Tuesday, February 12, 2013

New Order's "Blue Monday" + Peter Saville on classic LP covers

As fans (and iPhone users?) around the world prepare for the 30th anniversary of New Order's "Blue Monday," The Guardian published an article on the making of the classic 1983 hit, which went on to become the biggest selling 12" single of all time.  The feature includes two short interviews with Gillian Gilbert and designer Peter Saville, and is a great read for any New Order fan.  One of the highlights is a hilarious revelation from Gilbert on how Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris got around to figuring out the daunting task of how to use a sequencer/sampler:

"Bernard and Stephen had worked out how to use it by spending hours recording farts."

Other nuggets from the article: Gilbert said the lyric, "How does it feel?" was inspired by Sumner's annoyance with the music press asking him how he felt (presumably in regards to Ian Curtis' death and subsequent formation of New Order).  Saville, meanwhile, explained how he came to design the single's colorful floppy disc cover art:

"I picked up an interesting object and asked: "Wow, what is this?" I'd never seen a floppy disk before. I thought it was great. I said: "Can I have it?" And Stephen said: "Not that one!" So I drove back to London listening to a tape of Blue Monday with another floppy disk lying on the passenger seat."

Read the rest of the fantastic piece, 'How we made: New Order's Gillian Gilbert and designer Peter Saville on Blue Monday' over at The Guardian. Fans interested in learning how Peter Saville was inspired to create other classic Joy Division and New Order album covers should take a look at another feature from 2011 titled, 'Peter Saville on his album cover artwork.'  The photo gallery includes 10 album covers/sleeves with Saville's insight/commentary.  

A few other video interviews with Saville are posted below:

Peter Saville on Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures and why the band's name and album title doesn't appear on the cover:



Discussion of album artwork and pop culture/music/art