BAD LIEUTENANT - EX NEW ORDER - event info

BAD LIEUTENANT (ex New Order)

Bernard Sumner has been the founder member of three bands in his 34 year career; the first two were Joy Division, and New Order. The third, Bad Lieutenant, will be playing at 53 Degrees in Preston on Saturday 20th March 2010.

Never Cry Another Tear, the debut album from Bad Lieutenant, rings with familiar joys – playing off Bernard’s beautifully observed minimalism and voice of wonderfully understated north-western soul. But there’s also a new voice to be heard, one again from the north west.

Singing alongside Sumner is Jake Evans, a talented musician from Macclesfield in the UK. This Cheshire town has had a significant part in the story to date. It was the point of origin of both Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris, one half of Joy Division. Bad Lieutenant is built on this sainted musical heritage – centring on Sumner’s voice and guitar and also with Stephen Morris drumming on some tracks. Morris is the band’s full-time live drummer, with the line-up as follows: Bernard Sumner (vocals/guitar), Stephen Morris (drums), Phil Cunningham (guitar/keyboards/vocals), Jake Evans (vocals/guitar), Tom Chapman (bass). Phil Cunningham is a man familiar from the Britpop band Marion and the most recent incarnation of New Order.

The very first Bad Lieutenant rehearsals took place at the British home of Alex James of Blur. James ended up playing on bass on some tracks on the Bad Lieutenant album, something that later gave rise to excited news stories portraying Bad Lieutenant as a kind of Blur/New Order supergroup.. Sumner has long been friendly with James, a man who markets a cheese called Blue Monday, named after the New Order hit.

With no Manchester show planned this will be the home leg of Bad Lieutenant’s first full UK headline tour, after playing huge arenas opening for Pet Shop Boys last December.

Support comes from Honestly Express Yourself, featuring former Primal Scream singer Denise Johnson.

Performing songs from their soon to be released debut album, recorded with members from Swedish rockers 'The Soundtrack of our Lives' they kick out dirty riffs with tough vocals, that can only be described as Rock'n'Roll.