Review By Mick Aneworderfan

It has been often apparent Sumner and Hook can't carry on together in the last, say, 25 years.

I remember reading a 1987 biography which already put their future in doubt. It was bollocks of course, they came back with Technique two years later and as we all know it was a masterpiece. But there was something true behind the surface. They basically recorded Republic (1993) through separate sessions and couldn't stand each other during the tour. Only Rob Gretton was able to bring them together for a while and by Get Ready (2001) we all had the illusion they were best friends again, but when they toured the following (and last) album it was obvious something was broken again and it would have been hard to fix it.

While the previous split had never been announced, this time Peter Hook declared the band finished.

He thought they couldn't carry on without him. They of course have in fact, recruiting the mighty Tom Chapman to replace Hook and touring the world to huge acclaim, and honestly it's better to see them carry on in that form with a renovated spirit (and Gillian Gilbert back) than in the sick and tired version of the last gigs with Hook where you saw a band which had nothing left to say (and for us fans, better than no New Order at all). Obviously Hooky disagrees, but while he waits for the court he has carried on another interesting project, which is to tour each album of Joy Division and New Order in its entirety.

He has assembled a fantastic band called The Light, featuring his son Jack, on bass of course, the excellent Nat Wason from Haven at the guitar, weirdly enough Andy Poole, a prog keyboardist, does his best to play these post punk classics, and we also get back Paul Kehoe, the wonderful Monaco drummer.

This new release, which can be purchased at http://music.playconcert.com/ for £9 only, sees The Light performing the tracks of not one but two albums, including all the single and B sides from that crucial era (1981-1983) for a total of 26 tracks!

We can hear tracks New Order have never performed again in the last 30 years. The marvellous Procession, for example, Bernard Sumner hates it, New Order won't ever play it again. Hooky does, and it's great to hear it live again. Movement was the attempt of New Order at finishing what Joy Division were trying to do after Closer, which is a pretty dark album already. Adding that the mood in the band wasn't exactly happy after Ian Curtis' suicide, you have the album of a band trying to carry on after such a loss, and bordering on goth.

Having been followed by Power, Corruption And Lies, the album where not only New Order found their own style, but basically invented a new one with some of their best songs ever, not to mention non-album singles like Temptation and Blue Monday which will always remain as two of their most essential tracks, meant that Movement has been forgotten quickly both by the band and their fans, though it always had its hardcore fans in those Joy Division die-hard fans who were too narrow minded to embrace their evolution. But Movement had its great tracks too.

It's absolutely delightful to hear Truth live again, and The Light's performance of Senses seriously threatens New Order's as the best ever version. Actually, Hooky's voice sounds even more appropriate for tracks like these than Sumner's, having a deeper tone more similar to Curtis' than Sumner's thin voice. Chosen Times has always been one of my favourites, and I can hear the origins of Blue Monday in it.

Now, Mesh. Mesh!!! Mesh is the most criminally underrated song in the whole music history.

A truly emotional masterpiece, it appeared only on the Everything's Gone Green 12" EP.

When Factory released the 2CD version of Substance with all the B sides, it forgot this song and included Cries And Whispers mis-titled as Mesh. But the true Mesh didn't resurface until the 2008 reissue of Movement!

Power Corruption And Lies is my absolute favourite album ever, hearing the luminous restart of Age Of Consent after the dark Movement tracks makes us appreciate its revolutionary charge, though The Light here perform it with an endearingly punk attitude, and you could almost mistake it for a Warsaw track rather than the song heralding New Order's turn to pop.

We All Stand has always sounded the comedown after that, with its fascinating melancholy it sounds like a Movement reprise. But with the electro feast of The Village and the Blue Monday beta of 586 the switch sounds clear and glorious. I'm happy how New Order rediscovered 586 and I also really like how The Light play it. I've always been a huge fan of Revenge (my favourite side project actually, even over Electronic) and Ultraviolence played by The Light just sounds like a great track off their underrated debut masterpiece, One True Passion.

Ecstasy has never been played live, so it's great to finally hear it. The Light even play The Beach, which was an instrumental dub of Blue Monday appearing as its B side. Not many bands play remixes live!

So there's a lot of reason to enjoy this live album.

Long live Peter Hook And The Light!

You can download the album exclusively NOW from http://www.playconcert.com/