slots (Diamanda Galas/ Edward the Second & the Red Hot Polkas anyone?) and the interminable delays the band were close up and very chatty to those of us down the front.

Tower Ballroom '86 was my first NO gig as well at the ripe old age of 17. I've still got a dodgy old live tape somewhere. As I recall they didn't come on stage till about 12-ish and our last train home was at 10.30! We ended up having to get a very expensive taxi back to deepest Warwickshire but it was worth it.

Also managed to get in for the Big World Cafe gig as well. I remember the stage was at the opposite end to where it usually was.Wasn't that the start of the inflatables down the front?!

My tape of the gig has part of the soundcheck on, This Time of Night was checked but never played. It might just be your recording!

Any of you at Reading in 1989, another classic in my book, slept over at the station after.

Oh, by the way, if any of you have a copy of the Malvern gig, let me know as I have all of that tour except that.

Cheers
Mark

No probs Mark - e-mail me and I'll sort you out a copy. Just been listening to Brum coincidentally, my all-time favourite gig too !

Thieves wasn't that bad !!!

However, I can't see your e-mail. Mail me on maj_smith@yahoo.com.

Thanks again.

neil....yes i also remember the guildhall gig...that was a very intimidating atmosphere...if i remember rightly the band nearly walked off after hookie got covered in ale.

Birmingham Tower Ballroom 2/10/86.Well one of the biggest regrets of my life was having to leave this gig after about 5 songs and as such i don`t class it as my first New Order gig which it would have been if i`d been able to stay.I had banked on them finishing by midnight and being able to get the last train home.However they came on late and for reasons i won`t go into i had to leave early.Sheffield Roxy was my first proper New Order gig 9 months later.
The Tower Ballroom is a great venue and i think New Order should play there again one day.I don`t remember anything about The Wonder Stuff but i certainly remember the Mondays.Of course in those days not many people south of Manchester really `got` the Happy Mondays( myself, i have to say, included!).Found them excruciating.Got into them finally with the remixes of WFL a couple of years later.Nowadays however i prefer to listen to `Squirrel And G-Man...` rather than `Pills ,Thrills And Bellyaches`.
New Order finally came on.Was it `Sooner Than You Think` first?.Can`t quite recall.There was loads of moshing and i was involuntarily lifted of the floor and was at one point facing away from the stage unable to turn back round!.I think `BLT` and `Thieves Like Us` followed.Had to leave soon after which i deeply regretted for ages after but have made up for over the years by staying to the end.I think Bernard said before one of the songs later in the show( if i remember from the bootleg) "this is for the ones that stayed!".Ironic.Hey, Bernard accept my apoligies but i really had a few problems which was i had to get the last train home.If New Order had come on earlier i would have stayed.

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Originally posted by Dub Vulture:
The Tower Ballroom is a great venue and i think New Order should play there again one day.

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They had the Birmingham ACADEMY pencilled in as a date on their tour last October. So don't know why that one didn't go ahead?

Then again, two nights at the Dublin Point and one at the Amsterdam Paradiso were also due to be part of that tour but, again, neither happened.

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Originally posted by Al Jarvis:

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Originally posted by Dub Vulture:
T.

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They had the Birmingham ACADEMY pencilled in as a date on their tour last October. So don't know why that one didn't go ahead?

Then again, two nights at the Dublin Point and one at the Amsterdam Paradiso were also due to be part of that tour but, again, neither happened.

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al..just curious..what sort of size venues are b-ham academy and dublin point...

Paul, Birmaingham Academy use to be called the Hummingbird and I have seen a few cracking gigs there, the Mondays, Pixies, Sugarcubes etc. Capacity is @2,500.

Saw Kraftwerk at The Hummingbird on their summer 1991 tour.Awesome.As the curtains reopened for the encore of The Robots the erm.. robots decended from the ceiling as the music started.Genius.

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Originally posted by paul:
neil....yes i also remember the guildhall gig...that was a very intimidating atmosphere...if i remember rightly the band nearly walked off after hookie got covered in ale.

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This was because BLACKBURN YOUTH and the NORTH ENDERS do't get on.I lived in DARWEN at the time and the YOUTH were nutters.Didn't get a ticket for this one.

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Originally posted by paul:
al..just curious..what sort of size venues are b-ham academy and dublin point...

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Dunno, about Brum Academy, never been there. But did do the Point thing in 93 for New Order. Big venue. Supposedly they has 2 nights pencilled in there last October, but couldn't really see how they'd hope to sell out one night nowadays. Must take about 6k people..

al....was the dublin gig where they played alongside the hothouse flowers....please tell me you were at the bar when they were on stage...

b-ham..malvern..preston...dublin...where is this thread taking us next???

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Originally posted by paul:
al....was the dublin gig where they played alongside the hothouse flowers....please tell me you were at the bar when they were on stage...

b-ham..malvern..preston...dublin...where is this thread taking us next???

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The Hothouse Flowers came on AFTER the Order, so I'd gone by then. New Order were s'posed to headline but went on earlier and we were indeed in the bar then. My best memory of the night was that there was two escalators at the back of the Point leading up to a bar area and when we'd all heard 'Hello, we're New Order' there's about 200 English blokes trying to get down BOTH escalators (including the 'up' one) in mad pandemonium to get into the venue proper.