Gillian Gilbert

Gillian Gilbert
Gillian Gilbert on stage with New Order, fête de l'Humanité 2012.
Background information
Birth name	Gillian Lesley Gilbert
Born	(1961-01-27) 27 January 1961 (age 55) Whalley Range, Manchester, England
Genres	New wave, synthpop, post-punk, alternative dance, alternative rock, electronica
Instruments	Keyboards, programming, guitar, vocals.
Associated acts	New Order, The Other Two

Gillian Lesley Gilbert (born 27 January 1961) is an English musician, keyboardist, guitarist and singer, best known as a member of New Order and a founding member of The Other Two.

Gilbert's family moved from her birthplace Manchester to the nearby market town of Macclesfield when she was young. In a 1987 New Order interview, Gilbert said that she disliked living in Cheshire as a teenager and wanted to live in Manchester.

In the late 1970s, Gilbert was in a punk band with three girls, The Inadequates, who happened to rehearse next to Joy Division (which included singer Ian Curtis, guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris.) In a 1987 interview with Option, Gilbert reflected on the first time she became familiar with Joy Division: "[W]e didn't have a car and us three needed a lift home. So we asked them, and they said, 'Alright, but you have to buy one of our singles.' So we did and got it home and played it on this horrible record player. We'd known Stephen before. We thought, 'My god, this sounds horrible.'" Gilbert would later begin dating Morris.

Ian Curtis's death in May 1980 left a three-member band that named itself New Order. Wanting to complete their line-up with someone they knew well and whose musical skill and style was compatible with their own, New Order invited Gilbert to join the band during the early part of October 1980, as keyboardist and guitarist. She had already played with Joy Division a number of times, filling in for both Curtis and Sumner playing guitar. Gilbert's membership was suggested by band manager Rob Gretton. Gilbert's first live performance with New Order occurred at The Squat in Manchester on 25 October 1980.

Gilbert's voice can be heard on several New Order tracks: the 1981 single "Procession"; the 1983 single "Confusion"; "Avalanche" from the album Republic on which she sang a single word, "faith"; and "Doubts Even Here" from their first album, Movement, on which she provided a spoken-word background vocal.