Everything's In Order

Legendary Brit band New Order’s career spans four decades, ten studio albums and a handful of NME awards. They land in Dubai this weekend to play their greatest hits.

An outdoor arena in the North-West of England was packed for a much-loved band’s hometown gig. The frontman was 60 years of age, introducing songs as old as some of the audience, but no-one was sitting down – and everyone knew the words.

Last summer, New Order weren’t simply playing to a Manchester crowd hungry for nostalgia, they were as eager to please as a fresh young band with everything to prove. Bernard Sumner will never be a vivacious frontman – he’s too long of tooth and dry of wit for that. But, as his band-mates (minus, infamously, low-slung bassist Peter Hook) rattled through songs old and new they felt as vibrant, exciting – and excited – as the classic New Order of the 1980s.