Peter Hook

About Peter Hook

Peter Hook played bass like it was a lead instrument, which probably says everything you need to know about Joy Division and New Order. While most bassists stayed in the background, Hook's style became the defining sound of post-punk Manchester and everything that followed.

He picked up bass almost by accident in the mid-1970s after seeing the Sex Pistols play Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. That show famously inspired half the city to start bands. Hook formed Warsaw with Bernard Sumner and Ian Curtis, which became Joy Division by 1978. His melodic, high-register playing style emerged partly because he didn't know the rules and partly because the band needed something to fill the space in their stark arrangements. On songs like "She's Lost Control" and "Transmission," his bass lines did more heavy lifting than most guitarists manage.

Joy Division released two albums before Curtis died in 1980. Unknown Pleasures and Closer sound like the architectural blueprints for about thirty years of alternative music. Hook's playing on "Disorder" and "Isolation" established a template that bands are still copying. The bass carries the melody while everything else provides texture and atmosphere.

The surviving members regrouped as New Order within months. They started out continuing the Joy Division sound but gradually absorbed electronic music, dance culture, and pop sensibilities. Hook kept his distinctive bass approach even as the band incorporated drum machines and synthesizers. "Blue Monday" became the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. Movement and Power, Corruption and Lies showed a band figuring out its new identity. By the time they released Brotherhood and Technique, they had somehow become both an underground influence and a legitimate pop act.

Hook stayed with New Orden through their commercial peak in the 1980s and their various breakups and reunions. He also ran the Haçienda nightclub in Manchester with the band and Factory Records, which became ground zero for acid house culture in the UK before going bankrupt. The club lost money on a legendary scale but changed music history anyway.

The relationship with Sumner deteriorated over decades until Hook left New Orden in 2007. The split got ugly, with lawsuits over the band name and royalties. Since then, Hook has formed Peter Hook and The Light, playing full albums from Joy Division and New Order in concert. Some people find this nostalgic, others think it's the only way to hear those songs played with the original bass sound.

He has also played with various other projects, written an autobiography called Unknown Pleasures that settles numerous scores, and continued to be remarkably candid about the music business. At seventy-something, he's still touring and still playing that distinctive Yamaha bass high on his chest, which gives him the leverage for his signature sound.

Hook's shows are meticulous reconstructions of era-defining material—fans come to hear the exact songs that mattered, played faithfully. The crowd is respectful, mostly older, swaying rather than thrashing. There's a meditative quality despite the driving rhythms. His bass tone cuts through everything.

Known for Blue Monday, Temptation, Transmission, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere

See Peter Hook Live