So both Joy Division and New Order were just inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and the big question around that is if the members of those bands will attend, and if so, how will they interact? Given the public bad blood between Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner over the last two decades since Hook left New Order, it seems unlikely we’ll get a performance, but stranger things have happened.
Given his enthusiasm for the recognition, it seems more than likely that Peter Hook will be on hand, so I guess that ball is in Barney’s court right now.
I am so happy about being accepted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame you would not believe it! It’s such a compliment to all the fans of Joy Division and New Order and now it’s been confirmed.
Peter Hook, Joy Division/New Order
Peter Hook Is Thrilled With Joy Division/New Order’s Rock Hall Induction: ‘You Would Not Believe It’ @ Billboard
Perhaps they can consult with fellow Mancunians and class of 2026 inductees Oasis on how to get along? I guess we will cross that burnt bridge when we come to it.
It seems very obvious to mark the occasion with the song that, besides its titular relevance, is the musical bridge between the two incarnations of the band having been written by Ian Curtis and debuted as a Joy Division song, and then released as the first New Order single and becoming a signature song in a career with countless signature songs – “Ceremony”. The AV Club did a comprehensive overview of the song and its importance back in 2014 – thankfully still online – so I’ll stick to the embeds for the JD/NO/PH&TL part of the post.
“Ceremony” bridges the gap between Joy Division’s end and New Order’s start @ The AV Club
This song made its debut at a show at Birmingham University’s High Hall on May 2 1980, and that recording is collected on the 1981 Still compilation, though a terrible-quality version recorded at that day’s soundcheck takes the honour of being the earliest-known recording. A second version comes from a rehearsal in Manchester a couple weeks later – it was released in the Heart & Soul box set in 1997.
“Ceremony” marked the band’s debut as New Order, released as the 7″ FAC33 in March 1981.
The song was re-recorded a few months later and was released again in October 1981. It’s generally held that this is the superior and definitive version, what with featuring keyboardist Gillian Gilbert after she joined the band, and for appearing on 1987’s Substance compilation, which is almost certainly where most of their fans would have heard it the first time.
There’s no shortage of live footage of New Order performing the song live, so I’ll keep it succinct. This one from February 1981 at Manchester’s CoManCHE Student Union is notable because a) it features pretty excellent audio and video quality for being almost 50 years old, and b) because it predates the song’s actual release by over a month.
And then let’s fast-forward 20 years to June 2002 at London’s Finsbury Park, taken from the 511 live DVD released that same year.
Since leaving the band Peter Hook has dedicated his career to paying tribute to Joy Division and New Order’s legacies, and having seen him live a couple times he is absolutely doing it. Again, no shortage of live footage or recordings as “Ceremony” appears in pretty much every one of the live albums he’s released. This one comes from May 2015 at Christ Church in Macclesfield, England.
And this pandemic-era live stream almost counts as a Smashing Pumpkins collaboration, what with featuring son and Light bandmate Jack Bates, also of Smashing Pumpkins, and his then-bandmate Jeff Schroeder.
It’s something when a song has been covered so much that by rights it should be a cliche and verboten, but has so much magic that it allows whoever is playing it to impart their own personality onto it without needing to transmute it so much as to be unrecognizable. See also: “Fade Into You”.
There’s video of New Order guesting with Echo & The Bunnymen at Manchester’s GMEX convention centre in 1986, but it’s pretty bad and the audio is worse so it’s here for posterity but if you want to actually hear Mac singing the song, head for the audio-only below.
Maybe one of the most famous covers of “Ceremony”, so much that it became one of their own signature songs, is by Galaxie 500. The trio slowed it down, weirded it out a little, and made it a jam. A slow jam. But not that kind of slow jam. In addition to the studio version that appeared on 1989’s On Fire, there’s a live video from Los Angeles’ Club Lingerie in March 1990.
Ex-G500 frontman Dean Wareham has included the song in live sets when he plays his “Plays Galaxie 500” shows, so it was naturally recorded as part of his visit to Seattle’s KEXP in June 2014. I think it’s even slower than the G500 versions.
Chromatics put their distinctive touch on the song as part of the 2016 mini-album Cherry, which is one of my favourite versions of the song by anyone.
And Radiohead did a surprisingly straight but still intense version as part of their “Thumbs_Down” webcast, aired in November 2007 as part of the promotion of their album In Rainbows.
And more recently (well, ten years ago in 2016), Cincinnati indie-rockers Wussy recorded a version for a 7″ single released for Record Store Day. Again, very faithful because, well, it just feels so good to play and hear, why mess with it?
And if you want to learn to play it, guitar lesson YouTuber Romain CNC has got you covered. And if you want to learn the bass part from the man who wrote it, Peter Hook has you covered. So you can cover them.
