Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear & Live At Heaven 21/10/09

For those at the back of the class Bad Lieutenant are New Order's Bernard Sumner and Phil Cunningham's new project along with Jake Evans. Bad Lieutenant's sound, with a casual listen does come across like latter day New Order, but closer examination reveals there is a lot more going on. Judge for yourself.

On the album "Never Cry Another Tear" they are joined by Blur's Alex James and New Order/Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris, who both appear strictly as guests only. However, Morris has been playing live shows with the group. But more about that shortly.

I have discussed Bad Lieutenant here before and I was quite dismissive about them, to say the least. However, time is a healer, or something, the single "Sink Or Swim" is real grower, and the vast majority of the album is well listenable and as good as any of New Orders 1990s and beyond output.

The key tracks for me are "Twist Of Fate", "Summer Days", "This Is Home". "Shine Like The Sun", "Runaway" and the title track. Vocal duties are shared by Sumner and Evans. The latter has a slight Noel Gallagher sound about his voice, not such a bad thing, if given the choice between Noel and his ghastly brother Liam.

The live show at the famous London gay club Heaven was a triumph, with the core trio joined by Stephen Morris on drums and an unnamed gentleman on bass, yet despite playing tracks by New Order - "Crystal", "Temptation" and acoustic version of one of the best dance tracks songs ever committed to vinyl - "Bizarre Love Triangle", Joy Division's "Transmission", "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - all great but I have heard them hundreds of times before - along with a Electronic track and a Bernard Sumner guested Chemical Brothers track - I was left wanted to hear more Bad Lieutenant material, which for me spoke volumes.

Some pics I took at the show below, and then some audio clips.

Bad Lieutenant - Sink or Swim

What with the much needed demise of New Order last year, Bernard Sumner has a new project in the shape of Bad Lieutenant, who are basically Bernard, Phil Cunningham - latter day New Order member, and some other bloke. On this, their debut single "Sink Or Swim", they are joined by Stephen Morris, the fantastic drummer from New Order/Joy Division. So what it all boils down to is, that this is basically New Order without Peter Hook. The result is New Order late period/album track type-stuff. Meaning, that it's quite good and very much how you would expect it to sound. Quite good.

A debut album is due in October, but meanwhile here is the video for the single. I wouldn't get too excited.

New Order - 1963

For me this is easily one of New Order's best songs, but widely unknown due it's lowly status as a b-side of `True Faith'. Both tracks were released in 1987 and were produced by Stephen Hague. If `1963' had been released as a single, it would have been a huge hit, but alas that never happened.

New Order occasionally included it in their live repertoire, but it never got the airing it deserved.

Here is a audio clip of the original and a live clip from US during the 1989 `Technique' tour.

New Order - Live and Very Dangerous

New Order have always been one of my favourite pop/rock groups. I have always felt that they were very misunderstood, making the decision to follow their own path, rather than continue in the footsteps of Joy Division, which I guess they did for at least two singles and one album. For those who know, for along time they remained unconsciously punk in their attitude, regardless of the music they were producing. This was especially prevalent in their live performances, not playing tracks from the current albums, hap-hazard with regular bum-notes, out of tune singing, mis-timed, forgotten and improvised lyrics. These clips are a great example. The first, a clip from a hometown gig at the Hacienda, Manchester in 1985 and the second, a clip from a one-off BBC music all-dayer TV show called `Rock Around The Clock' in 1984. The first clip is notable for Bernard Sumner's guitar-throwing strop during `Sunrise`, and the second clip, out of tune singing and swearing during `Blue Monday' from the same culprit.