A year before New Order released its megawatt compilation “Substance,” it was already riding a three-year streak, breaking out with “Blue Monday” in 1983, and the success of albums “Power, Corruption & Lies” (1983) and “Low-Life” (1985).
By the time “Brotherhood “ was released on Sept. 29, 1986, the band had already made its mark in the U.S. and on the soundtrack of John Hughes’ “Pretty in Pink” with “Shellshock” (the band’s instrumentals “Elegia” and “Thieves Like Us” were also featured in the film).
“Brotherhood” also marked an evident divide within the band, one that ended up splitting the album in two: The first side was more guitar-driven, derivative of the band’s Joy Division roots, and the second, sequencer-led electronic side, was something the band had begun dipping into by 1982.
Produced by New Order’s vocalist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, drummer Stephen Morris and keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, alongside engineer Michael Johnson, the first part of “Brotherhood” was recorded at Windmill Lane in Dublin, and the second was completed at Jam Studios in London. Once released, “Brotherhood” also delivered another hit that saturated American dance floors, “Bizarre Love Triangle.”
In between touring with his band Peter Hook & the Light, the bassist reflected on New Order and Joy Division’s upcoming induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the making of “Brotherhood,” and the experience of revisiting its two halves, live, again.
While celebrating the 25th anniversary of New Order’s “Get Ready” on tour (with Hook and the Light), the band’s “Brotherhood” also turned 40. As the years pass, does it feel like there’s a different anniversary at every turn?
Hook: When you start looking at how many bloody anniversaries there are, that’s where the algorithm on the internet has the ability to make you feel very old. I was 8 when that [“Brotherhood”] came out, by the way. [Laughs.] The interesting thing about “Brotherhood” is that I got to play it again in its entirety. I must admit, the whole LP was a delight to play. There were a lot of songs on “Brotherhood” that we never played live, so fans got to experience it.
Side A was the more guitar-driven tracks, and B had the synthier stuff. Sonically, how did “Brotherhood” end up splitting in two?
We weren’t getting on. Does that surprise you? [Laughs.] There was an acoustic side and electronic side. The A side was written with the three of us jamming, and then turning it into songs. We sort of got in a rut. Barney (Bernard Sumner) was getting very disenchanted with jamming for some reason, and most of our songs were written by me, Barney, and Steve jamming.
The B side was done primarily by Barney on his own with the sequencers. And the trouble with doing anything on your own is that when some gnarly bearded bugger turns up holding a bass guitar, you’re like, “Hang on a minute, it sounded great before. Do you have to play on it?” I’m in the … group. Of course, I have to play on it. So it became a bit of an us-and-them, if you like.
That’s the reason why there were two sides. There was the acoustic side to make me happy and maybe make Steve (Stephen Morris) happy. God knows what Steve was thinking — never told you. Barney was happy because all the synth songs were together on the other side.
Since the Joy Division days, graphic designer Peter Saville has always worked on the band’s album covers. What inspired the sheet of metal on “Brotherhood”?
The sleeve on “Brotherhood,” that was the weird one, wasn’t it, the piece of aluminum? Because we weren’t getting on, we couldn’t be bothered talking to Pete Saville, and he actually spotted a piece of metal in a builder’s yard. (Saville used a piece of titanium–zinc alloy for the cover, and early vinyl releases also featured a metallic sleeve.) He just decided to use it as the sleeve, and we were like, “Yeah, whatever, mate.”
New Order album titles often came from a collaboration of found phrases among the band — “Power, Corruption & Lies” (1983) was pulled from the back cover blurb of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” With all the divisiveness within the band at the time, how did you land on “Brotherhood”?
It belies the title. “Brotherhood” came from a book I was reading at the time. I used to do a lot of reading in the studio. Funnily enough, “Low-Life” (1985), we got off a television interview with a very famous journalist who drank himself to death. (During the 1970s and 1980s, British journalist Jeffrey Bernard wrote a weekly column called “Low Life” for the Spectator” magazine.) We heard the quote, “I’m one of the few people who live what’s called the low-life,” and thought, “Hang on a minute.”
Take me back to making the first half of “Brotherhood” at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin.
Dublin was great. It was great to be at Windmill Lane, and we were there for quite a while. Dublin was rocking at that time. We had a lot of after-hours bars and clubs, but their only criteria was that they couldn’t serve beer; you could get wine and pre-mixed cocktails. I do remember one wonderful club which was called the Pink Elephant.
We’d finish recording, and then used our notoriety, shall we say, to get into the Pink Elephant. It was quite handy that these clubs were open till 4 a.m. because we wouldn’t be starting work till 12. When you’ve not stopped fighting for 15 years after you split, it’s hard to remember what the hell you were arguing about at that point, but I do remember the house we were staying in was in a very famous place called the Devil’s something (a farmhouse located near the Hellfire Club atop Montpelier Hill in the Dublin Mountains before the band relocated to Blake’s Hotel in the city).
It was amazing that we got [the album] done at all. I suppose that was the start of a big division in the band. It’s weird. It brings back bad memories in a way, but Dublin was fantastic. We had some wonderful nights there.
Over the years, you’ve said that you grew to love the second side of “Brotherhood” more. Did it come alive for you more during the live shows with the Light?
When I think of the cloud that hangs over each album, when I play it [live] again, a lot of the time, I’m like, “Oh, I like ‘Brotherhood’ as an album. I like ‘Low-Life,’ ‘Power, Corruption & Lies.’ I like ‘Movement’ for all its problems.”
My battle with the other members of New Order has been ongoing, at full tilt for almost 15 years, and shows no signs of abating. The thing is, I do feel very alone sometimes in it, but whenever we play an album, it really is like bringing your soldiers home. When I listened to it again, the first side had a lot of life in it. Even though New Order never felt like an army going in the right direction, we had a knack, with [engineer] Mike Johnson, for being able to pull things together and get the record finished. And we got [“Brotherhood”] done. It was a great record. It really was.
Are there any specific “Brotherhood” tracks you’ve reconnected with now?
I loved the bass on “All Day Long,” and “Every Little Counts” is another one of my favorites. You know when he [Sumner] laughs after “I think you are a pig / You should be in a zoo,” I do remember that debate in the studio about whether we left it in or not. It was interesting. Some people like it and some people hate it. The thing I felt that most people remembered about the song was the laugh. I didn’t know whether it spoiled the atmosphere of the song or whether it made it less dreamy. When we play it, we actually do it without the laugh. Translating the songs is such a pleasure, and we have to redo all the synthesizers, but to re-create them from the bottom up is actually quite exciting.
All rifts aside, congratulations on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.
I did ask for a boxing ring, so we’ll see. [Laughs.] I am really looking forward to it, and I must thank our fans for their tenacity in making sure [we got in]. God bless them, and I will be dedicating everything to them on the night, because one thing I do know for a fact is that without them, we’d all be nothing.
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