Over the last half-decade, Peter Hook has been the subject of much scrutiny. To be sure, the former New Order and Joy Division bass player never postured as an innocuous character, but in recent years it’s his actions with the bass in hand that have stirred controversy.
First, a bit of background: after Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis took his own life in 1980, the quartet’s remaining members ended the band and re-emerged as New Order. Then, after two-and-a-half decades spent pushing the boundaries of new wave, synthpop and dance rock, New Order called it a day in 2006. Four years later, Hook kicked off a global tour that saw him perform Joy Division’s debut album Unknown Pleasures in full. This move provoked expressions of cynicism, not least of all from his ex-bandmates. However, Hook claims his intentions were neither malicious nor mercenary.
“2010 was the 30th anniversary of the very sad demise of Ian and I felt that I wanted to celebrate his life,” he says. “I didn’t want to play a greatest hits set, because you felt that you were emulating the band. I am not Joy Division and I am not New Order. I’m just a member celebrating the music.”
While it’s fair to say that nostalgia helped out with ticket sales, what the tour (which visited Sydney’s Enmore Theatre in late 2010) made clear was that Hook and his band The Light had adeptly recaptured the spirit of the original songs. Inevitably, Hook’s success dismayed his erstwhile comrades, who soon rebooted New Order without him.
“I started celebrating Joy Division,” says Hook, “which Bernard [Sumner, vocals] said was the reason that he reformed New Order – because I’d stolen Joy Division from him. Which isn’t true, because they’d already played Joy Division numbers in Bad Lieutenant.
“The thing is, when they reformed as New Order without asking me, without telling me, without my permission – and put all the business ramifications in place – it was like being thrown out the marital home. They aren’t New Order, in my opinion. They’re masquerading as New Order and I think it’s a lie they’re living and it’s an insult to the fans.”
The battle is ongoing. In fact, if you ask Hook, they “literally are at war”. Still, this hasn’t convinced him to cease with the retro-activating world tours. After the success of the Unknown Pleasures retrospective,Hook moved along to Joy Division’s second and final album Closer.By 2013, he’d built enough momentum that he saw fit to grab hold of New Order’s first two LPs, Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies.This month, Hook returns to Australia, this time to showcase New Order’s third and fourth records, Low-Life and Brotherhood.
“It was wonderful to get the New Order songs back again and treat them with the respect that they deserved,” he says. “It was interesting, because a lot of the songs you’ve not played for years, and I get these songs back and all of them are wonderful.”
For the entirety of the band’s initial 13-year run (from 1980 until 1993), New Order didn’t touch anything from the Joy Division catalogue. Given its massively influential stature, this might’ve seemed an imprudent move. The centrepieces of Hook’s forthcoming tour – Low Life and Brotherhood – prove it wasn’t a detrimental decision, but one does wonder why such legendary material was left alone.
“We had a meeting as Joy Division,” says Hook, “where, in true musketeer fashion, we said, ‘All for one, one for all; if any of us leave, we’ll split the band,’ which is what we did as Joy Division. We actually did make that same promise as New Order [laughs], but we seem to have forgotten that one.
“Actually, that 100 per cent focus on the new material, on the new group, made New Order a huge international success,” he adds. “If we’d have been flirting with Joy Division it would’ve confused it. It wouldn’t have worked.
“[But] when New Order split in 2006, and I was on the outside looking in, I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, why did we never celebrate anything to do with Joy Division?’ Joy Division’s legacy and heritage was even more important in 2006 than when the band split up in 1980. It was still a huge, influential band and we weren’t doing anything to celebrate it.”
Live performance isn’t the only medium through which Hook has been revisiting the past. In 2009 he released a written account of his time co-owning Manchester’s legendary HaНienda venue, called How Not To Run A Club. Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division followed in 2013, and at present he’s working on a book covering his time in New Order. A release date is yet to be named, but Hook guarantees the book will illuminate the band’s uglier side.
“I can tell the truth, because I’m not with them,” he says. “If you look at Bernard’s book – although I wouldn’t recommend it – he can’t really call anything on Stephen [Morris, drums] and Gillian [Gilbert, synthesisers] because he’s still working with them. The best way to write a book about a group is when you’re no longer in the group.
“Justice in this world is very hard to come by,” he adds. “We see bullies and we see powerful people taking advantage of nicer people all the way through. I’m just not going to have it. I’m not standing down; no chance, mate.”
Catch Peter Hook & The Light at Metro Theatre onThursday February 19, tickets online.
