New Order make outstanding return to Glasgow with energising and powerful show

New Order made a dazzling return to Glasgow as they performed at the OVO Hydro last night. The band last played live in the city almost eight years ago with a gig at the O2 Academy on their Music Complete tour which was their most recent album release.

Vocalist and guitarist Bernard Sumner and drummer Stephen Morris have a long history with Glasgow having first appeared in the city when Joy Division was the support act for The Buzzcocks at the Glasgow Apollo. It was fitting that last night’s gig marked exactly 44 years since that very day.

After an energetic performance from support act Confidence Man who got the crowd going, the atmosphere was starting to build in the OVO Hydro as the crowd awaited the Manchester legends to appear on the stage.

Kicking off with the track ‘Crystal’ from their 2001 album Get Ready, instantly you knew you were in for a treat as the sounds of the band on stage were accompanied by a stunning lights show that really was a spectacle. Bernard Sumner opened up saying “It’s good to be back Glasgow, sorry it’s taken so long” before going on to mention that the weather is still rotten.

One of the early highlights of the setlist following tracks such as ‘Age of Consent’ and ‘Ceremony’ was the Joy Division song ‘Isolation’ which had been given a bit of a twist. Although the band may not have released new material for many years, people were still keen on hearing stuff from their last release which didn’t seem out of place in the set.

After some dance tunes towards the middle of the set, the band headed into an outstanding three songs before the end of the gig as they began with 1987 hit ‘True Faith’ before the crowd erupted to ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Temptation’ before the band left the stage.

The encore was extremely powerful as the band played three Joy Division tracks as slow-motion images of Ian Curtis appeared above the band which was emotional in the sense that the young singer never saw his bandmates grow old as they closed the gig with ‘Decades’, ‘Transmission’ and ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.