Gig review: New Order, Glasgow O2 Academy

NEW Order have had such a stop/start trajectory over the past 20 years that this latest comeback felt like welcoming old friends back from their round-the-world trip.

They have lost a key player along the way, bassist Peter Hook, and new boys Phil Cunningham and Tom Chapman cannot fill the void. But the return of the beatific Gillian Gilbert to silken keyboard duties made men of a certain age dance like no-one was watching.

The freshly instated five-piece took a while to settle from a sluggish start, with frontman Bernard Sumner repeatedly complaining about onstage interference, and the sound out front hardly any more defined, but their sheer electro-pop euphoria eventually won through.

With so much superlative material to choose from, some boxes went unticked, leaving room to reach into the further corners of their catalogue and pluck out a charming find, such as True Faith b-side 1963. Other moments were less essential; their Chemical Brothers collaboration Here to Stay made them sound like their own covers band.

In contrast, the standout Perfect Kiss was reworked as an immaculate New York disco affair, propelling this show to a four-star rating and ushering in an unbeatable closing salvo of Blue Monday and Temptation.

This was followed by a mighty encore of the Joy Division classics Transmission and Love Will Tear Us Apart which made up in spirit what it lacked in intensity. No time for brooding – this was a homecoming party.

Rating: ****