Peter Hook Joy Division New Order Legacy Explored

Never mind the musicianship. The Sex Pistols inspired numerous up-and-coming musicians who had yet to develop their musical chops, making them think that they too could become superstars if they only got onto stage and expressed themselves. That theory pans out when it comes to Joy Division. Famously, Peter Hook, Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner — the core of what would become the post-punk band Joy Division — saw the Pistols play in Manchester, England in 1976 and decided to form a band with drummer Stephen Morris in the wake of that experience.

Joy Division would release two seminal studio albums before Curtis committed suicide just as the band was to embark on its first-ever U.S. tour. Hook, Morris and Sumner soldiered on as New Order and had great success throughout the ’80s and ’90s. That band has since splintered. Sumner retains the name New Order, but Hook continues to play Joy Division and New Order tunes with his band the Light. Earlier this year, the Rock Hall announced that both Joy Division and New Order will finally be inducted in November as part of the Class of 2026. The two groups have been eligible for induction for several years now.

In advance of that induction, Hook and the Light will hit the road for a U.S. tour that finds them playing the 2001 New Order album Get Ready in its entirety. Hook first revisited the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures back in May 2010 for a commemorative charity concert and has followed it each year by performing subsequent albums from Joy Division and New Order.

Hook says he’s happy the wait to be inducted is finally over.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t care [about getting inducted]. There’s not much we can do about it apart from promote it when you do get nominated,” he says via Zoom from his home in Alderley Edge, just outside of Manchester, England. Hook and the Light perform at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 23, at the Agora. He also gives a talk at 2 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 24, at the Rock Hall. “We were up three times. The first time, me and the other [members of New Order] promoted it. The second time, I promoted it, and they promoted it a little. The third time, they didn’t promote it at all. The fans did it anyway. There you go. It’s quite interesting. They thought we deserved it.”

Since Hook and his former bandmates have had a falling out, it is unclear who will attend the upcoming induction ceremony and who might perform.

“The whole thing of that is completely up in the air,” says Hook. “Obviously, I would prefer to take the Light with me and do what we do. At the moment, I have nothing to report. If I do go, I might be looking like [Silence of the Lambs’ villain] Hannibal Lecter with the straightjacket and the mouthpiece. They’ll be wheeling me out like that, so I can keep control.”

The Joy Division story is a remarkable one. Shortly after forming, the group released its full-length debut, 1979’s Unknown Pleasures, for the newly formed Factory Records. Curtis’s bellowing vocals and Hook’s thick bass riffs distinguished the group from other bands at the time. Hook says only Curtis knew the group was onto something special.

“The only person that felt that and expressed that [the music was groundbreaking] was Ian Curtis,” he says. “If we ever got down because we didn’t get gigs or were having trouble getting signed, he would always say, ‘Don’t worry. One day, we will be known all around the world.’ That was his speech to keep us going. He really was a fantastic cheerleader. Sadly, you couldn’t do [cheerleading] for him. He hid his disability so well that the only time you would spot it is when we had a [epileptic] fit. When he came around, he was back to being Ian. He would tell you he was fine. We were 22. We didn’t know our ass from our elbow. I’ve lost a few friends to suicide. Luckily for me, so far, it’s been something I can’t comprehend. You hope some people have found some peace and maybe can rest. It’s the only thing you can hope for.”

Hook says that revisiting Get Ready has been instructive. Looking back, he recalls that he and now-estranged guitarist Bernard Sumner were in a good place as they developed the “rockier” side of New Order’s sound.

“It was the comeback album when Barney [Sumner] and I rediscovered our friendship,” says Hook. “He had done Electronic. I had done Revenge and Monaco. It was his idea. He approached us. He felt like we had unfinished business. It was like going back to an old girlfriend. We did it, and it enabled us to play together on Get Ready like when we formed the band. For six months, it was just me and him. It was a special time. It was a moment for us to actually discover what we loved about each other’s playing. I loved the way he played guitar, and he loved the way I loved bass. On [New Order albums] Republic and Technique, we were fighting all the time. This was really refreshing and nice. Barney was full of hope for the future. I had not seen that in a long time. During the sessions, he kept saying, ‘This shit is great. I can’t wait to play it live.’”

The group invited Smashing Pumpkins singer-guitarist Billy Corgan to play on the album, and he had added rock appeal to the tunes as well.

“When we finished, and it came time to do that tour, [Sumner] didn’t want to play,” says Hook. “It’s like being mugged in an alley. I thought it would go back to what it was before, and lo and behold, it was back to how it was before. The next album, [2005’s] Waiting for the Sirens’ Call was a trial, and [2013’s] Lost Sirens was a waste of time. We just couldn’t stand each other.”

Conversely, Hook says playing with the Light has been great. He says he’s now worked longer with the Light guitarist David Potts than he did with Sumner.

“They show amazing respect for the music,” he says of his backing musicians. “They really do. They each have their own lives outside of it. It is a vehicle for me to play Joy Division and New Order songs and give the New Order and Joy Division fans what they want, and it is an absolute pleasure compared to the pain and the awful feelings I used to have when I toured with New Order. They’ve made it out like it was me. They act like, ‘We’re happy as New Order now that he’s gone.’ I know how Caesar felt, let’s put it that way. It is a breath of fresh air. I was very disheartened when [Sumner] took the trademark and then could masquerade as New Order.”

And now that Sumner is the only original member of New Order leading the group, Hook says the band doesn’t accurately represent the group’s innovation synth-rock sound.

“The fans have stuck with them, and they should thank their lucky stars for that,” he says. “But it’s going to come around and bite you in the ass when your fans vote you into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and you can’t even go. You can’t even have the grace to go and be inducted.”