Peter Hook Brings Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" to Royale
The music of Joy Division – at least its first album “Unknown Pleasures,” early singles and songs they did as Warsaw before they became JD – will finally be played in the United States. And at Royale Sat. Dec. 4. Not played by Joy Divison, exactly. By Joy Division bassist-turned-singer Peter Hook and four mates, including his song Jack Bates on bass. The outfit is called Peter Hook's The Light.
Joy Division went down May 23, 1980, when singer-lyricist Ian Curtis hanged himself, just as the Manchester, England-based band was about to embark upon a US tour. The surviving band members, bassist Peter Hook, guitarist Bernard Sumner and drummer Stephen Morris, quickly regrouped as New Order, and toured America five months later. Their emphasis shifted to moody electronic dance/alt-rock. And they became rather huge through the ‘80s and ‘90s. They disbanded several times, in 1992 initially (instigated by Sumner) and finally in 2006 (instigated by Hook.)
Hook had several musical projects, including the band Freebass, going, but earlier this year the Macclesfield (part of Manchester) city council asked Hook to put together a tribute show and exhibition to commemorate Curtis. Hook approached Sumner and Morris who initially agreed, but the plans fell apart. Hook had put the time in and decided to continue, assembled a band and played “Unknown Pleasures.”
Then he got more calls from promoters in other cities. Could he bring this to them? He did and that began the project that tours the US shortly. It also brought down a shitstorm on Hook’s head, with various Joy Division fans feeling it was inappropriate or just plain wrong. (One blogger thought it like Krist Novoselic touring Nirvana’s “Nevermind.”) Joy Division to them was a museum piece, not to be tinkered with. Hook, on the other hand, felt why not? It’s a live celebration of the work Curtis and company did, a celebration 30 years after his death. Way too late, of course, but what are you going to do?
And, keep in mind, Curtis wrote the words but songs were a four-way collaboration. The music belongs to them all. And us, if we want it.
We spoke with Hook for a story that will be running soon in the Boston Herald. What we offer here are some bits that didn’t make the Herald cut.
JSInk: How did this come about?
Hook: I thought this was a great idea because we never did anything celebrating Joy Division or Ian. I thought ‘Fucking great, well overdue.’ I’ll help. I through my oar in, and the idea was to do an exhibition of memorabilia that [artist, cover designer] Peter Saville was going to preside over and curate and a memorial gig with all Manchester musicians playing Joy Division songs. I thought it sounds good. It wouldn’t be so difficult to see me, Bernard and Stephen reunite for a charity gig to celebrate Ian’s life. It all fell by the wayside. I won’t go into the whys and wherefors, but it didn’t happen. Basically, I was so wound up by this I thought, “Shit, fuck it, why don’t I do something?”
**JSInk: What roles did you play in Joy Division?**Hook: We played, Ian spotted it – “That sounds good, do that together.” Steve put them jungle drums on it and we were off and Ian did the vocals. We’d help him with the vocals. He did the words himself. It was a very even split the labor, which in a group is a wonderful thing. It got a bit disjointed in New Order, because in all fairness [keyboardist] Gillian [Gilbert] never took up the mantle Ian had left. It very much left the three of us writing in New Order. It was like a flat tire … the dynamic changed.
Your bass was always prominent in Joy Division’s music. You played lead bass. How did that happen?
Heh heh. It came about quite simply, to be honest. When I played low I couldn’t hear because Bernard was loud. So I started playing high and that used to cut through and Ian heard it and said “My god, it sounds really good when you play high and Bernard plays the chunky chords. Let’s work on that.’ “She’s Lost Control” was the first one. It came rapid fire after that. It was as simple as that. It became a style you fell into very easily and very happily. I would go through periods of paranoia when everyone was doing slap bass, I was paranoid because I didn’t do slap. I was doing it my way and someone said to me, “Whenever you start playing I immediately know it’s you” and I thought “Oh shit, that’s bad.” I decided that was bad. I got Donald Johnson from A Certain Ratio to teach me slap bass and I had about two lessons and he said to me, “Hooky, you’re fucking hopeless, stick to what you do best.” He threw me out basically. I have my theory, when New Order split up and I formed Revenge I went out of my way to downplay the melodic side of the bass and it was only I got back to Monaco and [singer David Potts] Pottsy encouraged me to get back to how I was. I got it back again and now I’m immensely proud of it, because as my mother said, “You need a gimmick.” There was an article today about the Kings of Leon bass player put down his inspiration was me. My son was very impressed by that.
How do you see this tour?
It’s a great compliment to Joy Division, to all of us really, [producer] Martin Hannnet, [Factory Records owner] Tony Wilson, [manager] Rob Greton, the four members of the band. It’s a great compliment to your skills as a songwriter, as a group, as a performer, as a record company for believing in that record and as a manager for believing in that group. To be able to sit here, 30 years on and play it. The weird thing about playing it is I thought honestly I thought I would play it once and that would be it. I was happy with that. We ended up doing two nights in Manchester and had no other dates planned. And then I got asked to do Manchester’s twin city in France at a festival celebrating Manchester music. So I did it again. Then I got asked to play in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Holland and every single time I played down it’s gone down a storm. After 30 years it’s fucking great to get the music back, because we studiously ignored it as New Order. In a funny way, it was quite important then because of how big we felt Joy Division. It was important to plough your own way, do something on your own, which we did very successfully in New Order. A Great mix of skill and talent. The thing is now it’s quite an odd situation to be in. I finished the Freebass record this year, which was gonna be the new record we were going to promote and then I ended up doing “Unknown Pleasures” and Mani [Gary Mounfield, bassist in Freebass and Primal Scream] ended up dong “Screamadelica.” I haven’t played in America for a long time, since the Moby tour in 2004. Six years. I’m really looking forward to getting over and being able to play again.
There’s all sorts of thoughts about Ian. He was battling epilepsy. There was the sense of doom and gloom that was there in the music and of course the way he took his life. Was he dour, depressed?
He was a very hail fellow, well meant. He would never tell you he was depressed. I would take him to hospital when he had these epileptic fits and I’d sit there holding his tongue for an hour and a half till he stopped fitting. He’d come round and say, “Right where s the party?” I’d say “Get in fucking bed will you.” He really was his own worst enemy and he was our greatest fan and critic. If any of us started to falter, it was always him that grabbed you by the collar and dragged you through. He really was the best at helping you get through. I think he knew he maybe might have been struggling, but I’ll tell you what he was definitely not going to let us down. We’d say over and over to him, “Rob said, ‘Well. stop take a year off, do what you want, get yourself better’” and he’d go “No, no, I don’t want to let the lads down.’” He was his own worst enemy in that respect, band because we were so young and inexperienced, we just couldn’t handle it.
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