“Where’s Hookay?!” goes up the lone cry near the start of tonight’s performance in a packed Usher Hall. Certainly, the absence of the Viking bass warrior’s glowering stage presence is palpable on New Order’s first UK tour since his walkout five years ago. Since then, “Hookay” has attempted reinvention as a walking heritage monument and steward to the legacy of Joy Division and New Order, a process which has clearly rankled upon the remaining band members who have now reconvened on what could be termed their “Revenge on Peter Hook” tour.
His name is, of course, taboo onstage, but much else of this evening points towards the past. A DJ spins a rapid fire stream of eighties Manchester dance anthems from the likes of 808 State and A Guy Called Gerald which go down a storm with an audience predominately made up of ageing forty-something old school rave couples. It’s as though the remains of New Order wish to salute their own past and recreate the glory days of Factory and The Hacienda.
So when New Order wander on at 9.15pm, the atmosphere is fittingly charged. It comes a bit of a letdown as they kick things off with stodgy versions of “Crystal” and “Regret” complete with muddy sound and near inaudible vocals from Bernard Sumner. This slight deflation continues for the first half of the show, as they meander around the lacklustre later days of their back catalogue, including their Chemical Brothers collaboration, “Here to Stay”.
Sumner banters that they may seem slightly rusty as they played Glasgow the night before and so there are a few hangovers onstage. Meanwhile, Stephen Morris keeps his head down and batters his drum kit into submission while newly returned Gillian Gilbert stands, as ever, frozen to the spot behind her keyboard. Secondary guitarist Phil Cunningham is the apparent holder of worst hangover but fulfils his duties stoically, while new bass player Tom Chapman has drawn the short straw in replacing Peter Hook. They’re impossible shoes to fill, but he perfectly duplicates Hooky’s densely melodic bass lines.
There is a sense of anticlimax, however, until the halfway point when Sumner announces that it’s time for us to dance. What follows is a prolonged blast of eighties electro pop-dance at its absolute finest. “Bizarre Love Triangle” brings out the heavy duty synths and drum machines, accompanied by Sumner doing his legendary “geography teacher at a disco” dancing, while “Blue Monday” remains as tightly yet flexibly inscrutable as ever. Highlight is a storming “True Faith” and by a final rousing “Temptation”, New Order have fully reclaimed their name. The Usher Hall is a sea of hands outstretched with voices raised and bodies gyrating, all partying like its 1989.
There’s only one way to go for the encore, and it dutifully comes with a furious take on Joy Division’s “Transmission” finished off with the inevitable “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. There is a feeling of real emotion within the audience, of having lived with this band and these songs for over thirty years and a sense that this is probably the end. No new recordings are planned from New Order and this tour seems to be a history-settling victory lap. But against the odds they can go out on a high. From ropey beginnings tonight to a stunning second half which blasted out one of the finest British pop back catalogues in rapid-fire succession. I doubt anyone left the Usher Hall this evening wondering where “Hookay” was.