Get Ready! Peter Hook & The Light Are On The Way Down Under
Joy Division and New Order Founding bassist, PETER HOOK, and his band THE LIGHT make a triumphant return to Australia in less than two weeks. Peter Hook and The Light will perform New Order’s album Get Ready (Crystal, 60 Miles an Hour) in full to Celebrate its twenty fifth anniversary. They will also perform a Selection of Joy Division and New Order Greatest Hits. THE JOY DIVISION set will include Disorder, She’s Lost Control, Shadowplay, Transmission, Atmosphere, Love Will Tear Us Apart and more. THE NEW ORDER set will include Ceremony, Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith, Temptation, Blue Monday and more. As anyone who has seen Peter Hook and The Light live can attest, they are meticulous about re-creating the music of Joy Division and New Order Live and perform the treasured catalogues with the passion and energy they deserve. The legendary Peter Hook speaks to Rob Lyon about the tour.
It’s hard to believe two years have whizzed past since the last tour. You’ve got to be looking forward to coming back?
Yeah, I mean, it’s that funny thing, isn’t it? You’re sat there, bored, and then all of a sudden you realise two years has gone past. Yeah, it does surprise you how fast time goes, I must admit.
Are you continually blown away by the support and the love for you here in Australia?
Well, the thing is, is that I’d like to think probably that I’ve earned it. We went to Australia very, very early on in our career as the Light. We played our seventh gig in Melbourne. So, I think that there was a lot of trust involved. We’ve gone from strength to strength since then. But, it is about work, and I suppose in a funny way, I don’t class it as work. It’s like a vocation for me. So, yeah, it’s just that thing, isn’t it, about keep on going, you’ve got to keep on going.
I must admit, the most flattering thing is the fact that the music is still having a massive impact in the world. It really surprises me, we got a request for Blue Monday to appear in the, maybe I shouldn’t bloody blow it, but in a new film that’s coming out that was one of my favourite, and one of my kids’ favourite films, about a big green man. So, it’s one of those things, you look at it and you go, wow! You know, considering Blue Monday came out in 1982, the fact that it’s still that popular and still resonates, we took what we were doing for granted a lot, sat there in the studio, as confused after Ian’s death as anybody could have been. You look back and you think, God, man, yeah, it’s a strange feeling, you know? But, I mean, it is the greatest as a musician, all you want is for people to listen to your music, it’s as simple as that, and it seems to be working, thank God.
I think what we all love is that you attack these shows with such passion and intensity. There’s no going about it half‑assed or leaving anything on the table and you give everything.
Well, you know what? It’s like a friend of mine was staying with me quite a while ago, and she was watching me garden and she said to me, wow, you garden the same way that you play bass. Ripping it all apart! In a funny way, I don’t know, it’s in my makeup, and maybe my mother, God bless her soul, she taught me that life was about getting on with it, working hard, and believing in yourself, I think. Even though, literally, on her deathbed, she turned around and said to me, I wish you’d have got a proper job like your brother. It would have been lovely if you’d have been a policeman. So, yeah, you can’t please everybody, can you?
Yeah, you do have to get on with it, and I think the weird thing is that chemistry in groups is very important. The chemistry in New Order used to fascinate me, because every time we got an adventure, somewhere new to go and play our music, I’d be over the moon, really looking forward to it and them three would have a face like a smacked arse. I used to wonder, how could you not be excited? But I suppose over the years, I have had to take into account that everybody is different, and even if you’ve got a gift of making great music, maybe there are aspects of it that you don’t like. But yeah, it did used to amaze me.
That legacy that New Order have built is incredible. Even on Spotify, I don’t think the?re’s a day that goes past where there’s not at least one or two New Order songs that pop up on a playlist. With younger kids discovering New Order and Joy Division, that must be a thrill in itself?
It is, and it’s quite odd as an older musician, because the first question that a lot of people ask is, are you going to make new music? I must admit, it’s one of the aspects I really miss about not being in a group now, of that schedule of making new music. But even New Order, in their current guise, they haven’t made any new music for eleven years, so Barney’s not been pushed, which quite surprises me, because every time you used to go around to his house, he’d always be fucking about with something on the computer, so I’m actually quite surprised that he’s sort of sat back.
My problem is that I like to work with people. I don’t like doing things on my own. I find it incredibly boring to do things alone, firing off other people. So playing as I have with a couple of the members of Kraftwerk and people like that over the years… I’m not very good at promoting these things, I must say. It’s nice that you do keep yourself busy doing new stuff. I did a track recently with Rusty Egan, the Blitz thing, and that Visage, and that turned out well.
It is a matter of doing it, but I think the greatest compliment has to be said that being able to go around the world We are doing a tour of China at the start of next year, so for my age, not doing bad. I’m really looking forward to that. We played there before, and I’ve DJ’d there, and watched it change so much over the years, so it will be quite an interesting trip, every day’s a bonus.
Is there a flicker of hope at all with New Order that you can make peace? Whether you play music again or not, even just being back on friend terms, is that possible?
Well, maybe if they give me back the eight million they took off me, you never know what might happen, but no, at the moment their attitude towards me over the years has been quite plain, and to be honest with you, I’d rather die than play with them bastards. Fuck them. So there you go, and I’ve been talking to the Hall of Fame, I’ve heard all the backstage shenanigans that they’ve gone through, and to be honest with you, they probably find those backstage shenanigans just as interesting as people who enjoy being inducted, you know what I mean? The fights and all… it’s a great way to air your dirty washing, isn’t it? Being done like that. So yeah, no, I mean, not a chance. Not for me.
The Get Ready album, what was the lure for you to focus on that album this time around?
Well, I mean, the thing is, is that I have to trust the promoters. The promoters sort of decide, because whether we like it or not, they’re the ones that are taking the most risk. Now, my quest when I began was to play every track that Joy Division and New Order had recorded and released. So, I’m working through the LPs. Get Ready is the next on my list. I’ve got two more after this, and then I’ve finished for New Order, and I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. I’ll probably just start again. The thing is that it’s just the number I’ve come to. Now, when we play it, to be honest with you, we don’t know, I only found out when we started playing it that Get Ready was our most popular selling album in America. I presumed that it was Power, Corruption & Lies, or Technique, or Republic even. I never assumed for one moment that Get Ready would be the one that was the best selling album. So because that is the best known in America, and I’ve been able to play there, and I’m going again after I’ve been to Australia to play it again. Again, one of those wonderful compliments that you’re able to keep it going.
Get Ready as an album was my and Barney’s second honeymoon, shall we say, after New Order split up in the late 90s. So, for me and him to get back together again, we both used our strengths for each other. Steve and Gillian were off doing something else, I can’t even remember what they were doing. But it was me and him, and we enjoyed making that album. Unfortunately, at the end of it, the honeymoon was over. His attitude to playing, as I said to you before, just was crushing. After being in the studio for two and a half years making an album and looking forward to playing it, and then when we finally got to the gigs, he just wouldn’t commit to any… he just wasn’t interested. He’d changed completely and I thought, oh God, we’d gone back to how we were before.
But listening to the album from a musical point of view, me and him are so well tuned together, as we were when we started as Warsaw. It was the same thing musically, so it is an absolute delight to play, and the Light have a wonderful knack of being able to transcribe these recorded songs to get them so that you can play them live with maximum impact. Pottsy, Paul and Martin on keyboards, and my son on bass, it’s just a great team. They all love our music. Sometimes they actually love it more than me. The fact that they can get these things and go, right, we’ll shorten that, we’ll lengthen that, that’s a great bit, we’ll feature that, let’s just play this bit down… they are really old hands at doing it now. It’s been wonderful, and thirty seven and a half minutes playing it first flies by, it really does. There’s some great songs on it, and most of it has never been played by New Order.
Is touring this album almost a way of correcting how it should have been when it came out, and bringing that joy and positivity you were hoping for?
Yes, but you know what, mate? Every album I approach like that. In 2011, when they, in my opinion, cruelly took the New Order name from me and kept it for themselves, it’s felt like every time you play a song, you get it back and it’s been wonderful to have the freedom. In New Order, we hardly ever played anything. I’d say, oh, can’t we play Age of Consent? Barney would go, oh, it’s too rocky. Too rocky? I go, fuck it, what are you talking about? So, we ended up, when we played Age of Consent, New Order hadn’t played it for twenty odd years. I’m like, wow, I can’t believe that that happened, but these are the things that happen in relationships. We’re not the first group to fall out, and we won’t be the bloody last. It’s just one of those things, isn’t it? It’s that awful culmination of ego, talent, that clashes in the public eye, if you like. So yeah, I’ve won every one of them back.
Were there any positive highlights from that time when the album came out and you were touring it, that you reflect on now?
The generosity that we were shown coming back was wonderful, because I’d done Monaco, which was very successful. He’d done Electronic, which was very successful. We both turned our backs on those to concentrate on New Order-ing it, and funnily enough, Pottsy said to me, when I was worrying about going back to New Order because it’d end up how it was before, which I was justified in because it didn’t last that long, he said to me, in your position, you’ve got to go and finish it off to the best of your ability. He said, I know you, and that’s what you’ll do. He was right, I went back to try and finish it.
By the time we got to Waiting for the Sirens’ Call, I just had to admit to myself that it was going nowhere. It really wasn’t going anywhere, and it certainly wasn’t making me happy. The attitude towards the music and towards what we were doing was heartbreaking and I’d put up with it for so long. We split up at one of the biggest gigs we’d ever played, one hundred and forty five thousand people in Argentina. Afterwards, all three of us, me, him, and Steve, were as miserable as sin, and it was just ridiculous. It was ridiculous to be given that opportunity in front of people who were all your fans, and then to just hate it. Yeah, it was heartbreaking. Yeah, weird. It’s a weird life, isn’t it, mate?
No, it’s not much different working in an office, to be honest!
Well, no, and I’ve worked in office for a long, long time, and I can attest to that. Yeah, I did five years, six years in an office. So, yeah, it’s all the same, it’s just politics and like any marriage, when you’re that close, you make a lot of allowances, and then it comes to the point where you just can’t do it anymore. I’m very lucky, I don’t profess to be anything other than I am. I’m a member of New Order and Joy Division, celebrating Joy Division and New Order’s music. So, I do exactly what it says on the tin. My big beef in it is when them lot pretend to be New Order, because they certainly are not New Order, and they don’t sound like New Order, and that, to me, is so sad.
Playing it start to end, how do you find that? Are there any songs harder than others to play?
Well, at my age, mate, they’re all hard to play. But luckily for me, my son has a wonderful angle on it, and he will listen to the song and he’ll go, Dad, you’re playing it wrong. I’ll go, what? You cheeky bugger, you know? Generally, he is right. He has a wonderful ear for picking up riffs, which I’ve always suffered from. I’m a bit tone‑deaf, not when it comes to my own riffs, luckily, but to other people’s, I’m completely tone‑deaf. Maybe I just don’t have an interest in playing other people’s music. But yeah, having him there makes life a lot easier, and a lot more fun. It’s wonderful, sometimes I’ll look at him, and I think what he’s achieved with Smashing Pumpkins, and what he’s achieved as a bass player, is absolutely incredible. I couldn’t be more proud of him if I tried and to play with him is fantastic.
That’s awesome. We’re really looking forward to it. We can say that at least Peter Hook always comes to Adelaide and never leaves us out.
You know what? I mean, in a strange way, I remember the first time we played there, and we played at the rugby club, and we got bullied by the players for being poms. It’s something I’ll never forget, and it was a great gig afterwards, so you like that, aren’t you? Yeah, check that, you know! So it was good, I’m looking forward to it.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch Peter Hook & The Light on the following dates, tickets from Metropolis Touring…
