Whatever you think of Hook, the book is certainly much more
interesting than
Chapter & Verse. Much of what went on was severely at odds of the image of New Order when I was growing up with them in the 1980's.
Hook and Sumner are very different characters and in a sense, bands need that. There is nothing worse when bands have songwriters that are all the same, as you in effect end up with one songwriter. However, it seems there was a constant battle of what Hook and Sumner thought New Orders sound should be.
I've read both books and you have to read somewhere in between the lines. Hook does seem a little obsessed with Barney and seems insecure - not unreasonably - that his role was slowing getting written out or at the very least down by the
de facto leader, 'Barry Summer'.
You can't help agree with some of Hooky's points. i.e New Orders excruciating lack of diversity and back catalogue of their live set, turning into the band they spent years to avoid, change in Barney's vocals and my favourite, criticism of the worst track by New Order or in fact
any band, 'Rock The Shack'.
He is unnecessarily harsh on Gillian. She was never meant to be 'an equal' player from the start. She was brought in to play Barney keyboard parts and play guitar when he was signing. It was an inspired 'signing' by Rob. Where the problem lies is money - I have never, ever understood why some bands split writing royalties with all remembers - this is madness and it will come back to haunt you when invariably one or more members are pulling their weight more than others and this clearly is a problem with Gillian's part in the band and also Barney's large part in the writing and production process. It was unsustainable and I'm not surprised that we have the mess we have.
Rightly or wrongly, Hook was a man that couldn't cope in the end with whatever Neworder had become and had had enough. Whatever the court case holds, we won't see them together again.
Edited by user 21 October 2016 12:23:13(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
