kevin hewick and new order

a bit of a biog

kevin hewick (cheers, mate) is a troubadour from leicester who was swept up into the factory maelstrom more by accident than by design - as he put it, someone who managed to get onto the right bus, only to fall off it.

hewick had sent demos to a number of labels (stiff, radar, a&m) with no luck.   after hearing the "factory sample", he sent one in to factory, and was stunned to be picked up by the label.   after releasing one live album side on a compilation ("a factory quartet"), one single ("ophelia's drinking song" - produced by donald johnson - drummer, a certain ratio - and peter hook - bassist, new order) and one other tune on a compilation (the martin hannett-produced - barely - "haystack"), he left factory for cherry red.   he stayed there a year before leaving the label.

hewick is currently signed to sorted records and released his latest album in 1999.   he often plays in the leicester area, and still gets requests for "haystack"!   stop in and say hi if there's a gig near you.

a brush with factory

hewick was a fan of early factory, and stunned when a demo sent in to the burgeoning record label in 1979 resulted in an october letter from tony wilson himself!   wilson (primus inter partes among factory's five directors) wrote that hewick's was the best demo of that year but that it would take a few months to get him into the studio.

in the meantime, wilson and factory co-director (along with peter saville and rob gretton) alan erasmus got hewick on the bill for several high-profile factory gigs, including support for joy division at the famous "factory by moonlight" gig at the moonlight club, from which the "still" version of the velvet underground's "sister ray" is culled.   hewick's part of the evening is immortalized on 1/4 of the "factory quartet" (fac 24 for you trainspotters) compilation published in december 1980, wherein lies an early version of "haystack".   more on that song later.

other support dates included a certain ratio, durutti column, ludus (linder - of the factory egg timer and morrissey's girlfriend fame), section 25, and six dates on roy harper's may 1980 uk tour.   although he eventually opened for joy division on one other occasion, he was too awestruck ever to get to meet them ("they were joy division!", 'nuff said).

one day many months later, hewick was standing in a chip shop with peter hook and started telling him how unknown pleasures had changed his life - how he'd locked himself away to listen to it for 2 weeks when it first came out.   typically, hookie ignored the comment and asked what he wanted with his chips.

hewick departed from factory soon after the "ophelia's drinking song" 7" came out.   as so many others have recalled, one of factory's worst shortcomings was their opposition to promotion - hewick was given six copies of his single with which to start a buzz and get some sales.   unsuprisingly, therefore, it didn't sell.   he shamefacedly confesses that before his departure he deliberately kept hannett's girlfriend, who was working in the reception of the palatine road office, talking so that two of his friends could rifle the shelves for discs.

the hannett session and almost a new order

around june 1980 (just over a month after ian curtis' suicide), hewick was booked to go into graveyard studios (famous for a certain ratio's marvellous "graveyard and the ballroom" cassette) to record 5 tracks for the planned double 10" (which later became the aforementioned "factory quartet").   the night before, tony wilson phoned hewick and suggested that "the jds" go into the studio to back him.   wilson told hewick that the jds wanted to carry on as a band and playing someone else's material would ease their transition back into recording.

no one ever told hewick that this might have been a try-out session for a lead singer of the soon-to-be new order.   much later, when terry christian suggested the idea on a bbc radio derby interview in 1983, hewick was hurt enough to be unable to go to a new order gig for quite some time afterwards.   "well you're a better singer than any of them aren't you?" said christian.   the rumour would appear to be substantiated in the liner notes to "from brussels with love", although hewick maintains it was not the case.

to quote kevin: "i was picked up at piccadilly station by bernard and stephen in a really old car.   they were really friendly, good humoured and i soon felt at ease - for a while--- forgive my memory but i seem to recall it was only on arriving at graveyard that i was told that martin hannett was going to produce the session!   at last i met peter hook who privately i held in most fanlike awe - he soon came over as the one who took the lead with things, who pulled things together into shape.   we worked on two songs "haystack" and "a piece of fate".   it was decided to do "haystack" first."

the resulting song, "haystack," a stalwart of hewick's live set, appears on the "from brussels with love" compilation on les disques du crepuscule (cd, cassette, and lp formats).   the recording suffers from a complete and utter lack of production.   kevin indicates that this was the result of hannett showing up halfway through the session, pronouncing that the assembled group of musicians (hewick, bernard, peter, and steven) sounded like "fairport convention" [ouch!] and curling up under the mixing desk for a bit of a sleep.    hewick was told hannett was exhausted from working through the night on a john cooper clarke recording session.   he remembers hannett leaving before the end and doubts whether hannett actually twiddled and knobs on this recording at all!

the assembled "backing" band told the engineer at the beginning of the session that they'd decided to call themselves "new order".   when hewick pointed out that rob asheton (former member of the stooges) had formed a band called the new order, a clearly annoyed bernard shot back "only you would know that."

the song

the song is inspired by a scene with jack lemmon and lee remick in "the days of wine and roses", with loads of heroin addiction imagery (which i can't even believe i missed in favour of a sexual interpretation!).   hook's bass rumbles along, bernard knocks away at the polyphonic synths, stevie bangs the drums, and hewick delivers a langorously lounge-y vocal performance and plays guitar.   he doesn't sound nearly as nervous as he must've been, although the beauty of his voice fails to show through.

the "other" song

the assembled band worked on a second song that has never seen the light of day.   "a piece of fate" was the track - later reworked by hewick into a song called "no miracle" in 1993.   hewick, who was utterly in awe of the backing band assembled for his humble session, pointed out to bernard that the two note guitar solo he was playing was from buzzcock's "boredom" and was stunned when bernard, threw his gibson sg down on the floor and stormed out.   this so unnerved hewick that he was unable to complete any other songs for the session.   wilson, still wanting to feature the young kevin on a factory record, replaced the session with the live tracks on the factory quartet.   all in all, not an auspicious recording for the young lad's first "professional" recording session, but a story for the grandkids!

other meetings with hannett

in late 1981/early 1982, hewick went to the birmingham odeon (seating about 2000) and was on the guest list to see john cooper clarke and pauline murray (both playing with the invisible girls).   hewick was at the side of the stage while pauline murray was playing, thoroughly enjoying himself and watching hannett play guitar.   when hannett caught sight of him (half way through the number), martin walked off the stage and into the wing to shake hands with hewick, while a bewildered pauline and her group continued the number.   after the gig, hewick remembers sharing a smoke with clarke and martin.

hewick had seen hannett around some other times, at the palatine road flat, but no other memorable meetings occurred between the two.    interestingly, hewick mentioned that despite gigging together a number of times, vini reilly cut him off after he left factory - vini's a loyalist through and through.

with thanks to kevin hewick for contacting us and spending so much time sharing memories.