| Video 5 8 6 | |
| Cover: | Video_5_8_6_New Order.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | New Order |
| Released: | 22 September 1997 |
| Recorded: | 1982 |
| Genre: | |
| Length: | 22:23 |
| Label: | Touch |
| Producer: | New Order |
| Prev Title: | Blue Monday-95 |
| Prev Year: | 1995 |
| Next Title: | Crystal |
| Next Year: | 2001 |
"Video 5 8 6", originally titled "Prime 5 8 6",[3] [4] is an electronic instrumental piece and twenty-fourth single written and produced in 1982 by the British group New Order.[5] In December 1982, the track was initially released in two sections in Touch Music's first cassette magazine, Feature Mist.[3] [5] [6] Touch re-released the entire track as a CD single in 1997.[3] [6]
Composed primarily by Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, "Prime 5 8 6"/"Video 5 8 6" was an early version of "5 8 6" (from Power, Corruption & Lies), which contained rhythm elements that would later surface on "Ultraviolence" and the 1983 hit "Blue Monday".[3] After Factory Records' Tony Wilson asked New Order for twenty minutes of "pap", it was first played in public during the opening of The Haçienda on 21 May 1982.[3]
On release it reached #86 on the main British singles chart[7] and #19 on the British indie chart. Bassist Peter Hook has said the key to the title "5 8 6" can be found in another of the group's songs, "Ecstasy"; 5, 8 then 6 is the song's bar structure.
A video was released for the song called Primitive 586 on the FACT 56, IKON 3 VHS and BETA tape 'A Factory Video', the footage is mostly primitive 80s computer graphics.
Dave Simpson of The Guardian, including "Video 5 8 6" in a list of ten of New Order's best tracks, called it a "motorik electronic odyssey" and added: "Eventually released as a CD single in 1997, this combination of endlessly repetitive groove and electro bassline is as hypnotic as anything they recorded."
| Chart (1997) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | 86 | |
| UK Indie Singles | 19 |