“Blue Monday”

In Might 1980, the band Pleasure Division was devastated by the demise of lead singer Ian Curtis. The three remaining band members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, determined they might preserve making music collectively, and some months later, Gillian Gilbert joined them. They known as the band New Order.

New Order is likely one of the most influential bands of the final 4 many years. Their tune “Blue Monday” got here out in 1983, and it holds the document for being the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. Rolling Stone put “Blue Monday” on its checklist of the 500 Biggest Songs of All Time, and Pitchfork included it in its High 5 Finest Songs of the Nineteen Eighties.

To have a good time the fortieth anniversary of the discharge of “Blue Monday,” on this episode, New Order discusses how they created the tune. This episode was produced in collaboration with Transmissions, the official New Order and Pleasure Division podcast produced by Cup & Nuzzle. We’ve put collectively this story out of the hours and hours of interviews they’ve recorded, together with a brand new interview I did with Peter Hook. As you’ll hear the 4 of them clarify, nothing about Blue Monday’s success, or actually even its existence, was one thing that they deliberate for.

You should purchase or stream “Blue Monday” right here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click on right here.

MOOG – synth
Britannia Row Studios
Shergold Marathon, Peter Hook’s 6-string bass
Ennio Morricone
Spaghetti Western
For a Few {Dollars} Extra – Clint Eastwood film that includes music by Ennio Morricone
E-mu Emulator
Mellotron
Prophet-5 – synth
Rob Gretton – supervisor of Pleasure Division and New Order