New Order remains one of the most popular and influential bands of the last half century. After the death of Ian Curtis, lead singer for Joy Division, the three surviving band members - Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris - joined forces with Gillian Gilbert and became a new band. Founded in the dying years of the punk and disco movements, and combining elements of post-punk, new wave, and electronic dance music, New Order were responsible for some of the biggest hits of the era, and one of few bands to have achieved international mainstream success while retaining the reputation and status of a cult band.
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New Order remains one of the most popular and influential bands of the last half century. After the death of Ian Curtis, lead singer for Joy Division, the three surviving band members - Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris - joined forces with Gillian Gilbert and became a new band. Founded in the dying years of the punk and disco movements, and combining elements of post-punk, new wave, and electronic dance music, New Order were responsible for some of the biggest hits of the era, and one of few bands to have achieved international mainstream success while retaining the reputation and status of a cult band.
As the single photographer best liked and trusted by the band - since his first work photographing Joy Division for the New Musical Express in the late 1970s - Kevin Cummins was uniquely placed to document the rise and fall of New Order, from their formation in 1980 to their split in 1993. From their underground beginnings as the flagship group of the young Factory Records in Manchester to their biggest tours around Europe and the US, Cummins was close enough to capture the band in every light, from the intimacy of their home lives to the frenetic energy of their live performances.
Collected here for the first time are more than a hundred of Kevin Cummins' photographs reflecting more than a decade of New Order. Prefaced by a selection of ephemera from the band and featuring conversations with band members Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, as well as an introduction from the novelist and longtime admirer of the band Douglas Coupland, this is a stunning and elegiac celebration of a band whose influence on music and fashion is as palpable today as it was when they came together almost thirty-five years ago.
