Well I received loads of texts and tweets from those lucky enough to grab a ticket for the main event last night. So thought there should be a thread to pay homage to our Bass guru.
Please, lay your tributes here.
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Hooky at Koko
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Well, whatever people's views on the appropriateness of it, I thought the gig was great. From In A Lonely Place, through Movement, Mesh, Cries and Whispers, Procession, EGG, PCL, Hurt, Temptation and Blue Monday it was all pretty much nailed on. Hooky threw a few vitriolic swipes at his ex-colleagues by changing a few lyrics...'I'll bet you hate this' was noticeable as was 'This is the FIRST time' (instead of Last time) so expect a longer tour of early NO material in 2013. It's a shame he and Bernard cannot accept what each other now wants to do and just get on with it but maybe that's what adds a spark to both of them.
It was brilliant hearing a lot of the old songs live for the first time in many years and Hooky has worked on his vocals. No he's not what we are used to but so what? I'm happy to have paid and also shelled out for the downloads of his UP gigs.
Pas a devout NO fan I felt duty bound to see Hooky in action. The music was fantastic and it was great to hear the old stuff live again, the renditions were cool BUT..... Hooky's vocals ARRGGHH! Just don't like his delivery - all sounds a bit too earnest. It was like an actor reading the words of a script rather than "acting" them. As the woman next to me texted to er mate "Peter Hook thinks he's Ian Curtis".
I expected his voice to be more suited to Movement, but I enjoyed zpCL and the singles more. Cool to hear Temptation again and hadn't seen it coming.
Couldn't believe some people were saying it was better than the new New Order - no chance.
I'm not going to get into the "should he even be oing it" debate, overall I'm glad I went great tunes pity about the singer.
Bumped into Alex on the tube back to High Barnet - get in touch, I want my Vikings badge :-)
Methinks thats the first time ive heard Hooky play in A lonely place, and very good it was too.
Movement live is far superior to the recorded Album , and last night it was Trance inducing so intense ,The rawness of the album coming through. Nice to hear mesh and cries and whispers.
Hooky said he was claiming back what was rightfully his,mmm partly his.
Power corruption and lies was good, he has worked on his vocals and came accross, some moaned about the high note range , but in fairness we know his limitations as a vocalist.Seemed to be playing more BASS then when he did the Joy Division stuff.
Everything gone green was just ace , crowd go mental over Temptation , no Love will tear us apart .
Did he pull it off, yup and id see it again , and again.
Crickey i wasnt the only noooler on the tube to High Barnet laST NIGHT[:eek]
you get these words wrong
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I went as a last minute decision, partly influenced by the Welsh review that Cranelane posted on another thread. (Gig wasn't sold out, so the touts could be convinced to undercut the door price). By the time Hooky & Co took the stage, the main floor was pretty rammed. The first thing he did was to thank people for turning up and offered to kiss everyone down the front. I agree with the above comments about Movement live. It captivated me more than the record ever has. There was a moment during Truth when Hook and son exchanged glances as if to say: I think this is working.
For those who want the full album experience you could do a lot worse than this. There was only one song where I thought Hook's vocals were really lacking: Leave Me Alone. It sounded like he was just singing one note. Maybe that's why the sound-man had his vox low in the mix for that one. Overall the vibe of the gig was definitely about reproducing the songs (albums, singles, b sides) as closely as possible to the originals. Whether or not that floats your boat is, I guess, a personal decision. And before someone points it out, yes I know; Hooks vocals were the one bit that didn't sound the same as the original recordings. Although I was expecting Temptation, for some reason I'd forgotten about EGG. I don't think I've ever seen NO do EGG live, so that, along with non album tracks like Cries and Whispers gave the gig goer something different from the recent NO gigs.
One thing I thought they could drop from the setlist was The Beach. It was a sort of re-mixed/re-edited version of the BM B-side performed by...an apple Mac as far as I could see. The band had walked off and The Beach came on. Some people were probably thinking: Is this how BM is being presented tonight? Well no; we eventually got BM in full (band on stage). Considering we also had the PCL version of 586, the Beach was I think, unnecessary. The moshpit went mad for Temptation, and surpisingly for BM. I expected dancing rather than moshing during that one and now I'm feeling a little bruised! Here's the setlist.
Digi Mike Le Creuset Binoche wrote: When I first read this I thought it said 'Hooky is KOKO the Clown'
Me too.
Sounds like it was a great gig. Would've love to have been there but living in Norfolk and being rather snowed in at the mo put paid to that. Hope all that went enjoyed it. Hope NO do some more gigs soon. Also caught Hooky in November at Norwich Waterfront performing Unknown Pleasures. Was really enjoyable and would like to experience him live again.
I have had a look at some of the youtube clips of the Koko gig, its ironic that Hooky struggles most with his voice when singing the songs from PCL which is the album where Bernard really found his voice..
He copes better on the tracks from Movement and also Cries And Whispers, EGG etc..
I see that HURT is also on the setlist..
I could be tempted to go and see this if he comes around again. However, I still think Hooky singing is a bad idea on some of these songs, an I would much rather have him play stuff from all his career - on the other hand, my temptation (badumtish!) on Thursday was offset by being snowed in anyway.
Cranelane wrote:
Sorry but I think that that is shite - no passion, patchy musicians (apart from Hooky) and quite frankly a joke.
Makes you realise that if the words don't come from your heart and mind you cannot deliver.
I just don't like his singing. Seen him sing twice ( with Revenge in 91 and Monaco in 98) and it just gives me a frickin headache
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This must be have been one of the gig highlights, I think the drummer is doing a pretty good job here and Hookys vocals come across better here than on other songs that I have viewed, I also checked out his take on Ultraviolence and he had a hard time with that one.
Just to say and i know not everyone will agree but really enjoyed the gig, great to hear both albums and associated singles certainly put a smile on my face, I thought Hooky done a great job even though you can see he is not totally comfortable being the singer all the time but on each gig i see him he gets better couldn't fault the band a great sound Good to see people all around with smiles on there faces and moving about great vibe IT was well worth the 100+ mile drive in crap weather and the 3am arrival time at home in snowy Norfolk The only sad thing is it makes you wish it was the complete NO line up but as we know this looks very unlikely ever to happen but thank you Hooky for playing these songs it was great to hear them live especially some for the first time
Cranelane wrote: I have had a look at some of the youtube clips of the Koko gig, its ironic that Hooky struggles most with his voice when singing the songs from PCL which is the album where Bernard really found his voice...
Man, he's going to end up losing his voice by insisting on 'singing' (really, screaming) in the original key of these songs, but whatever, I don't really care.
His right arm is getting even more crazier too.
for these Light shows, does Hooky need a teleprompter for lyrics like Barney? when i saw Hooky for Revenge and Monaco, he did fine with the lyrics.
![[hi]](/emoticons/hi.gif){kind=small}
ersatz01 wrote:
Cranelane wrote: I have had a look at some of the youtube clips of the Koko gig, its ironic that Hooky struggles most with his voice when singing the songs from PCL which is the album where Bernard really found his voice...
Man, he's going to end up losing his voice by insisting on 'singing' (really, screaming) in the original key of these songs, but whatever, I don't really care.
His right arm is getting even more crazier too.
Its like watching Michael J Fox play bass................
Had a few days to think about the Koko gig so here's my best shot at an impartial review.
First off, it's been said before but The Light are a tight backing band; they did the music justice and had obviously done their homework on the various sounds and arrangements for each song. Personally, I can take or leave Movement which is a divisive album amongst the fan-base; some think it's a bit of a funeral dirge while others like the immersive trance-like thing it's got going on. I'm sort of between the two camps on that one but I did enjoy Truth and Chosen Time. As the vocals on Movement are obviously very Curtis-esque, for the most part Hooky managed them very well. I watched Dreams Never End while the version from "Academy" replayed in my mind, just couldn't help it. Procession was another high point, everything seemed to come together for that one and it sounded great with that low bassline rumbling around the venue.
Unfortunately once PC&L arrived and the songs required a higher vocal register was when things went a bit awry. The music remained solid but unfortunately the vocals were overstretched; Ultraviolence and Leave Me Alone particularly suffered. In fairness, Bernard is hardly vocalist of the century (shouty Krafty anyone?) so it's not such a big deal however those songs would definitely have benefited from someone more suitable singing them. If anything, that would allow Hooky get back to playing bass full time which is the reason 99% of us were there. By the end I don't think most of the audience cared about the vox, the reaction was admittedly rapturous by the time Temptation/Blue Monday arrived with a beaming Hooky stepping onto the PA in his trademark pose.
It wasn't perfect but had some good moments and I'm glad I saw it at least once before forming an opinion.
As with UP, I can't say I'd rush out to see the exact same set again but overall I'd give it about 7 out of 10.
Jake A wrote:
ersatz01 wrote:
Cranelane wrote: I have had a look at some of the youtube clips of the Koko gig, its ironic that Hooky struggles most with his voice when singing the songs from PCL which is the album where Bernard really found his voice...
Man, he's going to end up losing his voice by insisting on 'singing' (really, screaming) in the original key of these songs, but whatever, I don't really care.
His right arm is getting even more crazier too.
Its like watching Michael J Fox play bass................
Yep, he should seriously get that checked out.
alan wrote: Just to say and i know not everyone will agree but really enjoyed the gig, great to hear both albums and associated singles certainly put a smile on my face, I thought Hooky done a great job even though you can see he is not totally comfortable being the singer all the time but on each gig i see him he gets better couldn't fault the band a great sound Good to see people all around with smiles on there faces and moving about great vibe IT was well worth the 100+ mile drive in crap weather and the 3am arrival time at home in snowy Norfolk The only sad thing is it makes you wish it was the complete NO line up but as we know this looks very unlikely ever to happen but thank you Hooky for playing these songs it was great to hear them live especially some for the first time
You managed to get there from Norfolk? Lucky you. Would've like to have gone. Unfortunately I'm skint following Christmas. Well was skint before Christmas too - lol anyway good to hear people enjoyed it. I would sooooooo love to see the original line up together again, yeah and pigs might fly!![[:(]](/emoticons/frown.gif){kind=small}
I want to like this, but Hooky's huffing and puffing, vocals and stage presence makes me cringe.
On the other hand, The Light's instrumentation is once again perfect.
"You've got to take back what's righfully yours."
These songs are NOT rightfully his as he suggests. They are New Order songs. The Light did not have one fucking iota of input into the writing, recording, or release of any song they have been playing for the past four fucking years. The bassist-who-doesn't-play-much-bass had input in another band, but he does not own these songs, no matter what his misguided ego tells him.
If he wants to talk about what is "rightfully yours", that is, what songs are rightfully The Light's, he better pull his finger out and write and record SOMETHING with the band and play that live instead of imitating what he was doing 30 years ago. I was just warming to the idea of seeing him and then he shits on it again by making out that Barney, Steve, and Gillian are merely puppets that had nothing to do with the songs apart from doing as they were told by King Hooky. Prat. He was 25% of New Order. Not 100%.
That right arm business is proper off-putting, Dalek ish! 😈
Seriously though, might be worth a look if they get over to Perth,WA. Not gonna happen I don't think.
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markreed wrote: These songs are NOT rightfully his as he suggests. They are New Order songs. The Light did not have one fucking iota of input into the writing, recording, or release of any song they have been playing for the past four fucking years. The bassist-who-doesn't-play-much-bass had input in another band, but he does not own these songs, no matter what his misguided ego tells him.
If he wants to talk about what is "rightfully yours", that is, what songs are rightfully The Light's, he better pull his finger out and write and record SOMETHING with the band and play that live instead of imitating what he was doing 30 years ago. I was just warming to the idea of seeing him and then he shits on it again by making out that Barney, Steve, and Gillian are merely puppets that had nothing to do with the songs apart from doing as they were told by King Hooky. Prat. He was 25% of New Order. Not 100%.
Spectacular spat there Mark, based on a throwaway comment. 😄
A comment indeed, which was made by another Mark - Hooky's lawyer seemingly - and repeated here by Hooky.
Who cares what the inference maybe is - are you honestly suggesting that Hooky is saying these songs are his, and just his? They're as much his as they are Gillian's or Stephen's or Barney's.
markreed wrote: These songs are NOT rightfully his as he suggests. They are New Order songs. The Light did not have one fucking iota of input into the writing, recording, or release of any song they have been playing for the past four fucking years. The bassist-who-doesn't-play-much-bass had input in another band, but he does not own these songs, no matter what his misguided ego tells him.
If he wants to talk about what is "rightfully yours", that is, what songs are rightfully The Light's, he better pull his finger out and write and record SOMETHING with the band and play that live instead of imitating what he was doing 30 years ago. I was just warming to the idea of seeing him and then he shits on it again by making out that Barney, Steve, and Gillian are merely puppets that had nothing to do with the songs apart from doing as they were told by King Hooky. Prat. He was 25% of New Order. Not 100%.
'Kin 'ell. Calm down.
