Peter Hook: ‘I Might Not Love The Members Of New Order, But I Love The Music’

Peter Hook is big on legacy. That's the entire point of Peter Hook & The Light - the band exists to honour Ian Curtis and those perfect Joy Division albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer, and the New Order songs that still resonate with the original bass player.

In February 2015, the band visited Australia and New Zealand for the first time and played a 50-minute Joy Division set, followed by the New Order albums Low-Life and Brotherhood and some New Order singles. On 18 May 2015, the group performed a complete retrospective set of Joy Division's entire catalogue, in chronological order, at Christ Church, Macclesfield, England. The show marked 35 years since Ian Curtis' passing and sold out within minutes. On 18 May 2020, the band uploaded that iconic gig to YouTube for 24 hours with the title So This Is Permanent in aid of the Epilepsy Society. A DVD followed a month later.

In October last year, Peter Hook & The Light announced their massive Joy Division: A Celebration tour, and tonight, it begins in Australia with a gig at Melbourne's Croxton Bandroom. The band will perform Unknown Pleasures and Closer in full, with an opening set of New Order jams.

When Peter Hook answers the phone, you can't tell he's struggling with a sore throat. The Manchester-based musician tells stories as charismatically as he plays the bass guitar.

New Order first toured Australia in November 1982. "We did a tour with Vivian Lees and Ken West, who went on to do the Big Day Out. We were the first international band they brought out with their new agency," Hook explains; he developed a lifelong friendship with the promoters. Ken West sadly passed away earlier this year; it is a significant loss to his family and to live music in Australia. 

"It's a pleasure [touring Australia]; it's a beautiful country," he says, but audiences here surprise Hook in many ways. "To be honest with you, when we first got there, we were amazed at how different the audiences were - they were actually more inebriated than British audiences, which we never thought possible," he laughs, continuing: "It was very 50/50 men and women, whereas, in England, the audiences we were playing to were, like, 90-95% male, which obviously had its drawbacks. Australia was much more cosmopolitan. And for that reason, it was much more pleasurable, to be honest."

In 2019, Peter Hook was in Australia touring Joy Division Orchestrated to a sold-out Sydney Opera House - "always a great thing to be able to put on your CV," he confirms. The bassist wishes he had moved here 30 years ago; I reassure him that it's never too late. 

It's funny what keeps you at home, isn't it? Hook concurs, "you stay for your parents, but then your parents are gone. And then it's the kids, and suddenly, your kids have gone. Myself and my wife have been married 25 years this year, and we have been wondering, where will we end up? Relocating somewhere is a big change, but I'd do it for the weather. I'm fucking sick of Manchester; it's freezing!"

Peter Hook & The Light have released 14 live albums; what does Hook enjoy about making them? "Absolutely nothing," he laughs, believing that live albums lead to musicians making "stupid, silly mistakes." The company that records the band's live albums, Be Here Now - based out of Abbey Road Studios - would record the shows and the CDs were available to purchase after a gig. "From a commercial point of view, it was very lucrative. Now, of course, nobody buys bloody CDs. You know, it's all fucking downloads, innit. 

"I noticed that the other day, that New Order - the so-called New Order - I will never admit in a million years, they're actually New Order. They've done 16 albums [ten studio albums, six live albums]. It's an easy thing to achieve these days, which is nice. You know, the way the technology is, you can easily record gigs. In the old days, recording a live gig would have been a hell of a task."

Hook's son, Jack Bates, is a member of The Light and is the current touring bass player for the Smashing Pumpkins. "The exciting thing about it is that when Jack started with The Light and we started playing Unknown Pleasures, we had to relearn the songs. He was exactly the same age - twenty - as I was when I did Unknown Pleasures in the first place. So there were a few bizarre deja vu moments.

"Jack is the only bass player I've ever met - we've had seven bass players in The Light - that can play exactly like me," he begins. "Other bass players can't master it for God knows what reason. The parts certainly aren't very technical, but they can't master it. Jack's the only one who can play like a mirror image of me, which is why Billy Corgan bloody poached him. Yeah, he's very happily doing a massive arena tour of America at the moment with Jane's Addiction and the Smashing Pumpkins. So I'm very proud of him, to say the least; he's achieved a lot. You know, he's definitely played to more bloody people!"

Hook hopes to inspire his son to write his own music. "I keep saying to him that he should concentrate on writing and try and establish something of his own like I did, but I didn't really have a choice," he says, clarifying: "I didn't have the choice to play with anybody else. We were very much a writing band." Hook is such a writing man that he can't play other people's songs. "I'm tone-deaf when it comes to other people's songs!" he exclaims. 

At one stage, Peter Hook was fifth in line to become the next touring bass player for The Rolling Stones. "Luckily enough for me, the fourth in line was Doug Wimbush, who got the job. If Mick Jagger had to put a gun to my head and said play Satisfaction, I would have said just pull the trigger, mate, because there's no fucking chance I'm playing Satisfaction; I can't do it."

In 2001, New Order were touring with Moby. Moby was covering the Joy Division classic, New Dawn Fades, which Hook was flattered by. "We were playing with him, and he said to me and Barney [Sumner], 'why don't you come and play New Dawn Fades with us?' I'll never forget sitting in a dressing room with John Frusciante and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Flea was teaching me the bassline to New Dawn Fades." 

When Hook was in New Order, the band wasn't celebrating Joy Division at all. When Hook departed the group in 2007, he thought, why didn't we celebrate anything to do with Joy Division? "I was determined to celebrate Joy Division on the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis's life, as I call it. And that's what I did. And the resistance I met, apart from a few keyboard warriors, came from Stephen [Morris] and Bernard, who valiantly tried to stop me ever since," he says. 

He believes that much of the in-fighting between Hook and New Order stems from miscommunication - the members would probably find common ground if they sat in a room together. "It's very easy to sit at home or to your lawyer going, 'Oh, that bastard...'  I can't change it. I've tried to change it. I've tried my hardest to change it. But that acrimonious relationship between what they did with New Order to get the name and their attitude to everything I do with Joy Division is just a fact of life."

Hook is the current lead singer for The Light, singing Joy Division songs every night - a prospect that once terrified him. "It took me about 6, 8, 9 months to realise that if you show the right amount of passion, and you show the right amount of respect, people will recognise it," he confirms. "I'm a very lucky boy, as my wife keeps telling me, to be able to do what I do and share it with so many people. I love Joy Division. And I love New Order. I might not love the members of New Order, but I certainly love the music, and I'm sure they feel the same way."

In exciting news for Peter Hook and Gorillaz fans, The Light may bring out Hook's collaboration with the British virtual band, Aries. "I was very close to Damon [Albarn] and Blur in the '90s when they were having their battle with Oasis, so I got to know them very well at a club that we used to frequent called Gaucho in London," he starts. "We always met there, and there was a mutual admiration. I think he's a fantastically gifted songwriter. And to be asked by him [to collaborate], I was terrified. 

"I was driving down to London, and he phoned me and said, 'okay, I'm not going to be at the session,'" to Hook's relief. "And I thought, thank God for that. He's not going to be there. I was scared to death. My wife was laughing at me for being so scared. So I got there, turned around, and he was there! And he went, 'I managed to get away.' And I was like, 'Oh, shit.' 

"But we actually did it. We sat down and did it. And we had it done in literally an hour and a half. Well, I was absolutely delighted. Damon made it so easy. We did it literally the week before lockdown."

For everyone who's heard Aries, Hook's contribution is obvious to spot. His playing has just the right amount of melancholy and can bring grown adults to tears. And through every musician's misery during the lockdowns, Peter Hook had a #1 hit in the US with Gorillaz. "I was fucking delighted. That really helped me through lockdown and the bile between New Order and me," he explains. 

So, when the fans who said New Order didn't sound like New Order anymore heard a Gorillaz song featuring Peter Hook and fellow English musician Georgia "that sounds more like New Order than anything has in years, it was great for me. It made me feel really, really good," the bassist says. "I keep saying to this lot [The Light], 'we've got to play Aries,' and it keeps getting knocked off for some reason. So, on your recommendation, I'm going to push to do it because it's a great bass riff and a great song."

Looking at the world around us - COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and the British political situation, it's no wonder Hook can't wait to return to Australia and escape it all. "This is a terrifying period; we all need that release and relief. That's where you can go and share moments and have a wonderful time in your life. Don't we all try and relive those wonderful moments again and again? It's what nostalgia and melancholia are all about, isn't it?"

Peter Hook is currently touring Australia. Tickets for the Perth show are still available here.

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT

'Joy Division: A Celebration' AUSTRALIAN TOUR