The gift for New Order fans I keep coming back to is the one that shows the line-up as a shape rather than a list: a discography map with all ten studio albums as stations and every credited musician drawn as their own tube line. I researched and drew it myself in East Sussex, working from liner notes album by album. What it gives a fan is the thing a sleeve print cannot, which is 34 years of comings and goings visible in a single glance.
Only Two Names Reach Every Station
Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris are credited on all ten studio albums, from Movement in 1981 to Music Complete in 2015. Nobody else on the map manages it.
Their lines are not static, though, and that is the part I enjoyed drawing. Sumner starts out as vocals, guitars, melodica, synthesisers and programming on Movement, and by Music Complete the credit has settled into vocals, guitar, keyboards and synthesisers. Morris goes from drums and percussion to drums, keyboards, synthesisers and drum programming.
You can watch a band teach itself new instruments across a wall.
Peter Hook's Bass Runs Nine Stations and Stops One Short
Hook is on Movement, Power, Corruption and Lies, Low-Life, Brotherhood, Technique, Republic, Get Ready, Waiting for the Sirens' Call and Lost Sirens in 2013. Then his line ends, and Music Complete in 2015 arrives without it.
Nine out of ten is the sort of number that means nothing written down and a great deal drawn out. On the print it is a thick line running almost the full width and then simply not making the final station, with the last stretch of track carrying on beside it.
For a fan who has strong opinions about all that, this is the detail they will want to show people.
Gillian Gilbert Steps Off in 2001 and Back On in 2015
Gilbert is credited on eight of the ten. Her line covers Movement through to Get Ready in 2001, including a spoken word credit on "Doubts Even Here" and a vocal on "Avalanche" from Republic.
She is then absent from Waiting for the Sirens' Call in 2005 and from Lost Sirens, before reappearing on Music Complete on keyboards and synthesisers. Fourteen years between studio album credits, and the map shows it as plain empty space.
Phil Cunningham Arrives Exactly Where Gilbert Leaves
This is my favourite piece of accidental symmetry on the whole print. Phil Cunningham, previously of Marion, picks up a New Order credit for the first time on Waiting for the Sirens' Call in 2005, which is precisely the album Gilbert is missing from.
He carries on through Lost Sirens and Music Complete, so his line and hers overlap only once, at the very last station. Two people covering the same ground, drawn as one handover and one brief reunion.
Tom Chapman does something similar on bass. His only credit on this map is Music Complete, the one album without Hook, so the newest line and the longest gap sit directly on top of each other.
Music Complete Is Where the Map Gets Crowded
Four musicians are credited on the 1981 debut. Twenty-four are credited on Music Complete in 2015, which makes it far and away the busiest station on the print.
| Guest | Credit | Album |
|---|---|---|
| Billy Corgan | Special guest vocals, track 3 | Get Ready (2001) |
| Bobby Gillespie | Guest vocals, track 7 | Get Ready (2001) |
| Andrew Innes | Guitar, track 7 | Get Ready (2001) |
| Iggy Pop | Vocals, track 6 | Music Complete (2015) |
| Brandon Flowers | Vocals and mixing, track 11 | Music Complete (2015) |
| La Roux | Vocals on 4 and 5, backing vocals on 3 | Music Complete (2015) |
| Giacomo Cavagna | Italian spoken vocal, track 4 | Music Complete (2015) |
| Dawn Zee | Backing vocals, both albums | Get Ready and Music Complete |
Dawn Zee is the one I would point at first. She sings backing vocals on tracks 1, 9 and 10 of Get Ready, then turns up again on tracks 3 and 8 of Music Complete, fourteen years later. She is the only guest on the map to appear on two New Order albums, which is exactly the kind of thing that stays invisible until you draw it.
Music Complete also brings in Joe Duddell conducting Manchester Camerata strings on five tracks, and every one of those thirteen players is named and drawn: eight violins, two violas, two cellos and a double bass. It is a small forest of branch lines coming off one station.
Why This Gift for New Order Fans Beats a Sleeve Print
A Peter Saville sleeve on a wall is a lovely object, and most fans already have one. This is the other thing: something to read.
Every line comes from a credit I checked rather than from a general sense of who was in the band. The rule I work to is that you get a line if you are credited playing or arranging something. That is why Simon Hale is on there for string arrangements and conducting on one Get Ready track, and why George Atkins, credited as strings engineer on Music Complete, is not. Pete Davis gets a line for programming across nine of Get Ready's ten tracks, because programming on this band's records is playing.
For someone who came in through one album, A2 in a black wood frame is plenty. For the fan who will stand in front of it counting stations, go A1, because the string players and the one-track guests are where the reading time lives.
"It is truly amazing."
Bruce Springsteen Archives, Monmouth University
Sizes, Paper and Price
Every print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper with a textured matte finish, archival and acid-free. Both sizes are landscape, supplied unframed or in a black wooden frame.
| Size | UK | US / CAN / AUS | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| A2 | 594 x 420 mm | 24 x 18 in | £42 |
| A1 | 841 x 594 mm | 36 x 24 in | See product page |
New Order Discography Tube Map Art Print
Ten studio albums, every credited musician as a named line. Giclée on 230gsm archival matte paper. A2 or A1, unframed or black wood frame. From £42.
View the New Order mapRelated Music Maps
If the person you are buying for starts the story at Unknown Pleasures rather than Movement, the Joy Division and New Order map carries both catalogues on one sheet, along with Electronic, The Other Two and Bad Lieutenant. From the same city and roughly the same scene, the Charlatans map hangs well beside it, and there is a whole Manchester Bands collection if you are building a wall.
Questions I Get Asked
How many albums are on the New Order map?
Ten studio albums, from Movement in 1981 through to Music Complete in 2015.
Is Joy Division on this print?
No. This one is New Order only. The combined map is a separate print and carries Unknown Pleasures and Closer at the front of the same network.
Which album has the fewest musicians?
Movement in 1981, with four credited names. That is the smallest station on the map by some distance.
Do the Manchester Camerata players really each get a line?
They do. All thirteen are named individually, because a violinist on five tracks is as much a part of that record as anyone else in the room.
What if I do not know which album they love most?
Then this works in your favour, because it covers the whole run rather than betting on one record. If you would rather they picked for themselves, send a gift card instead.
