Having detailed the rise and fall of ‘Madchester’ in The Haçienda and Joy Division’s short career in Unknown Pleasures, legendary bassist Peter Hook tells the third, arguably the most important and certainly the most controversial part of his story: the New Order years.
Following on from Joy Division’s two seminal albums and the death of lead singer Ian Curtis on the eve of the band’s first US Tour, Hooky and band members moved on swiftly to become New Order. “We didn’t really think about it afterwards, it just sort of happened. One day we were Joy Division and the next time we got together, we were a new band.” Peter Hook
The band’s distinctive sound – a fusion of post-punk and ground-breaking electronica – paved the way for the dance music revolution and earned them the reputation as one of the most influential bands of their generation. Throughout the Eighties, New Order scaled the heights of success, gaining international acclaim and touring the globe.
From working with Arthur Baker to selling out the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Bizarre Love Triangle became a huge hit in Australia, Blue Monday became the biggest selling 12-inch of all time whilst New Order’s “Substance” shipped many millions of copies to become the group’s most successful album.
Despite their success, the band has always been a collision of the visionary and the volatile and often fraught with tensions. Hooky chronicles how these relationships fell apart, detailing the splits, further splits and the ultimate demise of the band in 2006.
In Substance, Peter Hook has written a no-holds-barred, comprehensive account of the band’s entire history, packed with outrageous anecdotes, written in the avuncular, detailed and insightful manner of his first two books. Including every New Order set list and tour itinerary, it is also interspersed with “geek facts” of every piece of electronic equipment used to forge the sound that changed the direction of popular music.
Peter Hook was born in Salford in 1956. He was a founding member of Joy Division and New Order and DJs internationally as well as touring both bands’ music with his band Peter Hook & The Light. The Light are to tour Joy Division’s and New Order’s “Substance” albums with dates in the UK and US from September 2016 onwards.
He also promotes The Haçienda and recent Haçienda Classical concerts all around the world. Peter now lives in Cheshire with his wife, Rebecca, and children, Heather, Jack and Jessica, and Bo, their dog.
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