Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Peter Hook (instagram.com/peterhook_thelight/) reflects on 50 years of music, the emotional weight of performing Joy Division and New Order live, and the many memories and ghosts of his past.
Tickets for Peter Hook & The Light, Australia 2026 (metropolistouring.com/peter-hook-and-the-light-2026/)
Topics Include:
• New Order toured Australia as early as 1982, helped by Factory Australasia's local support.
• Hooky calls Australia the only place he never wants to leave — he still suffers leaving every time.
• Peter Hook and the Light played their seventh-ever gig in Melbourne on their first Australian tour.
• He is now working through every New Order and Joy Division album ever recorded live.
• Get Ready features songs never played live as New Order, with Steve Morris largely absent during recording.
• The band's Grammy came from Orgy's heavy metal cover of Blue Monday — Hook loves the weird covers most.
• He revealed a plan to stage a full New Order classical concert, eyeing the Sydney Opera House.
• Ian Curtis performed with absolute conviction every single night — something Bernard Sumner couldn't match early on.
• Hook recalls first seeing Ian smash up a venue at 2:30am, dancing through broken tables — terrifying and electrifying.
• That chaotic Stiff/Chiswick talent show led directly to Rob Gretton becoming Joy Division's manager.
• Ian's lyrics, Hook says, are heartbreaking up close — Love Will Tear Us Apart masks devastating words in euphoric music.
• Singing Ian's words himself has given Hook a profound new insight into what Curtis was actually expressing.
• Tony Wilson signed them with a handshake — no contracts — while other labels arrived with thick legal documents.
• Bernard Sumner found the Unknown Pleasures pulsar image in a textbook; nobody planned the iconic sleeve.
• Hooky was actually sued for bootlegging the Unknown Pleasures artwork — which Factory themselves had originally stolen.
• Ian Curtis reportedly wrote a letter complaining about how Closer sounded — a detail Hook only learned years later.
• During Closer sessions, Curtis was being torn apart: marriage collapsing, new love, epilepsy worsening, the band pushing forward.
• Hook deeply regrets not seeing Ian before his cremation — but a gravedigger privately told him where Curtis is actually buried.
• The inquest into Ian's death so disgusted the band they decided on the spot to continue as New Order.
• Joy Division was deliberately boxed away for 30 years; Bernard called playing those songs "miserable" and refused to continue.
• Bobby Gillespie suggested the album playback concept so Hook could faithfully recreate Martin Hannett's studio sound live.
• Watching his son learn Joy Division bass lines at the same age Hook was then felt like staring into the past.
• Performing these songs, Hook says he is "living surrounded by ghosts" of collaborators now gone.
• The K-93 sessions saw Killing Joke's Geordie Walker move into Hook's Manchester home for six weeks, causing complete chaos.
• Those lost K-93 tapes mysteriously surfaced after the label went bankrupt — and Jaz Coleman promptly went silent again.
High resolution version of this podcast is available at: Patreon.com/VinylGuide (patreon.com/VinylGuide)
• Apple: tinyurl.com/tvg-ios
• Spotify: tinyurl.com/tvg-spot
• Amazon Music: tinyurl.com/tvg-amazon
• Support the show at Patreon.com/VinylGuide (patreon.com/vinylguide)
Peter Hook (instagram.com/peterhook_thelight/) reflects on 50 years of music, the emotional weight of performing Joy Division and New Order live, and the many memories and ghosts of his past.
Tickets for Peter Hook & The Light, Australia 2026 (metropolistouring.com/peter-hook-and-the-light-2026/)
Topics Include:
• New Order toured Australia as early as 1982, helped by Factory Australasia's local support.
• Hooky calls Australia the only place he never wants to leave — he still suffers leaving every time.
• Peter Hook and the Light played their seventh-ever gig in Melbourne on their first Australian tour.
• He is now working through every New Order and Joy Division album ever recorded live.
• Get Ready features songs never played live as New Order, with Steve Morris largely absent during recording.
• The band's Grammy came from Orgy's heavy metal cover of Blue Monday — Hook loves the weird covers most.
• He revealed a plan to stage a full New Order classical concert, eyeing the Sydney Opera House.
• Ian Curtis performed with absolute conviction every single night — something Bernard Sumner couldn't match early on.
• Hook recalls first seeing Ian smash up a venue at 2:30am, dancing through broken tables — terrifying and electrifying.
• That chaotic Stiff/Chiswick talent show led directly to Rob Gretton becoming Joy Division's manager.
• Ian's lyrics, Hook says, are heartbreaking up close — Love Will Tear Us Apart masks devastating words in euphoric music.
• Singing Ian's words himself has given Hook a profound new insight into what Curtis was actually expressing.
• Tony Wilson signed them with a handshake — no contracts — while other labels arrived with thick legal documents.
• Bernard Sumner found the Unknown Pleasures pulsar image in a textbook; nobody planned the iconic sleeve.
• Hooky was actually sued for bootlegging the Unknown Pleasures artwork — which Factory themselves had originally stolen.
• Ian Curtis reportedly wrote a letter complaining about how Closer sounded — a detail Hook only learned years later.
• During Closer sessions, Curtis was being torn apart: marriage collapsing, new love, epilepsy worsening, the band pushing forward.
• Hook deeply regrets not seeing Ian before his cremation — but a gravedigger privately told him where Curtis is actually buried.
• The inquest into Ian's death so disgusted the band they decided on the spot to continue as New Order.
• Joy Division was deliberately boxed away for 30 years; Bernard called playing those songs "miserable" and refused to continue.
• Bobby Gillespie suggested the album playback concept so Hook could faithfully recreate Martin Hannett's studio sound live.
• Watching his son learn Joy Division bass lines at the same age Hook was then felt like staring into the past.
• Performing these songs, Hook says he is "living surrounded by ghosts" of collaborators now gone.
• The K-93 sessions saw Killing Joke's Geordie Walker move into Hook's Manchester home for six weeks, causing complete chaos.
• Those lost K-93 tapes mysteriously surfaced after the label went bankrupt — and Jaz Coleman promptly went silent again.
High resolution version of this podcast is available at: Patreon.com/VinylGuide (patreon.com/VinylGuide)
• Apple: tinyurl.com/tvg-ios
• Spotify: tinyurl.com/tvg-spot
• Amazon Music: tinyurl.com/tvg-amazon
• Support the show at Patreon.com/VinylGuide (patreon.com/vinylguide)
