New Order’s Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert have recently been interviewed by BBC Radio 6 Music presenter Chris Hawkins to talk about their career as a band. In the interview, the two also mentioned the public reaction to their formation as a band.
New Order was founded after the disbandment of Joy Division due to Ian Curtis‘ suicide in 1980 and gained many admirers; however, the band also faced much criticism from the Division fans. Despite this, they continued as a band, created many songs, and attended interviews to discuss their experiences. In the most recent one, they mentioned the backlash from the audience at the beginning stages of their band.
According to Morris and Gilbert, Joy Division fans were unhappy with the new band the members formed and chastised them for not being as good as the former. But the band members refused to listen to their disappointed remarks and kept doing their own thing while slightly enjoying their displeasure.
In the interview, Morris said:
“I think mostly they were saying, ‘You’re not as good as Joy Division.'”
Approving his words, Gilbert added by saying:
“People were very disappointed; you could see it in their faces.”
Finally, the drummer elaborated on the backlash and stated:
“They were mainly disappointed with you, ‘Your playing is quite girly.’ But that was quite good cause I liked upsetting the audience and there were a lot of upset people. We used to not do encores and short sets and not bother remembering how the songs went.”
New Order accumulated many fans during their career, but apparently, their existence was not appreciated by everyone as the fans wanted to see Joy Division in the band’s music and style. But the band members took the burnt and continued their journey with their new crew to create a path to enjoy what they were doing.
