“Procession” by New Order

"Procession" was New Order's second single, out on Factory in September 1981 as a seven-inch double A-side with "Everything's Gone Green", catalogue number FAC 53. Both songs came out of a three-day session with Martin Hannett at Strawberry Studios and Yellow Two Studios, and the producer was in a demanding mood: at his request Bernard Sumner sang his part at least 43 times, and Hannett wanted Gillian Gilbert on backing vocals too, a call Peter Hook fought and lost when the rest of the band outvoted him.

Looking back in his book Substance: Inside New Order, Hook reckoned the song and Sumner's vocal were fine and the real problem in the studio that night was Hannett. He also remembered it as a complete break from "Ceremony", poppy and immediate. The writing credit goes to all four members.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.