This was the question I posed to the late Rob Gretton, idiosyncratic and sullen manager of New Order back in 1995.

He was sitting in a caf bar in Manchester's Whitworth Street.

Over his shoulder, and across the street, I could see The Hacienda, then still in full flight and under the continuing guidance of Gretton. Beyond the Hacienda, a barrage of cranes were silhouetted against the skyline. Manchester was on the change. Within a few short years, the skyline would have altered so radically that Mancunians returning after a half dozen years away would barely be able to recognise the place. The Hacienda would crumble to be replaced by flat blocks using the same name. Poor Rob would soon no longer be with us. Everything turns, twists and moves on.

On that day, in an attempt to answer the question, Rob huffed and sighed and placed his hands on the caf table.

Glancing to the heavens, he stated: "It depends on what you mean by exist. They don't speak to each other. They live separate lives. I suppose they have all become very different people. But...who knows? Who cares?"

At that point in time, the entire Factory/New Order/Mondays/Wilson maelstrom of bluff and ego seemed to be crawling to a fittingly bombastic conclusion. New Order's mass sulk was showing no signs of abating, Happy Mondays had imploded horribly and Tony Wilson was wondering whether to append the rest of his days swapping inane jokes with Lucy Meacock on Granada Tonight.

How strange to note that, 10 years down the line, I find myself faced with three sample tracks from a forthcoming New Order album, the biopic of Ian Curtis moves into the pre-production stage - with, bizarrely, Anton Corbijn making his directorial debut - a new biography of Curtis also slowly forming and the first release on Wilson's new label F4 (Factory Four) also emerging from eminent rappers, Raw T. The single, Where We Live, is as solidly Mancunian as the hit television series Shameless which is, I am told, written by a 'Scouser'.

The choice of rock photographer Anton Corbijn as director of the Ian Curtis film, called Control, is both courageous and intriguing. I recall being in the company of Corbijn, Gretton and New Order in New York and Washington in 1983. Throughout a madly hedonistic five-day spell, Gretton hurled vast torrents of abuse in the direction of Corbijn. So much, in fact, that it became acutely embarrassing. Gretton, it seems, had been angered by Corbijn's work on Joy Division's Atmosphere video. "Come here ... you big Dutch ****" was, indeed, the general level of it all.

As for New Order, the new album, Waiting for the Siren's Call (great title) is preceded by a steely new single, Krafty, and the news that Gillian Gilbert has finally been fully replaced by guitarist Phil Cunningham. While this may hint that the rockier edge the band discovered on 2001's Get Ready is set to continue, the examples thus far listened to strongly suggest that Siren will be an album that swings both ways, rock and dance, melody and thrust. Quite whether the world is waiting in a state of feverish anticipation for such a thing, is another matter altogether. Back in the days of Low Life and Brotherhood, the music of New Order would latch on to a summer and hang omnipresent in the undertone for months on end, effectively becoming an eternal evocation of the time. As such, just one listen to, say, Bizarre Love Triangle sends my mind scuttling back to the Affleck's Palace emporium in Manchester, in which I would skulk, while wearing the obligatory overcoat, white t-shirt, Levis 501's and scuffed Doc Martin 'greasy' shoes. In there, one would chomp on lentil burgers while chatting about similarly attired Manchester acts such as The Bodines, The Railway Children, James and, every once in a while, we would be graced by the presence of his esteemed Holiness, Stephen Patrick Morrissey. Produced by Stephen Street, the samples from Siren are stacked with time honoured New Order trademarks. Hookey's bass growls while Barney's vocal's just manage to lift themselves clear of the mix and spout. And yet, as ever, it all seems to strangely work, despite the band's admission that they have deliberately half-inched a riff from The Killers. There are lovely poptones, too. On the lilting tones of Jetstream Love, the band are accompanied by Scissor Sister Ana Matronic, which is exactly the kind of cameo that suits both bands.

New Order certainly do still exist. What's more, people still seem to care.