Interview with Peter Hook: Tragic Joy, Electric Order
Rediscovering Peter Hook: An Interview with the Legendary Bassist of Joy Division and New Order
Hello and welcome to "Vintage Cafe," a reader-supported newsletter tailored for curious minds. Here, you'll find reviews and recommendations on books and music, travel journals, writing tips, art, and coffee that are sure to enrich your experience. Authored by Nenad Georgievski.
This past weekend in Amsterdam (23rd of September), New Order had a gig that my brother attended, and they traditionally closed the show with the iconic Joy Division song "Love Will Tear Us Apart." This reminded me of a New Order gig back in 2012 and a Peter Hook concert in Zagreb in 2013, when this interview was conducted. Back in 2020, I awarded the band New Order with the Skopje Cinema City Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and I translated Deborah Curtis' book about her husband Ian Curtis, "Touching From a Distance." At the time, New Order's song "Blue Monday" was reaching an anniversary milestone, and they had a new album out, "Lost Sirens," so I had the opportunity to ask Peter Hook plenty about his books and the bands’ Joy Division and New Order.
Amsterdam 2023 Photo Credit: Bojan Georgievski
Joy Division existed for three and a half years before reaching its tragic end in 1980, but its musical legacy still resonates strongly today. Within that limited period, four young lads from Manchester changed the direction of music—first by pioneering what is now called post-punk and inspiring countless other artists along the way, most notably U2, The Cure, Interpol, and Editors. Formed by bassist Peter Hook and guitarist Bernard Sumner after seeing the Sex Pistols play in Manchester in 1976, the group took shape when singer Ian Curtis responded to a "seeking singer" ad.
The band was a product of the bleaker parts of Manchester in the depressed late '70s, and its music echoed the emotional and psychological pain of life in a post-industrial wasteland. Two near-perfect and timeless records released during its active lifetime—Unknown Pleasures (Factory, 1979) and Closer (Factory, 1980)—were masterpieces, introducing some of the most influential sounds of the era and changing rock music's aesthetic parameters.
While Curtis was a mesmerizing performer onstage and an enigma, he was struggling with depression, epilepsy, and a failing marriage, dying by his own hand on the eve of Joy Division's first American tour, just as the band's best-known single, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (1980), was released. Instead of plowing their old furrow, the remaining band members opted for a new kind of music aided by sequencers and drum machines; Joy Division became New Order.
New Order fused Joy Division's gloomy aesthetic with electronic dance music, spawning a myriad of signature songs. The immortal pop dance track "Blue Monday," dating from 1983 is the biggest-selling 12" of all time, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2023. The band released the excellent Lost Sirens (Rhino, 2013) with leftovers from Waiting for the Siren's Song (London, 2005), and is likely the last studio material to be released with Hook's involvement.
More than three decades later—and three years after leaving New Order—Peter Hook decided to commemorate the life of Ian Curtis by performing the band's music, but with a new group, The Light. When New Order regrouped without him, he decided to take the music of Joy Division on the road. He also wrote “Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division” (It Books, 2013), with his recollections of that tumultuous period. The book is a brilliant portrayal of an important moment in music history, including the life and times of a working band. In late January and early February 2013, he went on a 10-date book tour in the US that also included an onstage conversation with noted journalists and authors. On March 21, 2013, Peter Hook and the Light performed a set of Joy Division songs in Zagreb, Croatia, to ecstatic audiences as part of their spring tour, with tremendous fierceness and enthusiasm.
Vintage Cafe: What was the impetus behind writing “Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division” and what did you want to achieve with the book?