REVIEW: Live From Jodrell Bank 2013

Sunday 7th July 2013 - New Order, Johnny Marr, The Whip @ Live From Jodrell Bank, Cheshire Words: Patrick Davies / Photos: Tom Martin

Following last year’s mud bath at Cheshire’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, the skies couldn’t have been clearer for New Order’s return to (sort of) home soil. Armed with an impressive support bill, they followed Australian Pink Floyd and play an open-air gig with a difference.

The observatory offers so much more than some other ‘cram the punters into a field’ festival locations. As well as the obvious draw of a full-scale bill, attendees are free to marvel at the fully operational 76-metre Lovell Telescope, incidentally the third largest of its kind in the world.

Throw into the mix all-inclusive access to the site’s ‘Science Arena’ and an outdoor screening of Andy Murray’s Wimbledon triumph and there is something for everyone during the lead-up to the evening’s headliners.

The Whip arrive and immediately try to get the party into full swing. Their bass-heavy pop music has some (mostly younger) members of the audience moving. “Thank you for choosing music over tennis, it’s a good decision”, says frontman, Bruce Carter. The set culminates with a raucous version of their hit ‘Trash’- those down the front love it.

As the tennis comes to a close and latecomers arrive on site the arena slowly fills up. Whether taken as a draw of their performance or not, Public Service Broadcasting end their set in front of a far larger audience than when they arrived on stage. Their marriage of layered indie riffs and quirky wartime samples do perhaps not have the same party vibe as The Whip, but most seem to enjoy all the same. At their best when they go heavier.

The educational side of the day continues as between sets some of the discovery centre’s staff take to the stage to give the much-swelled audience a brief seminar on the telescope (which they inform them has been in use as usual throughout the day).

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Johnny Marr’s support set turns into a mass sing-along as he combines tracks from his debut solo album ‘The Messenger’, with his best Morrissey impression and rattles through a quartet of Smiths mega-hits.

After ‘Stop Me…’ and ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ get the crowd in the palm of his hand, a surprise premature appearance from Bernard Sumner sounds slightly cobbled together as they are reunited for Electronic track ‘Getting Away With It’.

‘How Soon Is Now?’ and ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ are sure fire crowd-pleasers that whip up a frenzy, every single one of those down the front bounce in unison.

Marr has raised quite an atmosphere for the night’s headliners, and an intriguing hint of what’s to come appears when the telescope slowly rotates during the interval to face the audience from the left hand side of the stage.

New Order emerge in grand fashion to the orchestral sounds of Ennio Morricone’s ‘The Ecstacy of Gold’. “This really is a fantastic place for a gig, it’s really cool, so let’s have a party!” announces Sumner as they launch into ‘Elegia’.

‘Crystal’ and ‘Regret’ bring a couple of the big-hitters out early. The music is accompanied by an encapsulating visual display on the screen at the back of the stage. A number of short films of various origins and directors are broadcast throughout the set, a nice touch that shows Sumner and co still put an admirable amount of thought into what they do on the live stage.

Then as darkness falls and ‘Ceremony’ strikes up, the greatest spectacle of the night appears in the shape of the huge projections and strobes that are beamed from the front of the telescope. There was always a sci-fi element to New Order’s pioneering use of electronics, and Jodrell Bank proves an ideal location to showcase this.

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Newer material receives a slightly flat reaction, and there is still something uncomfortable about seeing current bassist, Tom Chapman, stride to the edge if the stage to revel in Peter Hook’s soaring solos (even if they are immaculately performed on the night).

‘Isolation’ is the sole Joy Division number makes it into the main set. The return to the band of keyboardist Gillian Gilbert has given further licence to rediscover their 80s synth-pop side. ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and ‘586’ are infectious, but it is the closing renditions of ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Temptation’ that receive truly rapturous responses.

After uttering (in regard to ‘Ceremony’) earlier in the set “This was a Joy Division song that became a New Order song when our singer inconveniently died”, Sumner opts for a quartet of classics courtesy of the latter for the encore. ‘Transmission’, a huge version of ‘Atmosphere’, an unrehearsed yet masterful ‘Shadowplay’, and the inevitable showstopper ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ bring an encapsulating end to what has been a vibrant and thoroughly entertaining day.

Much more than just a gig, but New Order’s performance has gone some way to making Jodrell Bank’s ‘Transmission 05’ a complete success.

CLICK HERE to see amazing photos of the Live From Jodrell Bank weekend.