Peter Hook Interview: "New Look at Hook" Karl Whitney The Belfast Telegraph, Friday 29th February 2008 - - - - He was a member of seminal British bands Joy Division and New Order ... now he's coming to Belfast to give a leg-up to a new generation of musicians. Karl Whitney talks to guitar legend Peter Hook Surreal: that's the word Peter Hook chooses to sum up his career in rock music. "It's a really surreal life," he says. "Everything you do has an air of surreality to it, but you get used to it." But first, the realities: like the suicide of his friend Ian Curtis, lead singer in Joy Division, on the eve of the band's first tour of America; and the subsequent success of dance-rock pioneers New Order, the group that rose from the ashes of Joy Division and brought the music in directions which fans of the former band could never have anticipated. But on the other hand, you have to take into account the input of the late Tony Wilson of Factory Records, the impresario with a flair for high-concept art japes who, the story goes, spent so much on the design and production of the New Order single Blue Monday that it ended up costing the band 10p per copy sold. Something which might have been manageable, if the song hadn't gone on to become the biggest selling 12-inch single of all time. You see, when Hook talks about 'surreal', he surely means that sort of thing. In any case, most of the profits made from New Order's records were eaten up by the development of Manchester's now-legendary Hacienda Club, another of Tony Wilson's projects. No wonder Peter Hook still feels ambivalent about the Hacienda years, even though he's now writing a book about the club. "Every time I tended to get p**sed or a little bit merry, I'd always start falling into this pit of self-despair about the Hacienda. The book is a way for me to remove all that from me. One of the nicest things I've found while doing it - even though I think it's all doom and gloom because we lost a lot of money - is what high regard people hold for the club and the times, and what an important part in people's lives it was, which I think needs celebrating again." Hook and a friend of his have even started to put on Hacienda nights "featuring the old DJs and the old music", and have put together collections of the music of the time, like the recent compilation, Hacienda Classics. "The book's enabled me to concentrate on all the positive aspects of the club," he says. In the last few years, Hook has been portrayed in two different movies documenting his former band Joy Division; first, in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, which covered the rise of Factory Records. Then, last year, there was the portrait of Joy Division in the highly successful drama, Control. How does he feel about seeing himself, and his former bands, in these films? "What I liked about Control was, when I watched my character, I could actually see some of me in him. But I think that was down to Anton [Corbijn, the director], because he knows us so well." As a young photographer, Corbijn had travelled from his native Netherlands to England to work at the New Musical Express; one of his early assignments was to photograph Joy Division for the paper. His glacial black and white shots definitively framed the mood and aesthetic of Joy Division. "24 Hour Party People was basically for entertainment. It's gone right around the world - everyone's seen it. It's done more for New Order, Factory, Joy Division than most things, really. But I do think Control came across a lot more seriously. I must admit that that aspect of it appeals to me most." Hook now travels to premieres of Corbijn's film in different countries, answering audience questions about Joy Division and the band's legacy. Since the summer of last year, the status of New Order has been uncertain. Peter Hook initially made a statement to the press saying that the band had broken up; the other original members, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, who had also been members of Joy Division, maintain that the band still exists, but that Hook has left the group. There are rumours of possible legal proceedings, but nothing has materialised yet. Hook is unwilling to answer any questions about the group. Instead, he's happy to talk about a new project he's working on with fellow bassists Mani from The Stone Roses and Andy Rourke from The Smiths. Called Freebass, the band has just added vocalist Gary Briggs, of Manchester band Haven, to the line-up. Hook says he's looking forward to getting back to playing live; the band are currently in the studio, recording. He'll be taking a break, however, on March 6 and 7, to come to Belfast to co-present the filming of the Channel 4 JD Set gigs, with Foals, the Subways and Boy Kill Boy among the acts taking to the stage at the Spring & Airbrake. "The thing that interested me about it is that it's called an 'Icon' series, and the idea is that the bands put up their musical icon, the artist who influenced the band, and I try to guess what the influence is on the band - like one band might have Neil Young, another might have Bob Dylan." Crediting the series as having introduced him to younger groups he otherwise would have never heard, he says that he still reserves criticism for those bands he doesn't enjoy: "I always get told off by Channel 4 for slagging off the ones I don't enjoy. But, if you're going to put yourself up for something like that, then you've got to be prepared take it, haven't you? God knows I get enough stick from people." On a recent edition of the programme, he got up on stage and played with Liverpool band The Wombats. "What I loved about them is that, you know, I come from a time when everybody took themselves so seriously, and to see a group like The Wombats that don't take themselves so seriously: there's no angst in it. It was really refreshing." The Wombats have recorded their own tribute to Hook's old band, called Let's Dance To Joy Division, but he refused to play it with them on stage, choosing another song instead. To play that song would have been "too cheesy" he says. Clearly some things, in the end, you have to take seriously. © 2008 The Belfast Telegraph To read this piece on the Belfast Telegraph site click here -------- Journalism | Home | About