Not seen this before - thought you might like it :

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/aug/10/peter-hook-joy-division-new-order

A rare opportunity to hear from Hooky.

http://www2.gibson.com/N...-New-Order-And-Bass.aspx

The Light have toured Unknown Pleasures and Closer: now it’s Movement and Power, Corruption and Lies. Is there something special about those albums to you, or is it just logical to perform the next albums in the catalog?

It’s just chronological. After doing the Joy Division shows, the idea is to go through the New Order catalog. One of my greatest frustrations before New Order broke up in 2006 was their reluctance to change the set much. Or revisit older material. I always felt it was a shame.

So, when I started playing the Joy Division songs with The Light – which was to mark the 30 years since the end of Ian Curtis’s life – I decided to keep going. We never celebrated Joy Division in New Order, oddly. Once New Order broke up and I was outside, I thought: why not? It’s great to play these songs that haven’t been played for 25 years.

What do you now think of New Order’s 1981 debut, Movement?

I think it’s a great album. But an interesting one. It was underplayed vocally. Our producer, Martin Hannett, was very upset by Ian Curtis’s death. And he didn’t like what I’ll call our new “vocal direction.” Basically, he thought all three of us were crap. [Hooks sings lead vocals on two tracks.} He thought we should get another singer in.

Movement is a very Joy Division-style album in music, but the vocals are very tentative, almost reluctant. But, now, with The Light I feel we can do them with more gusto. They’ve got the strength they should have had 30 years ago.

Power Corruption and Lies seemed to cement the then-new New Order sound: is that how you see it?

Musically, Power Corruption and Lies was a great leap. Movement was all “acoustic” instruments, as it were. On Power Corruption and Lies, the sequencers and drum machines came in. But I love Movement, because it was that great stepping stone between Joy Division and New Order. To play Movement live is fantastic. The way the guitar, bass and drums move around each other. Fantastic interplay. It’s hard to play live, but when you get it right, it’s very satisfying.

Did you have to re-learn parts to play these albums live with The Light?

God, yeah. A lot of the time, New Order didn’t really finish songs in the studio… we finished them when we were on the road. There were a lot of changes, some subtle, some major, when we played live. So I had to look at a lot of early New Order videos which was weird. How we got away with some gigs, I really don’t know. It was either a riot or absolutely amazing. We had a weird attitude, very offhand, almost angry with the audience. We sometimes played short sets, very perfunctory, didn’t sound rehearsed… It was a great punk attitude. I do miss that cockiness of youth, I’ll be honest.

How did your bass playing style evolve?

The two people I picked up on were Jean-Jacques Burnell [of The Stranglers] and Paul Simonon [The Clash]. The first bass I really invested in was a Gibson EB-0. I love the sound of Gibson basses, but I needed a double-octave scale for my style of playing. So I had to get a copy of an EB-2 made by [U.K. guitar maker] Chris Eccleshall.

That’s an interesting bespoke instrument. It’s the same, for the width and depth of the neck, as a Gibson guitar. But it’s a straight-through neck, which I don’t think Gibson ever did? Medium-scale basses seemed renowned for losing their tuning, and I couldn’t have that.

I spent a fortune on my first Gibson EB-0, too! Maybe one day, Gibson can build a long-scale through-neck EB semi-acoustic bass. I’d buy it.

Was it always an idea that you played “lead bass” high on melody?

It was Ian Curtis, of anybody, who picked up on the way I play. Hard. Aggressive. When we’d be rehearsing and writing in Joy Division, he’d always say, “Hooky, play it high, play it high!” I don’t whether that was because he considered Bernard’s guitar playing inadequate or whatever… But I still think the music in Joy Division was absolutely fantastic. Three instruments taking a separate role… but when they come together with Ian’s lyrics and vocal melodies on top of that, we couldn’t go wrong. The chemistry in Joy Division was exemplary, and that’s what I love about Movement.

Power, Corruption and Lies was different. “Leave Me Alone” is very like “acoustic” Joy Division, a couple of other tracks, too. But it’s mainly sequencer-led. We cut our teeth with sequencers on “Hurt,” “Everything’s Gone Green” and “Temptation.” But sequencers and drum-machines paired were heavily-featured. “Blue Monday” was recorded as the same time as Power Corruption and Lies, but we always viewed it as a separate piece of music so it wasn’t on the album.

Was the increasing layer of synths behind you in New Order a prompt to play bass like you do?

“Well, I don’t know. It could lead to problems. There are plenty of jokes, such as: drum machines were invented so the singer didn’t have to talk to the drummer. And bass synths were invented so the singer didn’t have to talk to the bass player! More than a grain of truth in that. Some singers are perfectionists and controlling – I guess if they can “program” the whole band, that’s quite liberating… for them.

But Power, Corruption and Lies was still about real band chemistry.

Any advice on a great bass sound?

The hardest thing in the world for bass players is to make the bottom-end sound great, and the top-end sound great. I was lucky. Martin Hannet said to me early on: Hooky, what you need is a huge amp. And as Bernard rightly said, that will suit your huge ego very well.

Martin Hannett built a set-up for me, an Alembic valve/stereo preamp going into a stereo Amtron DC300A. Although it was solid-state, the Amtron gave a really warm bottom-end but also made the higher notes really bite. I’ve never used a compressor. Don’t need to. I hit the bass so hard, my playing is always at the same level. Really loud. I got that set-up just at the end of Joy Division.

And when I started playing 6-string bass, early in New Order, the Alembic and Amtron amps seemed really suited to that. I had two channel settings – one for 4-string, one for 6-string. It worked perfectly.

And I was inspired by Jean-Jacques Burnell to get a Hiwatt amp. It seemed like you could get some great ones and some bad ones. But I got a few good ones with wonderful valve distortion. I still use Hiwatts now.

Do you feel vindicated with the reception The Light are getting? There were a few bad words flying around before between you and the rest of New Order?

A few bad words? Haha! I’m amazed I’ve had the strength of spirit to do this, to be honest. It was only the people really close to me that enabled me to do it. It’s been difficult. But The Light have played some really great, wacky places that Joy Division never got near. And some people – just some people – really, really like it.

Doing New Order songs now has irritated the other members even more, but what do they expect me to do? Roll over and die? It’s odd. The other members of New Order are now playing quite a lot of Joy Division in their set. I guess the fans are at least doing really well out of it.

It’s funny. I’ve just a read a review of Krist Novoselic’s shows in America, where he’s playing some of Nirvana’s Nevermind. At the end, the reviewer just said: I blame Peter Hook for this! But I don’t mind that. I’ll take the accolades for getting people back out there, and playing great songs.

Edited by user 21 August 2013 13:12:11(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

http://53degrees.blogspo...ew-peter-hook-talks.html

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: PETER HOOK TALKS NEW ORDER, DANCE MUSIC & THE HACIENDA
Following last year's sold out Joy Division 'Unknown Pleasures' show, Peter Hook returns to 53 Degrees on October 31st to play New order's first two albums, along with singles from the era like 'Everything's Gone Green' and the groundbreaking 'Blue Monday', in full. With the New Order material showing a marked shift into electronic territory, we caught up with Hooky to talk synths, technology and, of course, the Hacienda.

- I've heard various stories about how you developed your distinctive melodic bass style. One is that the 1st amp you owned only cost a tenner so you started playing at the higher end to hear over Bernard's guitar. Another is that New Order's use of sequenced bass put you into more of a lead player role. How much of an influence would you say electronic music's had on your style of playing?

I'D HAVE TO SAY THAT IT HAS BEEN A MASSIVE INFLUENCE. WHEN PLAYING TO MORE ELECTRONIC SONGS YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP A VERY DIFFERENT STYLE OF PLAYING THAN IF YOU WERE PLAYING A PUNK SONG, IT TOOK SOME GETTING USED TO AT FIRST BUT THEN IT JUST BECAME THE NORM. IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE ANOTHER STRING TO YOUR BOW. AT TIMES IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT A SONG LIKE TEMPTATION WAS WRITTEN JUST A COUPLE OF YEARS LATER THAN SAY, IN A LONELY PLACE, BUT I THINK IT SHOWS HOW THE BAND WAS DEVELOPING.

- As electronics now play an increasingly big part in modern music - both in production and distribution - do you feel the musician's role has changed compared to when Joy Division were starting out?

EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED, NOT JUST THE MUSICIAN'S ROLE - THE WAY YOU WRITE SONGS HAS CHANGED, THE WAY YOU RECORD SONGS HAS CHANGED, IT IS A VERY DIFFERENT WORLD NOW TO THE ONE WE LIVED IN AS JOY DIVISION. I THINK IT'S GREAT THOUGH AS THE NEW TECHNOLOGY MEANS THAT EVERYONE IS ABLE TO HAVE A GO. SOME DO IT BETTER THAN OTHERS OF COURSE BUT THE MAIN THING IS THAT ANYONE CAN USE THE NEW TECHNOLOGY AND HAVE A GO!

- You've played on recordings by Hybrid and The Crystal Method, as well has having a major influence on the whole dance scene. Were you interested in electronic music growing up? Or did it come from working in the industry, i.e. Martin Hannett's addition of synths to Joy Division recordings?

IT JUST SORT OF HAPPENED NATURALLY, JOY DIVISION OBVIOUSLY STARTED OUT AS A VERY PUNKY, ROCKY BAND BUT BY THE TIME WE WERE RECORDING CLOSER, BARNEY AND MYSELF WERE BOTH BECOMING A LOT MORE INTERESTED IN ELECTRONICS AND YOU CAN HEAR THIS ON TRACKS LIKE HEART AND SOUL OR ISOLATION. AS WE PROGRESSED INTO NEW ORDER, THAT INTEREST GREW AND SHAPED THE SOUND OF THE BAND. THERE WAS NO CONSCIOUS DECISION TO START MOVING IN THAT DIRECTION, IT JUST HAPPENED NATURALLY.

- A lot of early electronica was made as incidental music for 50s and 60s film before it became a major part of 'pop' music. Were you into any of the sci-fi or horror films that it soundtracked growing up?

I CAN'T SAY THAT I WAS REALLY, NO, MY OWN INTEREST IN ELECTRONICA DEVELOPED MAINLY THROUGH BARNEY'S NEW FOUND LOVE FOR SEQUENCERS AND SYNTHESISERS.

- You spent some time in Jamaica as a kid. Did you pick up on much of the local music whilst you were over there?

I DID SPEND A FEW YEARS IN JAMAICA BUT I WAS VERY YOUNG AND SO DID NOT REALLY PICK UP ON MUCH OF THE CULTURE. I LOOK BACK ON IT FONDLY THOUGH, WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE AS A KID.

- When New Order started out, you quickly added Gillian Gilbert to the line-up on keyboards, and the music began to take on more synth elements. What prompted the shift to a more 'dance' orientated sound?

THE SHIFT TOWARDS A MORE ELECTRONIC STYLE WAS HAPPENING ANYWAY TOWARDS THE END OF JOY DIVISION, THERE ARE A LOT MORE KEYBOARDS ON CLOSER FOR EXAMPLE THAN UNKNOWN PLEASURES. WE COULDN'T GET AWAY WITH BARNEY PLAYING BOTH GUITAR AND KEYS SEPARATELY ANYMORE AS THE MUSIC WAS CHANGING SO WE DID HAVE TO INTRODUCE A FULL TIME KEYBOARD PLAYER. GILLIAN WAS STEVE'S GIRLFRIEND OF COURSE AND WAS IN A BAND OF HER OWN SO IT WAS QUITE AN EASY CHOICE. HOWEVER IT WAS STILL MAINLY BARNEY THAT WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MAJORITY OF THE KEYBOARD LINES, GILLIAN DID NOT REALLY HAVE AS BIG AN INPUT CREATIVELY AS SOME PEOPLE THINK.

- The 80s saw a big boom in electronic music. Whereas it'd previously been made by boffins, belonged primarily to those rich enough to own the equipment, and rarely crossed over into the mainstream, it was now making its way into the charts and being incorporated into rock music. The Hacienda championed dance music and put new pop acts like Madonna on the same stage as more 'music press credible' acts like The Smiths. How big a role do you think the Hacienda played in terms of dance music crossing over into the mainstream...?

I THINK IT PLAYED A HUGE PART IN THAT, YES. IT MADE ELECTRONIC MUSIC A LOT MORE ACCESSIBLE THAN IT HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN. WE GAVE GIGS TO PEOPLE WHO MAYBE OTHERWISE WOULD NOT HAVE HAD A PLACE TO PLAY AND DO THEIR THING. FOR ME AS WELL THE HACIENDA STARTED THE WHOLE DJ CULTURE THAT IS STILL AROUND TODAY.

- And do you think the fact that the people running the club had largely working class backgrounds, not to mention the industrial history of the building itself, were important factors in this, taking electronic music away from the rich boffins and making it more accessible to a wider audience?

I WOULD AGREE WITH THAT YES. WE WERE NOT BUSINESSMEN (WHICH ULTIMATELY LED TO OUR DOWNFALL..) BUT WE WERE JUST MUSIC ENTHUSIASTS WHO WANTED TO BRING GREAT MUSIC TO THE MASSES.

- With its Peter Saville sleeves and catalgue numbers, do you think Factory was original in focussing as much on style and image, making music more of an all round art product?

I THINK FACTORY RECORDS WAS A TRULY WONDERFUL THING. TONY WILSON HAD A VISION OF HOW HE WANTED FACTORY TO BE AND HE ACHIEVED THAT. NOBODY AT THE TIME WAS DOING ANYTHING LIKE WHAT FACTORY WAS DOING. TONY SAW THE WHOLE THING AS A PACKAGE AND WANTED THE OVERALL PRODUCT TO STAND OUT IN THE MARKETPLACE.

- As a major player in the history of Factory and the Hacienda, were you always an active supporter or did it become frustrating seeing New Order's record sales being used to keep things afloat?

IT WAS AT TIMES FRUSTRATING BUT I WOULD NOT CHANGE ANYTHING FOR THE WORLD!
- What sort of music are you currently listening to, and are you interested in any modern electronica?

I LIKE TO THINK THAT I HAVE A VERY BROAD TASTE IN MUSIC AND I LISTEN TO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. IN TERMS OF MODERN ELECTRONICA I AM A BIG FAN OF HYBRID, AS WE MENTIONED EARLIER, WHO I THEN WENT ON TO WORK WITH. I ALSO RECENTLY SAW SOME LIVE CLIPS OF NINE INCH NAILS PERFORMING THEIR NEW MATERIAL AT LOLLAPALOOZA IN THE STATES AND THAT SOUNDED VERY ELECTRONIC WHICH WAS INTERESTING.

Do you hang out in Little Italy? Was in NY the other week and saw someone like you in a pub near Joey Ramone Place?

4 of 5 from 1998 are new order, or new order now , and could be bad lieutenant . peter is still acting like roger waters. he looks great . new order has a fine new bass player . maybe peter will write some awesome new songs, and release them on the same day as bernard and co.

http://www.officiallyayu...ive-peter-hook-intv.html

EXCLUSIVE! PETER HOOK INTV!

Many musicians try and find success with one band or one outlet, it is very rare that a musician can find deep success and respect with two bands. For Peter Hook, who played bass in both Joy Division and New Order, he has managed to accomplish that task. After the suicide of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis in 1980, the members of Joy Division didn't stop, they formed New Order and carried on and took the 1980's and most of the 1990's by storm. The bands on-again-off-again hiatus for much of the late 90's and early 00's lead to Hook announcing he and New Order singer Bernard Sumner were no longer working together and left the band. In 2011, around the time Hook was taking his new band, The Light on the road to tour Joy Division's acclaimed final record, Closer, New Order announced they were replacing Hook and would continue touring. While the fallout between Hook and the rest of his former band remains in the headlines, he is looking to still continue playing the music of the bands he was in and still loves. Next month, he and The Light will bring New Order's timeless albums, Movement and Power, Corruption, and Lies to the U.S. following a successful run in Europe earlier this year. We caught up with Hook to talk about the new tour, the feud, and one of his other passions - soccer, sorry, football. Take a look at our interview below:

Now that you have put Joy Division away with The Light, what is it like performing New Order’s earlier work without the band?

Well we haven't really put joy division away per se, we still have a few gigs lined up where we will be performing that material. But yes from September onwards there is a switch to the new order material as that tour officially starts in the States. I've been lucky in that the band have proved themselves to be very capable over the last 3 years so I had no issues when it came to start playing the New Order material as I knew that again they would all do a great job and work hard to ensure that they did the songs justice. I think that this band have a great chemistry which enables them and myself to combine and put a good show together.

How have the shows been in America as opposed to the rest of the world?

Well we have toured America twice now, in 2010 we toured Unknown Pleasures, then in 2011 we mainly toured closer, so to follow that with the Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies seemed like the next logical step in the plan. So this will be our third tour and there is a reason that we are starting the tour in the states because the last two tours have been wonderful, great crowds and so nice to go back. I enjoy playing to American audiences and am delighted to be coming back. Audiences are very different all over the world but Americans crowds have always been very welcoming to us which is nice.

Are American audiences different from those in Europe or South America?

Not too different in my opinion, we have been lucky in that we have had the opportunity to go round the world with this show and we have been well received everywhere. American audiences are very clued up on their music and they know their stuff, so we will be working hard to hopefully give them a great night!

With The Light, your son, Jack, is playing bass, in New Order’s current line-up Tom Chapman is playing your parts. How is it that the music of New Order is being played live around the world and you are not playing your signature bass hooks?

Yes it is certainly a very funny situation isn't it! The good thing about this set though is that I do get to play a lot more bass, the music allows me to play much more than it did for the Joy Division sets that we did, which is nice. I suppose I should be flattered really that my bass lines are getting such airplay at the moment even if it isn't me that's playing the majority of them.

Now that you have been on the road for nearly a year performing “Movement,” and “Power, Corruption, and Lies,” which, in your opinion is the better album and why?

Well actually we have only played this set four times, so it is still very new. We debuted the new set in January of this year with a tiny warm-up show in Cardiff followed by two big sold out shows in London and Manchester. We then switched back to playing the Joy Division set on tour until a couple of weeks ago when we played the new order set again for the first time in 6 months at a wonderful venue in Buxton in the UK called the opera house, as a preview to the full tour which starts properly in September. We'll be touring across the USA & Canada before going down into Mexico & South America, then coming back home for a tour of the UK & Ireland before Christmas. At the start of next year, we really want to get back to Australia & New Zealand as well as playing more shows in Asia. It will be great to finally tour this set as it will get better and better the more we play it.

After this tour, will you be playing some of new order’s other albums live down the line?

Yes, believe it or not we do have a plan! We will tour our Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies set around the world first but once we have done that we do plan to move onto the next two records, Low Life and Brotherhood, towards the end of 2014. I am really looking forward to that already as there are more great tracks which have not seen the light of day for a long time, songs like this time of night, murder, sunrise, way of life... That will be a great live set just like this one.

Last year you released you fantastic book, “Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division,” are you kicking around the idea of releasing an inside story on New Order?

My writing partner Andrew Holmes and myself have actually already started on the new order book, we are aiming to release that in 2014. I really enjoy the writing process. It will be a very different book to the joy division book.

New Order was a band that were so ahead of their time and still today the music from 20-30 years ago sounds as fresh as any new band out there. Did you think you were making such timeless music when it was happening?

I knew that what we were doing was good but I have to be honest and say that I really did not foresee the legacy that the music would leave and how good it would fare in terms of standing the test of time. I'm proud of the material as a whole and even more proud that it still sounds fresh all these years later.

Do you ever sit back and wonder and look at your musical career after being in Joy Division and New Order and say, ‘Wow?’ most artists struggle to make a success with one band, but you did it with two!

I am extremely proud, all of us should be proud of what we achieved together. It's a shame that there are rifts and divisions between us now but I hope that one day we can put all that rubbish aside and at least just sit down and go 'wow, we were good!' - if have no regrets and wouldn't change anything for the world.

Are you and The Light working on original material to play and record?

This is quite a difficult one, I get asked about it a lot. There are ideas kicking around that the lads in the band have recorded which I think is really very good, but it is hard to find the time to get in the studio and work on them all properly. We tour a great deal which doesn't really allow us the time to get together and do it at the moment. However in the future I would definitely like to release new material with these guys. They are all excellent players and I do have the itch again to get some new stuff on the go, absolutely.

With the love/hate situation going on between you and your former band, if Ian Curtis were alive today, what would he say about all of this?

If he were alive today I am sure that he would have banged our heads together by now! It is a shame and I am sick and tired of the fighting but my mother told me to stand up for what I believe in and that is what I am doing in relation to the others.

New Order recorded the theme for England for World Cup 1990, and of course the famous video and hook of the song was a patriotic anthem for the team and their players. With the world cup happening next year, what are England’s odds?

The England team unfortunately suffer a great deal from being over hyped... The pressure that the country puts on them to perform is unbelievable, however it is only natural to want them to do well. The problem with the England team is that at times it is hard to really get behind the cause because we have been so badly let down in the past! We are certainly capable of putting on a good showing at the next world cup if the players apply themselves fully but I would not consider us to be in that top bracket of teams. You look at teams like Spain, Germany, Argentina & Brazil and have to believe that they are the favorites, especially Brazil as they are playing at home.

While we are on the football talk, you are big United supporter. For the first time in 29 years united will be managed by a new man. How do you think they will waver this season?

Yes it is certainly a very interesting time to be a united fan... Not having Alex Ferguson in charge will certainly take some getting used to after him being in charge for so long and being so successful. However I reckon that the board have made a shrewd choice in David Moyes as his successor as he seems to be cut from the same cloth as Fergie. I think the fact that Fergie picked David Moyes himself speaks volumes. All United fans should now be getting behind Moyes & the team to help them carry on that high level of achievement. It is a mammoth task to replace a legend of the game like Ferguson but I have got faith in Moyes! As long as we finish above Manchester City I will be happy, local bragging rights are very important in my town!

Edited by user 26 August 2013 03:58:24(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

From newordernow.net, September 2011:


Brixton 2012 gig poster from new order facebook page (was also on newordernow.net at some point).

What's come over me? Stupid question, I'm looking at a photo of Mel C.
People don't know Hooky ain't in the line-up? Do these people know Lady Diana's died? The film will be a revelation.
Republic is an album people hate or love. I like it.
Actually - as I mentioned in another thread - The Light playin' Republic isn't as weird as you'd think. Remove Avalanche (as an Other Two track) and exactly half the songs were played on the '93 tour. And though Hook's bass is low is the final mix, that may have more to do with Bernard and Stephen Hague taking over than his initial contribution - I always got the idea it started as a classic NO LP (Steve Morris told Select that Regret, Ev Ev and Special were his favourites and also the first ones they wrote - no accident they're the only ones they did live, except the singles which are kinda obligatory). Plus, Hooky live tends to sing and play bass round it, which is paradoxically the Hague format! Finally, I'm sure musicians of this calibre wouldn't take on a project unless they were determined to do it justice: the original UP project sounded dubious but I've yet to read a bad review! We'll see.
PS Fuck Revenge though.

Edited by user 29 August 2013 03:14:32(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified