Peter Hook Talks About Keeping the Joy Division/New Order Legacy Alive

Peter Hook, Ian Curtis and Bernard Sumner — the core of what would become the post-punk band Joy Division — saw the Sex Pistols play in Manchester, England in 1976 and decided to form a band with drummer Stephen Morris in the wake of that experience. Joy Division would release two seminal studio albums before Curtis committed suicide just as the band was to embark on its first-ever U.S. tour.

Hook, Morris and Sumner soldiered on as New Order and had great success throughout the ’80s and ’90s. That band has since splintered, and its breakup was ugly. Sumner retains the name New Order, but Hook continues to play Joy Division and New Order tunes with his band the Light.

Earlier this year, the Rock Hall announced that both Joy Division and New Order will be inducted in November as part of the Class of 2026.

This summer and fall, Hook and the Light hit the road for a tour that finds them playing the New Order album Get Ready in its entirety. Hook first revisited the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures back in May 2010 for a commemorative charity concert and has followed it each year by performing subsequent albums from Joy Division and New Order. In this interview, Hook speaks via Zoom from his home in Alderley Edge, just outside of Manchester, England, where he was desperate to do some gardening and “get a bit of color.”

The Rock Hall induction has been a long time coming. What was it like to have to wait so long?

As they say, life gets in the way. I must admit that my friend David Sultan, a commercial airline pilot, has had Joy Division and New Order memorabilia on display at the Rock Hall, and I have done a talk there. I’m aware of it and what it stands for. For something like Joy Division, it’s in the Rock Hall anyway. As is New Order. It’s a bit varied. We seem to be going all out to destroy every single myth about New Order and made it very ego-driven. It wasn’t that I didn’t care [about getting inducted]. There’s not much we can do about it apart from promote it when you do get nominated. We were up three times. The first time, me and the others promoted it. The second time, I promoted it, and they promoted it a little. The third time, they didn’t promote it at all. The fans did it anyway. There you go. It’s quite interesting. They thought we deserved it.

How important are the fans?

Let’s face it, without them, you wouldn’t be writing about it, and I’d be out of a bloody job. They are without a shadow of a doubt the most important people in the music world. It’s the people who listen to the music. In this day and age, what we do in diverting people’s attention for a few hours is more important than ever. Some of these gigs are getting bigger and bigger. The only thing popping the balloon is the competition. There are so many festivals. In England, we have had an up-and-down thing. The cost of living is so high. Even organizers suffer from it. Since Covid, [many festivals] have disappeared. We used to do 12 foreign festivals a year. Since Covid, we are lucky to get one or two gigs abroad. And leaving the European union was a terrible decision for England. At a time when we should be pulling together, we separated. There are problems, but I’m delighted to say that we have been able to tour America every year. Those shows have gotten bigger and bigger, which means I have to do more and more bloody interviews. I’m a victim of my own success! 

It is unique that both Joy Division and New Order will be inducted. Have you figured out if you will perform?

The whole thing of that is completely up in the air. Obviously, I would prefer to take the Light with me and do what we do. At the moment, I have nothing to report. If I do go, I might be looking like Hannibal Lecter with the straightjacket and the mouthpiece. They’ll be wheeling me out like that, so I can keep control.

Did you have the sense that when Joy Division formed and recorded for Factory Records that something groundbreaking was happening?

No. The only person that felt that and expressed that was [Joy Division singer] Ian Curtis. If we ever got down because we didn’t get gigs or were having trouble getting signed, he would always say, “Don’t worry. One day, we will be known all around the world.” That was his speech to keep us going. He really was a fantastic cheerleader. Sadly, you couldn’t do [cheerleading] for him. He hid his disability so well that the only time you would spot it is when we had a [epileptic] fit. When he came around, he was back to being Ian. He would tell you he was fine. We were 22. We didn’t know our ass from our elbow. I’ve lost a few friends to suicide. Luckily for me, so far, it’s been something I can’t comprehend. You hope some people have found some peace and maybe can rest. It’s the only thing you can hope for.

Which members attended that Sex Pistols show in Manchester in 1976?

Me, Barney [Sumner] and Ian [Curtis] were at that show. Me and Barney were best friends. Ian was there with his best friend, who is now a big friend of mine. I’ve been to see a lot of groups: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Emerson Lake and Palmer. I never watched one that made me feel like I could do it. When we sent to the Sex Pistols show, I had been reading about them in the music press. I was so bored at work, I would read the papers from corner to corner. I would read about Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. The Sex Pistols had a fight at every gig. That was more like real life than Led Zeppelin. That was like our life. I spotted the advert for the show, which cost 50 pence. I told Barney we should go to that show. We went down, and I actually handed my 50 pence to [Sex Pistols manager] Malcolm [McLaren]. That is mind-blowing to think about even now. They were fucking awful. The sound was shit. It was wailing feedback and all distortion. The warm up was cale Solstice. They played the whole of “Nantucket Sleigh Ride” from start to finish. We were lulled into a false sense of security. What the Pistols did to you was unbelievable. It was on a primitive and basic level. It was something you could. [Singer] Johhny [Rotten] was telling everyone to fuck off. I thought, “I could do that.” It was interesting. It was on a base level. We blamed everybody for our confusion and not knowing what to do with the world and with hormones. It was unrequited love and unrequited everything. You just want to scream, “Fuck off.” Punk gave you that opportunity to scream and rebel. Someone accused me of being a punk the other day. I was going out the fire door. I said, “Fuck it. I’m still going through it.” That was what Johnny Rotten did for me. To see Malcom dressed head-to-toe in leather with shocking red hair. We were dressed like hippies. It was the fashion then. To turn around and years later for Malcolm to do a cover of “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” it’s full circle. It’s why I wrote the books [about Joy Division and New Order]. I wanted to show that anyone can do what we did. You just have to get off your ass and do it. I do realize that there is luck involved and chemistry with regard to groups.

Half the battle is just showing up.

It is. I DJ a lot. People who want to DJ always say, “How do I learn?” The first thing is fucking stand up in front of a hostile audience. If you can pull that off and you don’t shit yourself, you are on your way. You do have to have stamina. Ian [Curtis] was great about that. If he saw our stamina was flat, he stepped in. He believed in everyone. The chemistry in Joy Division was incredible. I never had I didn’t have it in New Order. The only thing that was difficult in Joy Division was Ian’s illness.

For this tour, you’re playing the New Order album Get Ready in its entirety. Talk about what it’s been like to revisit that album.

When I started out, I needed a gimmick. I couldn’t. pretend to be the band. It was only when I read an interview with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, that I came up with the idea. He said there were a lot of tracks on Screamadelica he never played. I thought, “Oh, most people never heard Joy Division unless they heard them on record.” On record, they were completely different. I couldn’t never sound that young and punky again. It was about using the albums as a way of playing the records for people. Get Ready is the next on the list. It was the comeback album when Barney [Sumner] and I rediscovered our friendship. He had done Electronic. I had done Revenge and Monaco. It was his idea. He approached us. He felt like we had unfinished business.

What was it like to reunite?

It was like going back to an old girlfriend. We did it, and it enabled us to play together on Get Ready like when we formed the band. For six months, it was just me and him. It was a special time. It was a moment for us to actually discover what we loved about each other’s playing. I loved the way he played guitar, and he loved the way I loved bass. On [New Order albums] Republic and Technique, we were fighting all the time. This was really refreshing and nice. Barney was full of hope for the future. I had not seen that in a long time. He wouldn’t play a different song or different set.  I couldn’t believe that he didn’t enjoy it. During the sessions, he kept saying, “This shit is great. I can’t wait to play it live.” We got Billy Corgan, who made it rockier. When we finished, and it came time to do that tour, he didn’t want to play. It’s like being mugged in an alley. I thought it would go back to what it was before, and lo and behold, it was back to how it was before. The next album, [2005’s] Waiting for the Sirens’ Call was a trial, and [2013’s] Lost Sirens was a waste of time. We just couldn’t stand each other.

What do you like about playing with your current band, the Light?

It’s great. I’ve actually been with [guitarist David] Potsy [Potts] now longer than I’ve been with Barney. It’s 36 years with Potsy, and I was only with Barney for 34 years. It’s quite interesting. They show amazing respect for the music. They really do. They each have their own lives outside of it. It is a vehicle for me to play Joy Division and New Order songs and give the New Order and Joy Division fans what they want, and it is an absolute pleasure compared to the pain and the awful feelings I used to have when I toured with New Order. They’ve made it out like it was me. They act like, “We’re happy as New Order now that he’s gone.” I know how Caesar felt, let’s put it that way. It is a breath of fresh air. I was very disheartened when [Sumner] took the trademark and then could masquerade as New Order. It’s just Barney on his own now, and that seems unfathomable to me. We ended up in a court case, and as part of the court case they were suing me for passing myself off as New Order. In my opinion, they’ve been doing it for years. The fans have stuck with them, and they should thank their lucky stars for that. But it’s going to come around and bite you in the ass when your fans vote you in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and you can’t even go and you can can’t even have the grace to go and be inducted.

Well, sometimes you should not meet your idols.

The interesting thing about music, which I’m sure you’ve noticed, is that it bypasses the emotions and intelligence of the musicians involved. It’s another world. You can be a bastard and make great music. With music, you have to use it for the purpose it is is intended and open your mind and not go too deep into the personalities involved. Otherwise, we’d never listen to Gary Glitter, would we?

AUGUST 2026

Sun 23 CLEVELAND, OH The Agora

Thu 27 TORONTO, ON History

Fri 28 CHICAGO, IL Metro

Sat 29 CHICAGO, IL Metro

Mon 31 ROYAL OAK, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre

SEPTEMBER 2026

Tue 01 MINNEAPOLIS, MN First Avenue

Fri 04 BOSTON, MA Citizens House of Blues

Sat 05 BROOKLYN, NY Brooklyn Paramount

Mon 07 PHILADELPHIA, PA Union Transfer

Tue 08 WASHINGTON, DC 9:30 Club

Thu 10 HOUSTON, TX White Oak Music Hall

Fri 11 DALLAS, TX House of Blues

Mon 14 DENVER, CO Ogden Theatre

Tue 15 PHOENIX, AZ The Van Buren

Fri 18 DEL MAR, CA The Sound

Sat 19 LOS ANGELES, CA Hollywood Palladium

Mon 21 SAN FRANCISCO, CA The Warfield

Tue 22 SARATOGA, CA The Mountain Winery

Fri 25 SEATTLE, WA The Showbox

Sat 26 PORTLAND, OR McMenamins Crystal Ballroom

Sun 27 VANCOUVER, BC Commodore Ballroom