New Order issues

Warner respond to fan complaints about poor quality re-issues

10 October 2008 - Peter Hook has revealed to the BBC that the New Order reissues have received complaints from fans because of the poor quality.

The records were released at the end of September and Hook has blamed the problems on cut backs in the record industry and some missing tapes.

The former Joy Division and New Order bassist explained the problem: “Funnily enough we’ve actually got a few problems with our fans complaining about the quality of the re-masters of the companion discs. Not the LP’s because they’re safe and the tapes for those we have.

“A lot of them are lost, between us listening to the collation and between them coming onto the CD, something seems to have gone wrong.”

Hook attributed it to problems within the record company, saying: “They don’t have half the staff they used to have so everything becomes quite a trial, and I know from doing the Hacienda compilation tape, you get a lot of masters of old songs - they are mastered from the record because nobody can find the tape.”

And it seems there was some miscommunication with their record label: “What’s been intensely annoying for us is that all these people are complaining because they’ve bought them in the shops and Warner’s chose to release them to the shops before they sent them to the band, so I haven’t got one. A masterful piece of planning.”

‘Modern mastered music’

Turning to why New Order decided to re-issue their records, Hook said the original recordings just weren't good enough.

“I have been made aware that a lot of the music we made was about 25 years ago and when you play it against modern mastered music, there is a vast difference in sound and quality to be honest.”

"They don’t have half the staff they used to have so everything becomes quite a trial."
Peter Hook on record companies

And so, it was a good opportunity to tart up the old recordings, the guitarist explained: “As a DJ, I was getting increasingly annoyed because when I was playing Love Vigilante’s Perfect Kiss - not particularly Blue Monday because it’s so sonically reproduced - but a lot of the acoustic stuff sounded bad, so when we got the opportunity we thought; ‘At last, they’ll be beefy and meaty, just like the bands of today’.”

Hook also explained why they didn't mess around with the track listings on any of the album: “I don’t like the idea of the way, when we got to America with Power Corruption and Lies, the Americans just stuck Blue Monday on Power Corruption and Lies, and it just didn’t fit. 

“It was done separately and always thought of separately, so I liked the idea of keeping the LP’s pure - not adding tracks to it and using the bonus CD to put your singles and extra tracks on.”

Contact Warner

Warner say that if any of the fans want to contact them about the quality of the New Order re-issues, then they can email this address:

Neworder.d2c@warnermusic.com

To see what fans have said in response to the poor quality re-issues, visit the New Order official site.

Georgie Rogers