New Order

As three quarters of the iconic Manchester post-punk outfit Joy Division, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris were already gearing up for mainstream success when their charismatic frontman, Ian Curtis, took his own life in May 1980. At this point, lesser men may well have given up, but instead they turned tragedy to triumph, recruiting synth queen Gillian Gilbert, reinventing themselves as New Order and embarking on a very different musical journey.

Eschewing Joy Division’s darkness, New Order turned to the light and created something unique through melding post-punk guitar rock with electronica and the cutting-edge sounds of the dancefloor. Landmark early singles such as Temptation and the best-selling Blue Monday, along with the critically acclaimed Power, Corruption & Lies album, enabled them to step out of Joy Division’s shadow, while sublime later records, among them Low-life, Technique and Republic, turned the group into one of the world’s biggest and most-respected cult acts. Despite several hiatuses, they remain a major presence on the scene, with their most recent album, the confident Music Complete, reminding us that no one makes immaculately-crafted modern pop quite like New Order.