Conflating New Order and Joy Division is an affront to British music history

Putting them together is rather like sticking Blur and Gorillaz or the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd on the same Hall of Fame ticket. Yes, both have connecting threads in Damon Albarn and John Lydon respectively. But musically, Blur’s chirpy Britpop and Gorillaz’ cartoon hip-hop are miles apart. Ditto the Pistols’ snarly punk and PiL’s dubby experimentalism.

There is some precedent for “band lumping” in the Hall of Fame. In 2012, the Small Faces were inducted together with the Faces, even though the former were mods who melded poppy R&B with psychedelia and the latter played raucous bar-room rock. The connecting threads here? Both bands shared three (non-singing) members: Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan.

But by this logic, Nirvana and the Foo Fighters should have been inducted together because both include Dave Grohl and Nirvana touring member Pat Smear. Yet they’re separate inductees. And what about Santana and Journey? Journey’s vocalist Gregg Rolie and its lead guitarist Neal Schon formed the group in 1973 after splintering from Santana. But, again, the two bands are separate Hall of Fame entities.

One can conclude that the Hall of Fame, with its boomer voters and preference for American classic rock, simply doesn’t understand what makes such quintessentially British (and northern, at that) bands so special – or singular.

Still, being included is better than not being included. New Order are apparently, and rightly, thrilled with the honour. As Sumner sang on True Faith, “I used to think that the day would never come.”