Are you two a tag-team?

Pas a devout NO fan I felt duty bound to see Hooky in action. The music was fantastic and it was great to hear the old stuff live again, the renditions were cool BUT..... Hooky's vocals ARRGGHH! Just don't like his delivery - all sounds a bit too earnest. It was like an actor reading the words of a script rather than "acting" them. As the woman next to me texted to er mate "Peter Hook thinks he's Ian Curtis".

I expected his voice to be more suited to Movement, but I enjoyed zpCL and the singles more. Cool to hear Temptation again and hadn't seen it coming.

Couldn't believe some people were saying it was better than the new New Order - no chance.

I'm not going to get into the "should he even be oing it" debate, overall I'm glad I went great tunes pity about the singer.

Bumped into Alex on the tube back to High Barnet - get in touch, I want my Vikings badge :-)

I went as a last minute decision, partly influenced by the Welsh review that Cranelane posted on another thread. (Gig wasn't sold out, so the touts could be convinced to undercut the door price).
By the time Hooky & Co took the stage, the main floor was pretty rammed. The first thing he did was to thank people for turning up and offered to kiss everyone down the front.
I agree with the above comments about Movement live. It captivated me more than the record ever has. There was a moment during Truth when Hook and son exchanged glances as if to say: I think this is working.

For those who want the full album experience you could do a lot worse than this. There was only one song where I thought Hook's vocals were really lacking: Leave Me Alone. It sounded like he was just singing one note. Maybe that's why the sound-man had his vox low in the mix for that one. Overall the vibe of the gig was definitely about reproducing the songs (albums, singles, b sides) as closely as possible to the originals. Whether or not that floats your boat is, I guess, a personal decision. And before someone points it out, yes I know; Hooks vocals were the one bit that didn't sound the same as the original recordings.
Although I was expecting Temptation, for some reason I'd forgotten about EGG. I don't think I've ever seen NO do EGG live, so that, along with non album tracks like Cries and Whispers gave the gig goer something different from the recent NO gigs.

One thing I thought they could drop from the setlist was The Beach. It was a sort of re-mixed/re-edited version of the BM B-side performed by...an apple Mac as far as I could see. The band had walked off and The Beach came on. Some people were probably thinking: Is this how BM is being presented tonight? Well no; we eventually got BM in full (band on stage). Considering we also had the PCL version of 586, the Beach was I think, unnecessary.
The moshpit went mad for Temptation, and surpisingly for BM. I expected dancing rather than moshing during that one and now I'm feeling a little bruised!
Here's the setlist.

Edited by user 19 January 2013 02:28:25(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Sounds like it was a great gig. Would've love to have been there but living in Norfolk and being rather snowed in at the mo put paid to that. Hope all that went enjoyed it. Hope NO do some more gigs soon. Also caught Hooky in November at Norwich Waterfront performing Unknown Pleasures. Was really enjoyable and would like to experience him live again.

Looking forward to Captain Solo's Manc gig report ... Ha!

I just don't like his singing. Seen him sing twice ( with Revenge in 91 and Monaco in 98) and it just gives me a frickin headache

Just to say and i know not everyone will agree but really enjoyed the gig, great to hear both albums and associated singles certainly put a smile on my face, I thought Hooky done a great job even though you can see he is not totally comfortable being the singer all the time but on each gig i see him he gets better couldn't fault the band a great sound
Good to see people all around with smiles on there faces and moving about great vibe
IT was well worth the 100+ mile drive in crap weather and the 3am arrival time at home in snowy Norfolk
The only sad thing is it makes you wish it was the complete NO line up but as we know this looks very unlikely ever to happen but thank you Hooky for playing these songs it was great to hear them live especially some for the first time

for these Light shows, does Hooky need a teleprompter for lyrics like Barney? when i saw Hooky for Revenge and Monaco, he did fine with the lyrics.

Ultraviolence:


Leave Me Alone:

Edited by user 19 January 2013 19:13:38(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Had a few days to think about the Koko gig so here's my best shot at an impartial review.

First off, it's been said before but The Light are a tight backing band; they did the music justice and had obviously done their homework on the various sounds and arrangements for each song. Personally, I can take or leave Movement which is a divisive album amongst the fan-base; some think it's a bit of a funeral dirge while others like the immersive trance-like thing it's got going on. I'm sort of between the two camps on that one but I did enjoy Truth and Chosen Time. As the vocals on Movement are obviously very Curtis-esque, for the most part Hooky managed them very well. I watched Dreams Never End while the version from "Academy" replayed in my mind, just couldn't help it. Procession was another high point, everything seemed to come together for that one and it sounded great with that low bassline rumbling around the venue.

Unfortunately once PC&L arrived and the songs required a higher vocal register was when things went a bit awry. The music remained solid but unfortunately the vocals were overstretched; Ultraviolence and Leave Me Alone particularly suffered. In fairness, Bernard is hardly vocalist of the century (shouty Krafty anyone?) so it's not such a big deal however those songs would definitely have benefited from someone more suitable singing them. If anything, that would allow Hooky get back to playing bass full time which is the reason 99% of us were there. By the end I don't think most of the audience cared about the vox, the reaction was admittedly rapturous by the time Temptation/Blue Monday arrived with a beaming Hooky stepping onto the PA in his trademark pose.

It wasn't perfect but had some good moments and I'm glad I saw it at least once before forming an opinion.

As with UP, I can't say I'd rush out to see the exact same set again but overall I'd give it about 7 out of 10.

You managed to get there from Norfolk? Lucky you. Would've like to have gone. Unfortunately I'm skint following Christmas. Well was skint before Christmas too - lol anyway good to hear people enjoyed it. I would sooooooo love to see the original line up together again, yeah and pigs might fly!