New Order - Touched By The Hand Of God (12" Extended Mix)

Touched by the Hand of God was one of five tracks New Order recorded for the soundtrack to Salvation! in early 1987.

The film’s director, Beth B, knew the band through Arthur Baker, who had produced Thieves Like Us (1983) and Confusion (1984) for New Order, and whom she had hired as musical director for the Salvation! soundtrack.

New Order initially provided four instrumental tracks for the soundtrack: Salvation Theme (2'14"), Let’s Go (3'44"), Sputnik (2'31") and Skullcrusher (2'52"). After they were submitted, Beth B told the band that she really needed a song from them.

Keyboard player Gillian Gilbert recalls a last-minute session to write the track:

“We had to write Touched by the Hand of God for this film soundtrack ’cause she wanted a song. We’d already done some instrumentals, but she said, ‘No, I really need a song,’ so we were like… this was at like 11:00 at night.”

Drummer Stephen Morris — who became Gilbert’s husband in 1994 — remembers bass player Peter Hook quickly writing the bass part on the sequencer:

“I’m sure he had one hand in his pocket as though, ‘Any fool can play this,’ you know? I think that was his attitude as well. But yeah, he did come up with a bassline for that, so he could do it on a bass sequencer.”

The Salvation! film, featuring five New Order tracks and others by Cabaret Voltaire and Arthur Baker, was released in New York City on 31 May 1987, shortly before what would become a key period in New Order’s evolution.

Around the same time, they recorded a new track, True Faith, with Stephen Hague, who had recently produced top-ten hits for The Rock Steady Crew and Pet Shop Boys.

Coupled with a striking video directed and choreographed by Philippe Decouflé and produced by Michael Shamberg, it became New Order’s biggest hit to date, reaching number 4 in the UK chart in August 1987.

The band released their acclaimed album of extended mixes, Substance, in the same month, which shot to number 3 in the UK.

All of this was new territory for the band. Of their 11 UK singles prior to True Faith, only three had reached the top 20. This, of course, meant that Factory Records wanted to release a follow-up single as quickly as possible.

A decision was taken to re-hire Arthur Baker to produce a new version of Touched by the Hand of God. Featured here is his 12-inch extended version. The B-side of the 12-inch single is a dub mix called Touched by the Hand of Dub.

The single edit was accompanied by another memorable video. Stephen Morris recalls:

“We wanted to do a heavy metal spoof. We’d been around America and MTV was full of Whitesnake and Poison and fluffy hair, and it’s like, wouldn’t it be great? ’Cause that’s the last thing people would expect of us — a flamboyant rock video.”

Future Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow was hired to direct the video, with the main shoot taking place at a very cold Brixton Academy.

Touched by the Hand of God was released on 7 December 1987 and peaked at number 20 in the Christmas chart. One wonders how high it might have climbed had it been released into the much less competitive January schedule — top ten, perhaps?

Either way, another great standalone New Order single, and one of many classic New Order 12-inch extended mixes.

Year: 1987

Label: Factory Records

Catalogue No.: FAC 193