A Look At New Order’s “Unity Tour” With The Pet Shop Boys From Brooklyn’s Barclays Center
As kicked off last week in Toronto, The Pet Shop Boys and New Order are currently in the midst of their long-awaited co-headlining Unity Tour. Both bands are and have been alternating as opening and closing acts while legendary DJ Paul Oakenfold performs a special DJ-based set before each act.
Currently on the road in support of studio LP Hotspot (x2 Records/Kobalt) — the group’s 14th overall — the latest from The Pet Shop Boys reached #3 on the UK, German and Spanish albums charts and #1 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Hotspot, the 4th consecutive Pet Shop Boys release to hit the #1 spot on that Billboard chart, is the third in a series of albums produced by Stuart Price. With over 50 million records worldwide since they emerged in the UK in 1985 with the #1 single, “West End Girls,” the Pet Shop Boys — as still comprised of singer Neil Tennant and multi-instrumentalist Chris Lowe — are reportedly the most commercially-successful pop music duo in UK history.
Notably rising from the ashes of the still-influential Joy Division, the enigmatic New Order made its recorded debut with 1981’s Movement. Success has continued for the band in the decades since as 2015’s Music Complete would hit #2 on the UK Albums chart; the album featured guest vocals from La Roux’s Elly Jackson and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers. The rare sort of band — like the tour’s co-headliner — that happens to be commercially-successfully, critically-acclaimed and regularly-covered by other artists, New Order has been the recipient of honors from the NME Awards, Brit Wards, Q Awards, ASCAP Pop Music Awards and Silver Clef Awards alike. And its current touring lineup continues to include 3 of the group’s founding members: Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert; co-founding bassist Peter Hook spoke with The Hype about New Order and more in July.
An evening full of hits from both The Pet Shop Boys and New Order, highlights from the Barclays Center stop of the Unity Stop are embedded below for your viewing pleasure. More information on the Live Nation tour — which hits Philadelphia’s TD Pavilion At The Mann on Sunday and New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Wednesday — can be found online by clicking here, here and here.
About the Author
Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."
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