Hooky interview in today's Times

The Times April 01, 2006

Sound track your life

Young at heart Peter Hook of New ORder is inspired by an old rocker

Teenage kicks I grew up with glam rock and Slade. It just reminds me of when I was a kid, going to my first disco at 13, 14. I was a real Slade fan, they were like the ones, you know, Cum on Feel the Noize and all that crap. Now I know Noddy Holder. I do! He’s a friend of mine. That’s one of the great things about this job.

Call to arms The song that made me want to be in a band would have to be Anarchy in the UK, because the Sex Pistols were the band that inspired Joy Division to begin. We went to see them in 1977 and they were so bloody awful, that you thought, “I could do that.” Now it seems absolutely ridiculous that you’d go to see a s*** band and you’d form a group that lasted for 30 years.

Manchester anthem 808 State’s Pacific State. Whenever I hear it, it always takes me back to that balmy summer of 1988 in the Hacienda. I can remember it all, the feeling that acid-house was the new punk. It gave everybody a new sense of freedom, a new sense of DIY. You could make acid house music in your bedroom. The two stages of music, to me, are electronic punk and guitar punk. We put them together — a long time before 808 State.

Bass appreciation The record I wish I’d made is Out of Control by the Chemical Brothers, because it sounds just like New Order! It’s an absolutely fantastic song — so in-your-face, so perfect — that I wish I’d been on it. The lads told me that there’s a bass section in it that sounds like me and that they did it specifically for that purpose.

Our tune When my wife and I met in 1996, we heard Robert Miles’s Children everywhere. It’s her favourite song, which always makes me think it was the favourite song of her other boyfriend. You know when your mind plays tricks on you? I like it, it’s quite evocative. But I preferred the one after.

Young disciple The best thing I’ve seen live was Neil Young, on his last tour, at the Manchester Apollo. He played the whole of the Greendale album and then did a kind of greatest hits. I was really impressed by the simplicity of it, and the passion. It was £150 a ticket and there was quite an atmosphere, a tension, because it was so expensive. But he just rose above it, nothing fazed him at all.

Peter Hook is promoting Viiv, Intel’s new digital entertainment platform (www.intel.com).

Interview by Ed Potton

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22875-2107682,00.html

"Young disciple The best thing I’ve seen live was Neil Young, on his last tour, at the Manchester Apollo. He played the whole of the Greendale album and then did a kind of greatest hits. I was really impressed by the simplicity of it, and the passion. It was £150 a ticket and there was quite an atmosphere, a tension, because it was so expensive. But he just rose above it, nothing fazed him at all."

I will be congratulating him on this when I ring him in a minute, Greendale is one of my favourite albums.

Hooky in the Times? Promoting some 'digital entertainment platform'? Whatever, always nice to hear the great man speak. :)

I've always felt that bass line near the end of Out of Control could have been Hooky.

Thanks Kevin for the link :) well spotted

The bottom of the article states that Hooky is promoting this entertainment system for some reason! http://www.intel.com/viiv/home.htm

I presume he does this through his djing then! How bizarre!

Really, it's nice to see Peter Hook namecheck 808 State's 'Pacific State' even though the first incarnation of that track was from 1989, perhaps he was mistaken.

Also nice to see him mention Robert Miles' 'Children'. I always thought the older guys hated newer trance and progressive house but I guess I was mistaken there.

Thanks for the interview.

MTO wrote: Really, it's nice to see Peter Hook namecheck 808 State's 'Pacific State' even though the first incarnation of that track was from 1989, perhaps he was mistaken.

Don't forget he would almost certainly have had access to a pre-release copy maybe several months before it came out. I certainly remember hearing the tune a good while before 89.

all good music, except i never really liked the robert miles song. ah, well, if we were all the same....

i'm with wasim on out of control--actually i thought it was hooky that played on the track. they had barney, why not make it a double?

Pacific State wasn't recorded until at LEAST November 1988 and may have been as late as March 1989.

This is taken from the sleeve itself.

MTO wrote: Pacific State wasn't recorded until at LEAST November 1988 and may have been as late as March 1989.

This is taken from the sleeve itself.

Initial recordings November 1988, Sax recording January 1989, test pressing of Quadrastate (with Pacific State) May 1989, release of Quadrastate July 1989, Pacific State single released November/December 1989.