Blue Monday turns 40

You gave her blue Monday, and she gave you Norwegian wood?

 

In fact we developed a Joy Division influenced band.

My mother had bought the band black shirts from C&A - with grandad collars and diagonal gold zips (very Gary Numan)!!!!

Anneka sang a passable version of Love Will Tear Us Apart...

...I did one finger keyboard parts.

We were called quite pretentiously "Croix De Feu"...

I was an A Level history student and like Joy Division / New Order the moniker was right wing.

 

Yep, I was at that one too. Gillespie fell off the stage as I recall, he was that pissed. And I thought the Brighton Centre was an aircraft hangar, was nothing compared to Wembley Arena! Huge and totally soulless.

 

Brighton was a shed of a place, but they did seem to choose some ropey venues. The Fulcrum at Slough being a good example with poor acoustics.
The sprung floor at the Kilburn Ballroom at least provided extra height to the moshing!! We caught a girl that came flying out backwards not touching the floor!!!

 

I first heard it as an underage attendee of a disco at the Culbin Sands Hotel in Findhorn, it was one of two standout tracks that they played (the other was Homosapien by Pete Shelley). Crazy times, crazy place - you could buy read-rolled joints in the toilets!

 

I got the 12” on release. I was living in Brading on the Isle O Wight in a winter-let, back when buying records and clubbing was number one fun.
It is a loudly produced 12” but not as much as Love Will Tear Us Apart on 12”

I have this issue, sleeve is still intact as well!

New Order – Blue Monday


More images

Label: Factory – FAC 73, Factory – FAC SEVENTY THREE
Format:
Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Single
Country: UK
Released: 7 Mar 1983

 

There are some of us miserable ****er 'Detectorists' types that never recovered from Curtis topping himself and never bought anything after that other than 'Still'. I sometimes hear this song on the radio and it is just dull pop; I just don't get it. I admire the sleeve though.
The very coolest factory item is FAC 501.

 

I never knew that, looks amazing.

 

I'm sure I have this tucked away somewhere too. Great sleeve.

 

Aye I bought it on release or thereabouts can't find it either but I've got it somewhere or my son has it.

 

Me and my mates were still grieving for the death of Joy Division in “83. It certainly would have been seen as disrespectful to enjoy anything by New Order too much, especially the electro, dance aspect of Blue Monday. It scored points for the downbeat title and the spooky monks but wasn’t it the same league as Ceremony.

We went to see NO play a gig in Newcastle in the summer of 83 promoting the Power, Corruption and Lies album. I enjoyed it but the band had a few technical issues on stage and eventually fell out with the crowd at which point their roadies started fighting with the fans.

 

The French exchange student we had in 1981 hated "Ceremony" (Green 12") when I played it to him...

...not surprisingly he preferred Depeche Mode.