The Light - Fac251 19.05.12

Well it's been exactly a year since the last time I seen Peter Hook & The Light, the 19th of May 2011 at the same venue, The Factory, owned by Mr. Hook himself, so how did it go? Well firstly a few differences. Last year they were playing the "Closer" album in its entirety, plus a few extras. Tonight it was "Still". Rowetta was also not present, as she is now on tour with Happy Mondays.

The support slot was the same. Kevin Hewick. Though a different set, as he now has a new album available on Hacienda Records called "All Was Numbered" which is almost a Factory concept album containing a track dedicated to Section 25's Larry Cassidy simply titled "Larry" which was performed tonight, which is a good song featuring the lyric "earthquake out of time bass lines". The album also features a track titled "Out Of Order" which is based on Peter Hooks ever worsening relationship with the other members of New Order, which perhaps sensibly was not performed tonight. There was a few jokes thrown in, himself stating he is a better vocalist than Bernard and a line firmly placing him in the Hooky camp "Just 1 member from the original band can do it better than 3 members". I enjoyed the set though being a Hewick fan, mocked as I may be by some I am sure. Inevitably the set closer had to be "Haystack" an energetic performance as usual, ending with the customary guitar peg twiddling, and biting the strings.

Then it was time for The Light to come on, to the backing music of Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express. The set was pretty much as you would expect a "Still" set to be, with the welcome inclusion of 24 Hours as on the original release, a highlight.

Things became interesting however, a female member of the audience seemed to be constantly holding Hookys hand and had a few disputes with some other guys near the front. Eventually things got too heated and Hooky had to stop the song and get security to escort her out. "Have I upset you?" she pleads to Hooky. "No you haven't upset me love but you seemed to have upset every other fucker here. Ha ha!". After a painful few moments she eventually gets escorted out, resisting as best as she can, then the song starts again.

The set seemed a lot longer tonight and there were several early New Order tracks played such as "Ceremony", "Dreams Never End", "Doubts Even Here" and another track from Movement I have forgotten the name of [it's not one of my most cherised New Order albums but its been growing on me since I bought a vinyl copy]. The crowd did not seem too into it in my mind, and after moshing like no tomorrow at the New Order Apollo gigs to "Ceremony" tonights crowd didn't really seem to care too much. Perhaps because "Ceremony" was never released as a Joy Division track, I thought to myself, "they will be saving their energy for Transmission and LWTUA". But to my disappointment nobody really in the crowd seemed to get that into it... I tried my best. It was a far cry from the Closer gigs here 12 months ago. What has happened since then? I felt bad for the band as they played just as well as they did last year and put on a longer set with a 4 or 5 song encore! Maybe it's time for The Light to come up with something new. There are certainly many out there, including plenty on this forum who feel Hooky is flogging a dead horse and perhaps that feeling is spreading. I'm not sure.

This combined with a New Order performance at the Apollo which was a shadow of the Brussels/Paris gigs last year has all got me feeling a little deflated.

Interesting review.

Will someone turn out the light 😈

The woman who had to be escorted out, sounds obsessed.

wonder if it was our Margaret, remember her? now she is totally obsessed with Hooky ..

the friday crowd was certainly a lot more boisterous than the saturday crowd, strange but them's the breaks !!

we had a great time it really feels like an achievement having played all the songs

thanks to everyone that has come to see us over the 2 years.

Not over just yet Jack, see you in Liverpool Friday

Hmm maybe not

Well, I have never really considered myself a JD fan. NO is the band that caught my ear as an 11 and 12 year old back in the 80's. Until a week ago, I never imagined going to see the Light. I think a lot of the interviews that Mr Hook has given in recent times, talking about wanting to "fuck NO over" and "it's in the hands of the lawyers", have set a lot of NOOLers against him. I imagine if Hooky had said: Good luck to NO, I'm off to do my own thing…, then there might be a lot less negativity towards the Light from certain quarters.

Anyway...I happened to stumble across a rather cheap pair of tickets for the Light's Islington "Closer" gig on ebay recently. Won the bid for just under half price (inc postage), and went along on Friday night. I should point out that i definitely wouldnt have gone for full price.

I have to say, it was a good gig! The band were tight, there was no messing about. Hooky's voice though not perfect certainly seems to work better than Barneys in replicating Ian Curtis's baritone, so they do sound more "joy division-y" than when NO do some of these songs.

The crowd was up for it too. The Closer tracks weren't the ones that had people jumping around, though there were definite sing along moments (a little eerie, but that’s appropriate). But the stuff during the "encores" (e.g. Digital, She's Lost Control) did result in a bit of a moshpit forming, and a proper lively gig atmosphere. If anything Hooky ironically didn’t talk enough. During the rare moments when he uttered a couple of words, he got a big cheer from the crowd.

I'm still pissed off at a lot of the stuff hooky has said. And I as much as anyone have made noises on here (old forums) in the past about Lost Sirens. But taking the gig purley on it's own merit on Friday, it felt like a bit of a JD education for someone who was too young to see the real thing. As tribute bands go, I'd be surprised if I see a better one. Setlist below.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/peter-hook/2012/o2-academy-islington-london-england-7bdfe6cc.html

The Light are playing in Dublin tonight,I wonder did any of the people from here who were at the Forbidden Fruit head to this one also? BTY Hooky was interviewed on Newstalk today by Tom Dunne (Something Happens), I only caught the end of it but he said that the Joy Division book will be out in late September...

I wondered what the woman getting thrown out was about.I'd thought it was probably for smoking.I can see how a hand holding habit could be even more annoying! I was nearer to the bar than the stage so I didn't have the greatest view. I've been to The Light's FAC 251 shows each year and enjoyed them every time.I particularly liked 'Doubts Even Here' this time.I never thought I'd hear it played live. Hooky's voice is better suited to Joy Division tracks than Bernard.His version of LWTUA was much better than the current New Order version.

Lonegroover wrote: I wondered what the woman getting thrown out was about.I'd thought it was probably for smoking.I can see how a hand holding habit could be even more annoying! I was nearer to the bar than the stage so I didn't have the greatest view. I've been to The Light's FAC 251 shows each year and enjoyed them every time.I particularly liked 'Doubts Even Here' this time.I never thought I'd hear it played live. Hooky's voice is better suited to Joy Division tracks than Bernard.His version of LWTUA was much better than the current New Order version.

I haven't seen them live so I can't say much, but while Bernard's singing of JD songs seems to be 'charming', I can also understand that some people feel Hooky's voice would be more closer (no pun intended) to Ian's tone.

Hi leather-girl.I think Hooky is a more confident vocalist these days (another unintentional JD title dropped in there ).I saw Revenge a few times and I usually got the feeling that he'd rather just concentrate on bass playing.I don't get that feeling from The Light. I don't want Bernard to stop doing JD tracks,I just want him to stop urging the audience to sing.

I think New Orders version of Isolation is brilliant.

I seen NO do LWTUA at the Apollo on 26 & 27/04/12 then The Light play the same song at Fac251 2 weeks later and I preferred the New Order version.