Merchandise at The Light shows ... is it poor taste?

You know, I'm okay with this. Yeah, they're ugly, but (from what I can see in the pics) they're also clearly specific that they're THE LIGHT TOUR merchandise. Back in the dark ages when I was younger, I always wanted the t-shirt from a show for the bragging rights, so if somebody is really happy that they saw the show and they want the shirt, they can get one. Plus Hooky is entitled to do merch for his shows.

I'd feel differently if they were all Joy Division shirts with no mention of The Light, but they're not. Even the Mind the Gap-style one-- if you know anything about the JD aesthetic, you know that they would have NEVER made that shirt back in the day, so it's clearly not supposed to be Official Joy Division Merchandise.

Fair point Housey - case closed for me :-)

Housey wrote: You know, I'm okay with this. Yeah, they're ugly, but (from what I can see in the pics) they're also clearly specific that they're THE LIGHT TOUR merchandise. Back in the dark ages when I was younger, I always wanted the t-shirt from a show for the bragging rights, so if somebody is really happy that they saw the show and they want the shirt, they can get one. Plus Hooky is entitled to do merch for his shows.

I'd feel differently if they were all Joy Division shirts with no mention of The Light, but they're not. Even the Mind the Gap-style one-- if you know anything about the JD aesthetic, you know that they would have NEVER made that shirt back in the day, so it's clearly not supposed to be Official Joy Division Merchandise.

The Paradise Man wrote: To save space and not keep quoting.... As the 2 gigs are for charity then yes Hooky should have been invited. He knew and worked with Shamberg too. Bernard and Steve turned down the invite to tour the JD albums. I am not bashing B or S by the way. I'm a big fan but I just think Hooky gets a bad press and at the end of the day he is the most willing, nostalgic and enthusiastic about the back catalogue. I for one love that about him.

My feelings exactly.

As for the shirts, I've seen plenty JD shirts being sold that are probably knock-offs in which the band doesn't receive a dime... why not sell some?

I find it humorous that people cherish a band so much that they want the band members to starve and stay "true to their roots". Nice when yer in your 20s, but such rubbish when you hit yer older years. All these complaints of Hooky "cashing in" are f'ing pathetic. Just cause someone wore out a few JD and NO albums over the years doesn't make one part of the band... don't like it, then go find new music where the 20-year-somethings are into the "true to yer roots" bs. PH has a mortgage and needs to eat, if people are willing to buy it then he'll pay his bills... if its complete rubbish then people won't buy it and he'll be out a couple quids and lose the hpuse like he did the Hacienda...

EdelBrock wrote:

The Paradise Man wrote: To save space and not keep quoting.... As the 2 gigs are for charity then yes Hooky should have been invited. He knew and worked with Shamberg too. Bernard and Steve turned down the invite to tour the JD albums. I am not bashing B or S by the way. I'm a big fan but I just think Hooky gets a bad press and at the end of the day he is the most willing, nostalgic and enthusiastic about the back catalogue. I for one love that about him.

My feelings exactly.

As for the shirts, I've seen plenty JD shirts being sold that are probably knock-offs in which the band doesn't receive a dime... why not sell some?

I find it humorous that people cherish a band so much that they want the band members to starve and stay "true to their roots". Nice when yer in your 20s, but such rubbish when you hit yer older years. All these complaints of Hooky "cashing in" are f'ing pathetic. Just cause someone wore out a few JD and NO albums over the years doesn't make one part of the band... don't like it, then go find new music where the 20-year-somethings are into the "true to yer roots" bs. PH has a mortgage and needs to eat, if people are willing to buy it then he'll pay his bills... if its complete rubbish then people won't buy it and he'll be out a couple quids and lose the hpuse like he did the Hacienda...

Lots of people buy merchandise at concerts etc...so I'm not too concerned about that, or the t-shirts too. Of course, the best thing for people who believe he is cashing in, is to not go to his gigs. I'm not interested in a concert/gig in which only older albums are played, like the way that Hooky is doing it. Like I've said, I'm more interested in a gig that mixed older and newer songs (unless the artist has just reformed and hasn't written anything new yet). So I'm not interested. We all know musicians need to pay their bills; even older musicians---it's just so few older musicians do 'album tours' of their much older albums. (Primal Scream is doing that with Screamadelica, but then again, PS had an album out in 2008, and they are probably more likely than Hooky to write new music again.) If that is the way Hooky wants to make money---he can do so, but I'd rather listen to, for example, his recent collaboration with Autokratz 'Becoming the Wraith' with that good bassline, instead of listening to him tour JD songs or talk about JD and Ian many times in interviews. Maybe I don't have that much nostalgic feelings towards JD .

So maybe it's the way he's chosen to be a musician (doing mostly JD---now maybe even NO?) album tours, writing books about Hacienda, JD etc... that some people don't feel comfortable about? That is why I can understand the criticism. Surely that FUC 51 blog was a bit harsh, but I think they had a point (just a little bit).

If PH still has a mortgage he needs to talk to his accountant and take him to the cleaners : the band got £1m signing for London in 1993 - enough to buy almost all of Manchester at 1993 property prices.

Agree and he has a beautiful pad which is worth well over that amount nowadays!!

mark reed wrote: If PH still has a mortgage he needs to talk to his accountant and take him to the cleaners : the band got £1m signing for London in 1993 - enough to buy almost all of Manchester at 1993 property prices.

Surface wrote: Agree and he has a beautiful pad which is worth well over that amount nowadays!!

mark reed wrote: If PH still has a mortgage he needs to talk to his accountant and take him to the cleaners : the band got £1m signing for London in 1993 - enough to buy almost all of Manchester at 1993 property prices.

Let it go lads. It's not healthy.....

leather_girl wrote:

EdelBrock wrote:

The Paradise Man wrote: To save space and not keep quoting.... As the 2 gigs are for charity then yes Hooky should have been invited. He knew and worked with Shamberg too. Bernard and Steve turned down the invite to tour the JD albums. I am not bashing B or S by the way. I'm a big fan but I just think Hooky gets a bad press and at the end of the day he is the most willing, nostalgic and enthusiastic about the back catalogue. I for one love that about him.

My feelings exactly.

As for the shirts, I've seen plenty JD shirts being sold that are probably knock-offs in which the band doesn't receive a dime... why not sell some?

I find it humorous that people cherish a band so much that they want the band members to starve and stay "true to their roots". Nice when yer in your 20s, but such rubbish when you hit yer older years. All these complaints of Hooky "cashing in" are f'ing pathetic. Just cause someone wore out a few JD and NO albums over the years doesn't make one part of the band... don't like it, then go find new music where the 20-year-somethings are into the "true to yer roots" bs. PH has a mortgage and needs to eat, if people are willing to buy it then he'll pay his bills... if its complete rubbish then people won't buy it and he'll be out a couple quids and lose the hpuse like he did the Hacienda...

Lots of people buy merchandise at concerts etc...so I'm not too concerned about that, or the t-shirts too. Of course, the best thing for people who believe he is cashing in, is to not go to his gigs. I'm not interested in a concert/gig in which only older albums are played, like the way that Hooky is doing it. Like I've said, I'm more interested in a gig that mixed older and newer songs (unless the artist has just reformed and hasn't written anything new yet). So I'm not interested. We all know musicians need to pay their bills; even older musicians---it's just so few older musicians do 'album tours' of their much older albums. (Primal Scream is doing that with Screamadelica, but then again, PS had an album out in 2008, and they are probably more likely than Hooky to write new music again.) If that is the way Hooky wants to make money---he can do so, but I'd rather listen to, for example, his recent collaboration with Autokratz 'Becoming the Wraith' with that good bassline, instead of listening to him tour JD songs or talk about JD and Ian many times in interviews. Maybe I don't have that much nostalgic feelings towards JD .

So maybe it's the way he's chosen to be a musician (doing mostly JD---now maybe even NO?) album tours, writing books about Hacienda, JD etc... that some people don't feel comfortable about? That is why I can understand the criticism. Surely that FUC 51 blog was a bit harsh, but I think they had a point (just a little bit).

When you reach our ages and all your heroes are old men, you may change your mind

NotAMod wrote:

The Paradise Man wrote: The fact that Hooky was not invited stinks. A farce, but that's another story.

OK, what's your God's honest opinion on Hooky walking out of New Order in 2006 then unilaterally announcing to the press that the band were over before the others knew of his decision? Or were the Other Three lying in their press statement of the time? How do you think that past action equates to them not inviting Hooky on these forthcoming charity dates?

Seriously, I'm curious.

I'm a big fan of Hooky and The Other Three but I'm keen to remain impartial in this. Getting sycophantic to either side just seems utterly pointless. It's obvious that there's past form here on both sides here and it's important as fans we remember that rather than slavishly going "Yeah! We love 'bandmember' and the others are wankers."

A bit of perspective

Simply, he was drunk when he said that indeed