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Interview: Peter Hook
- Chris Langenberg
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
When the opportunity to interview Peter Hook came up, I froze. What do you ask someone that has been responsible for some of the most important moments in musical history? Someone who was part of creating the cultural identity of post-punk & rave subcultures from the very heart of the scene? Someone that has written some of my personal favourite songs of all time?
I wasn’t really sure.
Luckily, Hooky was relaxed and keen to hang out as we chatted on a video call from his hotel room in Auckland. He is about to arrive in Australia for a tour with Peter Hook & The Light, celebrating 25 years of New Order’s Get Ready and playing some of the back catalogue that he has been involved with across his legendary career.
It feels like Peter Hook and the Light are back in Australia just about every second year. Australia was always one of the biggest audiences for Factory Records, which was surprising considering Joy Division never made it out.
Hooky has certainly made up for that over the past decade though, with his next visit marking the 5th tour as Peter Hook and the Light since 2010. “One of the very first live records for The Light was actually recorded at The Palais in Melbourne on our first visit to Australia. The audience are always really receptive there, it’s a pleasure to be able to tour to Australia, all of my friends in England are always jealous that I get to still do this.”
The upcoming tour, is celebrating 25 years of Get Ready, where the band will play the record from start to finish. The writing and creation of the record was seen as a bit of a honeymoon period for Hooky and Bernard Sumner who “hadn’t written together like that since early Warsaw days”.
Sonically, the record pushed New Order’s sound further - referencing some of their punkier roots while also leaning into the newer age. Writing 'Get Ready' was a really exciting time for us, Barnie was ready to take on the world, we were dreaming of touring more than we ever had off the back of the record. Once the album came out though, he had changed his mind.”
The record was the first time New Order brought in other musicians as collaborators into the studio such as Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) and Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes (Primal Scream). I asked Hooky if this was done to push the sound of the record or to further the songwriting to which he laughs “it’s all just a bit of good PR isn’t it? It was fun having some extra heads in the studio, everyone has different opinions and ways of working, Billy (Corgan) was hard work though, I have to thank him because he has looked after my son for so many years (as a member of Screaming Pumpkins) and we’re friends so he won’t mind me saying he was hard work”.
On revisiting past Joy Division and more recently New Order records in a live sense as Peter Hook and the Light, Hooky says ‘When I get on stage now, the feeling is exactly the same as when I was a kid playing… But you know when you get to my age - sometimes it feels like you’re living with ghosts.’
The story of the fateful Sex Pistols show at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester has gone down in musical history as a gig that changed the world. From the crowd of about 40 people in attendance, formed Buzzcocks, Magazine, Joy Division and New Order. The 50th anniversary of the show just passed so I had to ask about it. I wondered if he had a similar feeling watching a gig since. "It wasn’t that Sex Pistols played great or anything, their energy and attitude was amazing but the gig sounded absolutely terrible. It was inspiring in the way that everyone in the crowd thought, we could do that. I don’t think the sound guy gets enough credit for that gig, because it was just a wall of feedback and noise and was mixed so badly, buit it made it all feel possible.”
Through the days of the Hacienda, the iconic venue turned nightclub that New Order owned in Manchester, Hooky was exposed to so many live shows from incredible artists. He reflects on seeing special shows from ‘The Birthday Party, Buzzcocks, Blur, Bow Wow Wow, and that’s just the B’s!’
Talking about the Hacienda brought up some memories for Hooky who was working as the manager and artist security for £10 a night as a job in between tours.
Completely unaware that the venue and as such New Order was haemorrhaging millions of pounds a year, he reflects on the venue so fondly and almost quit playing music to run the venue full time. ‘It was such a crazy alcohol-fuelled period of my life, you know we opened the venue so there was a place for kids like us to go and it was full of punks and post-punks, but when the rave culture grew and the venue got so popular, gangs got involved and it started getting a little out of hand.
I remember one time someone radio’d me saying ‘Hooky, there’s a guy down here at the bar chasing security with an Uzi.’ I was in a conversation with a band backstage at the time and replied just saying ‘yeah I’ll get down there soon’. I think back on that and think, how many vodkas must I have had to not have any sense of urgency or to even think that I could do anything about it!’
The venue eventually closed down due to financial difficulties which in turn put extra pressure on New Order and eventually caused frictions within the band. 'I can’t see myself ever playing in New Order again, if we can even call them that any more. But you know, maybe if someone offered us 200 million and a few Wembley shows like Oasis I’d consider it’.
Across his career, Peter Hook has been responsible for so many defining songs and records. Joy Division and New Order’s importance to modern music can never be understated. As a musician, I’ve always wondered what it would have felt like in the rehearsal room, to write a song like Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere or Temptation, Blue Monday, Ceremony. I asked Hooky what the feeling was like in the rehearsal room, post-writing a song like Love Will Tear Us Apart.
You know the thing was, when we weren’t touring we were writing a song a week, if not two songs a week. It’s funny when you’ve got no songs they’re easy to write, but when you have 300 songs it get’s a little more difficult.
Joy Division used to rehearse for an hour on Wednesdays and 3 hours on Sundays because that’s all we could afford. It made us have to be efficient for those rehearsals. But I remember Love Will Tear Us Apart came from a jam, it was me and Stephen just jamming on the riff and Ian said ‘I like that, keep the riff and I’ll come up with some lyrics to it’.
We had to remember the riff for the next rehearsal because we obviously couldn’t record it, didn’t have a tape machine or anything, so I was at home playing it over and over. When we got to the next rehearsal, Ian opened his notebook and sung the lyrics and it all came together in 3 hours. I think about how at the time we were stringing coins together just to be able to rehearse, and how that 3 hours has paid for my entire life and career.
All of the best (songs) came together quick you know, Temptation, Age Of Consent, we were always very good songwriters, even after we lost Ian we were still quite prolific songwriters and had great chemistry. It was only when Barnie wanted to try writing on sequencers that it changed.
You know, sometimes it’s the chemistry that tears you apart.’
