Bernard Sumner never planned to sing for New Order. As a young man, he wanted to play guitar in his band, Joy Division. That was going well, until frontman Ian Curtis did something unthinkable to the sounds of an Iggy Pop record. Sumner found himself thrust into the spotlight; shouldering Curtis’ legacy while creating new music with a group of similarly anarchic Mancunians.
Truth is, Sumner grew into the role just fine. He relied heavily on intoxicating substances to get him through the first few decades, but his songwriting and studio skills delivered a string of hits. He also worked with fellow Factory Records artists and mates from the industry to create innovative dancefloor material. Barney, as he was known, turned out to be able to program a computer and compose the perfect rhyme. No wonder he ended up with him from the Pet Shop Boys and Johnny Marr, who had the inclination and the time. Together, they made lots of money.
The relationship that didn’t survive was the one with his prickly frenemy, bassist Peter Hook. The Sumner-Hook axis was at the core of Joy Division and New Order, but resentments, jealousies, pettiness, and drugs eventually led to Hook being nudged away from New Order and Sumner consolidating the band around his own vision.
What followed was The Battle of New Order Biographies, as Sumner and Hook traded blows through the promotion of competing narratives. The picture that emerged was of two Salford lads trying to get one up on the other, while living rock star lifestyles under the watchful eye of their coke-crazed manager. The fact that they lost enormous sums to fund the hobbies of Rob Gretton is something both resent but also shrug off. The main thing was that they had fun.
10. Joy Division – Digital
The band that was Warsaw (sometimes billed as Stiff Kittens) and became Joy Division was unique. Inspired by the Sex Pistols, they quickly transcended punk to create two magical albums that gleamed like cat’s eyes in the greyness of 1970s Lancashire.
Sumner’s contributions sound primitive today – as, to be fair, do those of the other members of the band. The one thing they knew was that they didn’t want to go to work in offices. Music was their way to escape that fate, as well as a great way to meet girls. Ian Curtis summoned the courage to tell off Tony Wilson to his face, and what happened next has spawned a million t-shirts.
9. New Order – Everything’s Gone Green
Martin Hannett was regarded as a bit of a genius, as a recording engineer, but he was also hard work. The sound of Joy Division was sculpted by his techniques, but the members of the band were subjected to random acts of cruelty in the studio. There came a point where, following the loss of Curtis and the reconstitution of the group, New Order gathered the strength to move in a new direction.
“Everything’s Gone Green” is the band in transition from post-punk gloom to euphoric pop. It is also the sound of them outgrowing their producer. It was the last single they recorded with Hannett, and it is strikingly modern. From the stutter of Sumner’s home-made synths to the whoop as ice was put down his shirt, this is New Order emerging from their chrysalis. After this single, nothing would be the same.
8. 52nd Street – Cool as Ice
Sumner’s skills as a composer and producer have often been outshone by his role as New Order’s lead singer. He has worked with a number of artists to craft iconic electronic music, outside of the band, under his own name and as Be Music.
52nd Street were fellow Factory Records artists. Rob Gretton, a Factory partner and New Order’s manager, put Sumner together with the group to give an electronic sheen to their soul. It worked.
7. Section 25 – Looking from a Hilltop
Section 25 was another fellow Manchester outfit, sharing space on Factory Records. Sumner leaned in to help with this track when – as he tells the story – the engineer didn’t show on time for their session. The result was a dancefloor-enhanced version of the band, lifted by Sumner’s growing confidence as a producer.
6. Electronic – Getting Away with It
Sumner’s interest in programming sequencers didn’t catch on with the other members of New Order. In 1988, he turned to Johnny Marr of The Smiths to work on a dance music side project. This was the first result of their collaboration, Electronic, which turned into a supergroup with the addition of, variously, Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys and Karl Bartos, the ex-Kraftwerk composer.
5. Happy Mondays – Freaky Dancin’
Sumner got his hands dirty working with Happy Mondays. The band famously rescued his Chinese take-away from the bin, when Sumner was finished with it. You can kind of tell from this track.
3. Bad Lieutenant – Sink or Swim
Named for the film starring Harvey Keitel, Bad Lieutenant was another of Sumner’s side projects. It drew in guitarists Phil Cunningham and Jake Evans. It functioned as a surrogate New Order, in some contexts, also involving drummer Stephen Morris and bassist Tom Chapman.
2. Shark Vegas – You Hurt Me
An evolution of Die Unbekannten, Mark Reeder’s subversive project was remixed by Sumner from the tapes originally recorded at Conny’s Studio. Notably, Reeder is the only person who appears in photographs alongside New Order in biographies by both Sumner and Peter Hook.
1. New Order – Atmosphere
Written while a argument was raging between Martin Hannett and the Cargo Studios manager, Atmosphere is Joy Division’s most sublime creation. Sumner sings it here, out of necessity and love – the two qualities he brings to music like few other.