Words: Jools Taylor
New Order made a highly anticipated return to their hometown of Manchester opening the first night of the ‘Live From Wythenshawe Park’ Weekend.
The band took to the stage to perform their first homecoming show in almost three years. Lead singer Bernard Sumner introduced the band and then dedicated the set to a close friend of his who passed away two days prior. The band continued to perform a visually and musically amazing set, performing songs from all corners of their long and respected careers — even treating their crowd to the live debut of a track called ‘Nothing But A Fool’ from their 10th and most recent studio album 2015’s ‘Music Complete’, truly giving their homecoming crowd of 30,000 Mancunians a night to remember. Bernard Sumner owned the stage with his timeless vocals, edgy guitar riffs and enthusiastic dad dancing. Founding members Stephen Morris proved that he really is the beating heart of the group on drums, and Gillian Gilbert showed off her multi-instrumental skills with both keys and guitars throughout the set. After a complete set of New Order tunes and one Joy Division track, the band returned for an encore and proceeded to perform 3 more Joy Division songs, that you could hear being chanted into the streets of Wythenshawe long after the gig had finished.
Overall, it was an amazing gig from some on Manchester’s finest musicians and having other fellow Mancunian legends such as Johnny Marr supporting was the icing on the cake to an amazing bank holiday weekend.
Rockstars HQ 
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