New Order formed in 1980, following the death by suicide of Ian Curtis, singer in Joy Division. After Curtis’s death, the remaining members of Joy Division re-formed as New Order. The band’s first live performance was as a trio on 29 July 1980 at the Beach Club, Manchester. At the time, they had not yet decided on a name. In rehearsals, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris took turns on vocals until Sumner eventually took on the role of singer. Sumner, Hook and Morris wanted to complete the line-up with a fourth member, and keyboard player and guitarist Gillian Gilbert joined the band in October 1980. As Morris’s girlfriend, Gilbert was well known by the band, and had played live with Joy Division. Gilbert’s first live performance with New Order was on 25 October 1980 at The Squat venue in Manchester. Her first recorded appearance with the band was a re-recording of New Order’s first single, ‘Ceremony’, with Gilbert on guitar. The re-recorded version was released in September 1981. New Order incorporated dance rhythms and electronic instruments into their new wave sound and were one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. They became the star band on Factory Records. Their 1983 track ‘Blue Monday’ was the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. Between 1981 and 2015, New Order released ten studio albums and 42 singles. Initially, New Order continued in the vein of Joy Division by not releasing album tracks as singles. From 1985 and the release of Low-Life, however, the majority of the band’s singles have been tracks taken from albums. New Order temporarily disbanded in 1993 following the release of the album Republic and the financial collapse of Factory Records. Individual band members worked on their own projects – Sumner formed Electronic with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Hook formed Monaco, and Morris and Gilbert concentrated on The Other Two, the side project they started in 1990. New Order reunited in 1998 at the suggestion of their manager Rob Gretton, meeting up first to make sure that they all still got on. Gilbert left the band in 2001 to look after her children with Stephen Morris, and was replaced by Phil Cunningham on keyboards and guitar. Hook left New Order in 2007, following artistic differences with Sumner. Sumner put the band on a second hiatus in 2009, forming Bad Lieutenant with Cunningham. The 2011 New Order reunion saw Gilbert return on keyboards and Tom Chapman of Bad Lieutenant on bass. Hook sued New Order in November 2015 for a fair share in New Order’s royalties, a legal dispute that took almost two years to reach settlement. The band’s most recent studio album, Music Complete, was released in 2015. A recording of their live performance with Liam Gillick for the Manchester International Festival in 2017 was released the same year. The band toured extensively between 2018 and 2020.

Ian Curtis was born in Stretford, Manchester in 1956. He was a singer and lyricist best known for being a member of the band Joy Division. He joined the band shortly after it was formed by Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook in 1976. Curtis recorded two albums, two EPs and five singles with Joy Division and toured extensively with the band between 1977 and 1980. During a 1978 tour with the band, Curtis began suffering seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy in January 1979. The difficulty of managing the condition, in particular the effects of the prescription drugs used to control the seizures, impacted on Curtis’s ability to tour. His condition and its impact on his life is thought to have been a contributing factor to his death by suicide in 1980. Curtis was married with a daughter at the time of his death.