NEW
ORDER
FINE TIME AGAIN
W
hen New Order keyboardist
Gillian Gilbert stopped touring
with the band in 1998, then quit
altogether during the recording of its 2001
album Get Ready, she did it graciously, almost
secretly, without any official departure
announcement in the press. “And I wanted it
that way,” she admits of her decision to stay
home and take care of her two daughters,
Matilda and Grace, who had been diagnosed
with a rare spinal condition. “But don’t get
me wrong – I was dying to say a few things.
But I thought the best way was to keep quiet,
which was hard. But I’d rather be a bit more
mysterious – I just want to be known for
what I’m doing, music-wise.”
In retrospect, Gilbert cedes that it was dif-
ficult to watch her husband – band drummer
Stephen Morris, and her partner in side proj-
ect The Other Two – pack his bags and head
out on subsequent New Order tours, with
Phil Cunningham on board as her replace-
ment. “But I didn’t really have a choice,” she
sighs. “In those days, just going somewhere
like Paris was a massive thing, and with hus-
bands and wives, the wife looked after the
kids and it was all very traditional. Stephen
and I were so young when we started going
out together that that’s all we knew was the
band. But as soon as we had kids, it was like,
‘There’s somebody else to think of,’ and I
quite like that because it grounds you. So I
couldn’t think of anything worse than taking
them on tour.”
Gilbert, 56, is happy to have rejoined her
old compatriots, first for world tours begin-
ning in 2011, and more recently for its effer-
vescent 2015 comeback album, Music
Complete. Her velvety textures – which cas-
caded so perfectly into place on New Order’s
definitive 1983 sophomore set, Power,
Corruption & Lies, helping to separate the
group sonically from its angular, guitar-driv-
en precursor Joy Division that ended with
the 1980 suicide of catacomb-voiced front-
man Ian Curtis – have grown even more
majestic, on finger-snapping thumpers “Tutti
Frutti” and “People on the High Line” (both
featuring La Roux’s Elly Jackson), the moody
20 illinoisentertainer.com may 2017
“Stray Dog” (with sinister narration from
Iggy Pop), and a “Blue Monday”-anthemic
“Superheated,” with vocalist Bernard
Sumner trading vocals with Killers band-
leader (and avowed New Order superfan)
Brandon Flowers. Her helium-fluffy filigrees
carry every track aloft like a Jules Verne bal-
loon, proving just how sorely her presence
has been missed in the interim. “I think I
added something,” she laughs. “But I don’t
the band would like to think it was a femi-
nine touch. And I’m glad I had the time off –
I got my head together, so I’m really enjoying
it this time.”
How did the musician spend all that
down time? Fans wouldn’t believe it, she
says. But aside from working on occasional
music projects with friends like The
Charlatans, she got heavily into cooking,
redecoration the family home, and one other
unexpected diversion: dog agility training.
Seriously, she swears. In Britain, a la the
movie Babe, there are serious, often televised
competitions for almost any animal capable
of herding or other skilled behavior, and her
Yorkshire terrier – unusually husky for her
breed – became quite the learned contender.
Proudly, she put her pet through her paces at
Britain’s annual four-day event, the Crufts
Dog Show – the largest in the world. “She
didn’t win, but my sister’s dog did, and that
was really annoying,” she says. “But they
have thousands of dogs from around the
world, and they have agility and everything.
I got really into dog obedience training, but
now that I’ve gone back to the group, my
poor dog is missing it. And she’s probably
forgotten everything she’s learned by now.
When I joined, I thought, ‘My dog’s not
going to do anything.’ But she learned quick-
ly, and she even knows how to do the scent
cloths, where the dog sniffs out pieces of fab-
ric. Hopefully, this summer I’ll have the time
to get back to it.”
It wasn’t all canine hijinks, however.
Gilbert was glad to have her family around
when she was blindsided by a breast-cancer
Continued on page 47
By Tom Lanham