And to the Republic: Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert discuss the return of New Order

The Other Two.

That’s not only the name of the solo project that Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert created during New Order’s four-year hiatus, but it also describes the role they play in the band.

With lead singer Bernard Sumner forming Electronic and bassist Peter Hook keeping busy with Revenge, Morris and Gilbert are the backbone and the background of New Order. The Manchester, England, quartet released Republic, its first album since 1989’s Technique, in May.

Morris joined Joy Division, New Order’s much-gloomier predecessor, in July 1977 as the new drummer. He teamed up with schoolmates Hook, Sumner and vocalist Ian Curtis, whose suicide in May 1980 brought an end to the band. Later that year, Gilbert came on board as keyboardist and second guitarist, and New Order was born.

The rest is NOT history, though. Since then, New Order has achieved worldwide success with albums such as Power, Corruption and Lies and Substance and singles including “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “True Faith,” but the past four years left the future of the band uncertain. The financial collapse of its record label, Factory, and numerous solo diversions helped push the release of any new New Order material back several years.

“The last tour we did was the biggest tour we’d done,” Morris said. “It was sort of like the most major music business, large-scale tour we’ve done. You need a bit of time to recharge your batteries.” 

Morris pointed out that during publicity blitzes and touring sprints, the members end up spending virtually every day with each other. He said that while it wasn’t the sole reason for the temporary split-up, it did play a role.

“The tour thing is a very artificial environment anyway,” he said. “It’s not very healthy. You can’t really go away for a couple of days. People get fed up with each other. It’s only natural, isn’t it?”

Still, New Order has survived what was thought to be the impossible: The band successfully made the transition from ‘80s new wave to ‘90s progressive. That must take some sort of teamwork, but Gilbert offered little insight into her role in the band.

“I’m in a group” was all she said, adding that she was still feeling the effects of some jet lag.

Morris believes one of the things that helped the transition was that the group brought in a producer, Steven Hague.

Republic has a much cleaner sound than the largely bass-driven Technique, and it still has that tinge of depression that always flavors a New Order recording. However, Morris refused to call any of the songs

“pessimistic.”

“A lot of the album was dictated by what was going on around us, which was the LA riots … watching the world outside fall apart,” Morris said. “I think the master plan for this one was to try and get the songs written before we went into the studio.”

One thing is for sure in the ‘90s sound of New Order. They are not jumping on the Grunge Bandwagon.

Morris, whose band has long been associated with the so-called “Manchester sound,” chided the media for lumping together bands that are from one locale, regardless of talent.

“I think that’s a journalistic ploy,” he said. “Initially, it starts out because it’s like

one, maybe two, good bands, and a record company starts catering to any bands that happen to come from anywhere near there, not necessarily if they’re any good. It’s not a fad; it’s something that people find that’s easy to write about.

“That’s not to say that there aren’t any good bands in Seattle. There are quite a few, but to me I think Seattle is like the Americans have finally got their own punk scene.”

A few things never change, though, and high-profile videos are one of them. This is a band that knew who Jonathan Demme was before The Silence of the Lambs hit it big. Demme directed the 1985 single “Perfect Kiss,” and big plans are in the offing for the visual side of Republic.

“We just finished a video,” Morris said. “I think it’s turned out OK. Bits of LA in it, bits of Rome in it. What does it all mean? Don’t ask me.”

Plans may even be in the works for a documentary.

“I’ve got loads and loads of footage on my VHS going back years and years and years, so I might start banging some of that together to make a documentary,” Morris said. “All sorts of interesting stuff.”

As for a tour, a revisit of the “major music business, large-scale” type is obviously out of the question, but the rest is up in the air.

“A little teensy weensy problem, but our record company sort of has gone bankrupt,” Morris said. “It’s been difficult to plan things because we really don’t have anything concrete to plan around. It’s very difficult to plan anything.”

Looking to what the future holds for New Order, Morris remained as noncommittal as ever.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s sort of an existential thing, you know. Take it as it comes.”

And what of Morris and Gilbert — where will they be in the not-so-distant future?

“On our farm ...” Morris said. 

“… Breeding ducks,” Gilbert finished.

Originally published in The Graphic, September 9, 1993 

The World According to Garth: Currents goes on the set with Dana Carvey, Aerosmith and the cast of Wayne’s World Il

“Welcome to Aurora … not just a place, but a state of mind. We’ve gotten word that there’s some bad Red Rope Licorice circulating in the crowd. Repeat, please stay away from the Red Rope Licorice. Do not bite any off and chew it. It could cause a dental emergency.”

Welcome to Waynestock.

Garth Algar, looking as insecure as ever, gets booed off the stage. The crowd is getting restless. Out comes Wayne Campbell to save the day.

“Check, check, sibilance check, check. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I GIVE YOU … AEROSMITH!”

This is the set of Wayne’s World II, the Mike Myers/Dana Carvey sequel to be released in December by Paramount. Adapted from the Saturday Night Live skit that made “as if,” “schwing” and “not” household words, Wayne’s World II boasts a bigger budget, a bigger cast and bigger expectations than last year’s blockbuster. 

The shooting schedule was extended from 37 days for the first film to 50 days for this one. Also new is director Stephen Surjik (Kids in the Hall) who makes his motion picture debut. 

And while the cameos in the first movie included SNL co-star Chris Farley and Married … with Children’s Ed O’Neill, the sequel features the likes of Charlton Heston, Christopher Walken, Kim Basinger, Drew Barrymore, Olivia D’Abo, Rip Taylor, Harry Shearer and, of course, Aerosmith.

This time out the boys have moved their cable access show from the depths of Wayne’s basement to a hipster loft-studio in downtown Aurora, Ill. Wayne feels angst about his future and faces a record producer (Walken) who has eyes for Cassandra (Tia Carrere). Also, Garth hooks up at the laundromat.

Today the cast and crew are filming Waynestock, a sort of Woodstock revival à la Wayne. About 2,000 hippy extras are on location at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, Calif., just a short drive north of the Pepperdine campus. 

Some of the extras appear to be getting into the hippie atmosphere a bit too much.

“Can we take care of this now?” asks a sheriffs deputy, holding up a bag of what seems to be marijuana and clutching onto an extra.

One crew member tries to convince the deputies to focus on security: “Do we really need two deputies?” 

The sheriff snaps back, “Pardner, when I was on narcotics 20 years ago I always worked with a partner!” 

Other extras appear they’re getting just as antsy as the audience they’re portraying. The extras have been standing in the oppressive heat for hours — without the stimulants that benefited the original Woodstock crowd — and even though they’ve got several hours of rooting to go, fatigue is setting in.

“Where are you guys going?” asks one crew member. Responses range from “the bathroom” to “we gotta make an emergency phone call!”

A crew member yells at a group of loiterers who have escaped to the shade: “They want people to just work for a little while.”This seems to go against the nature of the extras. “You haven't been here that long,” he scolds. Sunscreen is distributed to keep them in line.

One person on the set who is having no trouble staying in line is Dana Carvey. In fact, his only complaint is of “jaw pain,” which he says comes from extended periods of chin-mangling “Garthspeak.”

Carvey, now 38 years old and the father of two boys, says it’s not difficult to portray the youthful Garth because the character seems ageless.

“Garth thinks he’s grown up,” Carvey says. In Wayne’s World II, Garth hooks up with Basinger, who plays “the seductress,” and D’Abo, who plays Betty Jo, also known as “Garthette,” a female version of Garth. However, nobody’s saying whether Garth finally gets to take that “big step” into manhood. 

Carvey did take the big step this year of leaving Saturday Night Live, where he worked for seven years and 125 episodes.

“I like doing all kinds of stuff,” says Carvey, who will return from time to time for cameo appearances. “You can’t do it all, all the time.”

Carvey says his own success shocks him. “I always think I’m going to be out of this business as of next week,” he says. “I keep remembering I was a busboy in Belmont, Calif. I was mostly stoned, and mostly playing Risk.”

For now, Carvey is sticking to film projects, which include Clean Slate, to be released in February, and a possible Church Lady movie. While it’s clearly easier to play characters that Carvey has already perfected, he says he didn’t have trouble re-creating that ‘60s aura for Waynestock.

“I remember seeing the movie Woodstock,” Carvey says. “There were muddy naked people rolling around in the mud.”

As for Waynestock, Carvey says it has been easy to work with director Stephen Surjik despite the fact that he was an unexpected replacement for the first film’s director, Penelope Spheeris.

“You have a lot of input on this,” Carvey says. “If you suggest a shot to him he’s very open to it. I don’t feel very frustrated. Directors do control the medium for sure.”

As to how funny the finished product will be, Carvey is hesitant to predict. “You write it, you rehearse it and then you shoot it 50 times,” he says. “I think the film’s turning out funny, but you never know.”

Chris Farley, who returns this time as a roadie instead of the security guard he portrayed in the first flick, is equally pleased with the working environment on the set.

“I just feel pretty grateful to be a part of it all,” Farley says modestly. “I try to put my two cents in.”

The switching of directors isn’t the only change from the first World. While writers Bonnie and Terry Turner wish to remain true to the original, they also want to try some new things.

“It’s a sequel and there’s always that panic,” says Terry Turner, who, along with his wife, also writes for Saturday Night Live. “There are some sequels that depart totally.”

Bonnie Turner adds: “This isn’t a rehash. The soul of the movie is the same.

“It’s just about fun. Wayne is who we all wish we were and Garth is who we are.”

While the Turners utilize their 14-year-old daughter for input, executive producer Howard W. Koch Jr. goes to his children, ages 23, 20 and 14. He, too, waxed philosophical over what makes Wayne and Garth so appealing.

“It’s basically that most of us don’t like authority figures, and they think they are really cool … and they’re not,” Koch says. “I think everybody in their lives was Wayne or Garth.” 

Koch says he has high hopes for Wayne’s World Il but, like the original, one never knows what to expect.

“I don’t think anybody really had an idea of the explosion,” he says. “But we didn’t know whether it would cause a national change in vocabulary.”

Finally, it’s time for the big show. Aerosmith performs “Shut Up and Dance” several times for the grand finale. The audience is instructed to remain silent while moving their heads in unison like Wayne and Garth did during the infamous “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene in the Mirthmobile.

“Do you remember in the first Wayne’s World when they were sitting in the car doing a lot of this?” says a headbanging assistant director. “Now it’s your turn.”

Apparently some of the extras never saw Wayne’s World, as they are raising their arms in the air while banging their heads.

“This time no arms, no banging,” says the assistant director before the second take. “Just heads up-and-down, heads up-and-down.”

The sun’s going down on Waynestock and it’s time for extras and onlookers to head home.

But Myers is still recording the scene where he welcomes Aerosmith to the festival. Once again, the band exits Garth’s modified Pacer, which is now limousine length, chauffeured and emblazoned with flames on the side. Wayne musters up another hearty “Welcome to Waynestock!”

Thanks, but it’s time to split. Party on guys. And Garthspeed.

Originally published in Currents, Fall 1993