Growing up in Manchester, the concerts Peter Hook attended represented an unreachable ideal.
“When I went to see Deep Purple and when I went to see Yes, I never looked at them and thought that I could do it,” Hook, a founding member of Joy Division and New Order, says in a video call from his home in Alderley Edge, south of Manchester. “Never in a million years did I think it. And when I read about them, I used to read the music papers incessantly, I never thought that I could do that. Never.”
This changed in 1976, when he witnessed the Sex Pistols at Free Trade Hall in Manchester, a gig that has gained legendary status because the future members of Joy Division, Buzzcocks, The Smiths, The Fall and Simply Red were there.
“The only thing that attracted me to the Sex Pistols was that the newspapers were reporting that they had a fight at every gig. And I was like, you know, it’s not something you’d expect Jimmy Page or ELP to do. I thought that was weird. And it felt more like my world, which was struggle for survival.”
The musicianship of the Pistols that night was not what inspired him.
“I thought they were fucking terrible,” he says. “They sounded awful. And Johnny Rotten just kept telling us all to fuck off. ‘Fuck off, fuck off, Manc bastards. Fuck off.’ And I thought I could do that. I could tell everyone to fuck off.”
Hook has harnessed that punk spirit for 50 years, as the bassist and a main songwriter for the short-lived but monumental Joy Division as well as New Order, the pioneering synth-pop group who has sold millions of records.
He’s been a part of Factory Records, the Manchester label that released records by Happy Mondays, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and James among others, including Joy Division and New Order, and the Manchester nightclub The Haçienda, a partnership between Factory and New Order. He’s been depicted in “Control,” the Anton Corbijn film about the late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis, and “24 Hour Party People,” the 2004 comedy about the Manchester musical community, centered on Factory’s Tony Wilson.
The bassist also has written three books: “The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club,” “Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division” and “Substance: Inside New Order.”
His band Peter Hook & The Light will perform at Brooklyn Paramount on Sept. 5 on a tour that is to feature performances of New Order’s 2001 album “Get Ready” in full along with additional material from New Order, Joy Division and other Hook projects, such as Monaco. Fans can get a feel for the tour, which will include a stop at Union Transfer in Philadelphia on Sept. 7, on the recently released live album “’Get Ready’ Live at O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester.”
The covers of New Order’s “Get Ready” (2001) and Peter Hook & The Light’s “‘Get Ready’ Live at O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester” (2026)
In November Hook will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Joy Division and New Order, the latter of which has been performing without him; Hook left New Order in 2007 and the remaining members Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert reformed the group in 2011.
“Get Ready” was a pivotal album for New Order, who had gone eight years since releasing an album, “Republic,” which was a commercial success but strained the relationships within the band to a breaking point. Hook says working on “Get Ready” with singer and guitarist Sumner, known to his mates as Barney, rekindled the pair’s partnership.
“It reminded me of those days when I turned up at his gran’s house with my bass and him with his guitar, just sat there playing,” says Hook. “It actually came down to that level. Barney had been off doing Electronic. I’d been off doing Revenge and I’d just gone into Monaco. So the thing is we’d both been very busy in our own rights, but to actually come together was like a second honeymoon. And even though I joke about it by saying once the sex was gone, it was over, it was a fantastic time for us to work together. And I will unashamedly say it rekindled our friendship and we became very, very close over the making of ‘Get Ready,’ which made it very pleasurable.”
The album opens with “Crystal,” built on a heavy guitar riff that announced that New Order was no longer the strictly synthesizer-dominated group it was on “Republic.” As proof that the band was still influential more than 20 years on, a young Brandon Flowers would suggest his band call themselves The Killers, after the name on the bass drum of the fake band in the song’s music video.
Hook recalls how producer Steve Osborne, whom he credited with keeping him and Sumner both involved in the recording of the album, helped turn the song into a rocker.
“I remember being woken up at 4 in the morning by Steve Osborne, who said to me, ‘OK, we’ve changed “Crystal,” because ‘Crystal’ was actually quite a little bit — I hope he doesn’t mind me saying it, Barney — but an insipid sort of electro song. And he changed it and he said to me, ‘You’ve got to come on and put some bass on it.’ And I’m going, ‘Mate, it’s 4 in the morning. I’ve been asleep for two hours.’ He said, ‘No, you’ve got to do it now. You’ve got to do it now.’ And he made me go in the studio and we got the bass break and got the low bass on it, and it turned into the great song that it is.
“I had not had a moment like that with New Order for a long time. We didn’t enjoy making ‘Movement.’ I suppose ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’ would be the closest we were. But we got further and further apart, for whatever reason, up to and including ‘Republic,’ when we couldn’t have been further apart. Each one of us had been in a different bleeding studio.”
New Order’s chaotic existence was born out of the tragedy and shock of the death of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, who died by suicide in 1980. Joy Division had released its seminal debut “Unknown Pleasures” in 1979 and “Closer,” in 1980, followed after Curtis’ death. The band was about to tour America for the first time when Curtis died.
“From a third LP point of view, we were on ‘In a Lonely Place,’ we were on ‘Ceremony,’ both fantastically, diversely different songs, but both great songs in their own right,” Hook says. “We also had a song called ‘ICB’ going as Joy Division — I’ve got a tape with Ian singing on it — which we used as New Order. So there’s three tracks for the next LP that were very up to standard. I think the thing that I would love to imagine is that we would have been as big as The Doors, and I think if we could have made it to America and got Ian over that hump,
“I think even if Ian and Joy Division wouldn’t have lasted, I would love to be able to sit here and have you ask me, ‘Oh, and what’s Ian Curtis up to now?’ and for me to say, ‘Oh, he’s got a bookshop in Brighton.’ You know, I would love to be able to say that, but it’s just not happened.”
With both bands set to take their place in the Hall of Fame, Hook notes: “The weird thing about Joy Division is that New Order actually succeeded in dragging themselves out of the ashes by ignoring Joy Division, and ignoring Joy Division did not keep it down. And I think I can safely say now that Joy Division are as well known, if not more well known in some quarters, than New Order. More appreciated than New Order in many quarters.”
He says he and the other New Order members were united in promoting the band’s candidacy for the Hall of Fame when they were first nominated in 2023 but his former colleagues did not back the subsequent nominations in 2025 and 2026.
“But the fans did it anyway, and I must give them every accolade for doing that,” Hook says. “That’s what I expect from a fan. I expect tenacity, I expect loyalty, and I expect joy in finally converting somebody to thinking how good the group that you love is, because I am exactly the same. So I am delighted by it. I’m really looking forward to getting in there. I don’t know what the hell’s going to happen. As far as I know, the others aren’t coming.”
Hook is thrilled, however, that his daughter and son, who plays in The Light as well as Smashing Pumpkins, will be attending. The Pumpkins have a gig in LA on Nov. 12 and the induction ceremony is two days later.
He’ll also be sharing Manchester pride with Oasis, who will be inducted in the same class of honorees.
One of the group’s first gigs as Oasis after changing their name and with Noel Gallagher having newly joined his brother Liam’s band was as a support act for Hook’s group Revenge at Middleton Hippodrome in Manchester in the early ‘90s.
“I remember talking to Liam at the gig and he went, ‘We got our kid in the band now. I changed the name.’ They were called Rain before that. They were shite, and we were shite, funnily enough. So we were all in good company on that particular night. And I keep reminding Noel in the hope of getting a support gig, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. We might be appearing in one of these nights at Knebworth.” (Oasis is rumored to be playing a record six-night stretch at London’s Knebworth Park, south of London, in 2027.)
“I’m very happy they’ve put Manchester back on the map and they’ve put The Haçienda back on the map. It all helps our reputation, if you like. So yeah, I’m absolutely fine. And I think that Noel as a songwriter is fantastic, and I think that Liam as a front man is fantastic. I’m happy to be there. I think we’re in good company.”
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