Photo: Press/Mark McNulty
"At the ripe old age of 58," smiles New Order and Joy Division legend Peter Hook, "I do whatever the fuck I want! No one tells me to do anything."
Indeed, as famed for his 'no bullshit' attitude as he is for his iconic basslines, the one and only Hooky finds himself in control of his own destiny, and indeed - his legacy too. After he famously left New Order in 2007 on fairly acrimonious terms, Hook has since taken to forming The Light and touring his back catalogue, playing classic albums by Joy Division and New Order in their entirety.
"I started with the Joy Division, now I'm just going through every song I've ever recorded and written," says Hooky, backstage at the BBC 6 Music in his hometown of Manchester. "In September we're doing Lowlife and Brotherhood, after that I'll probably do a bit of Monaco and Technique, then it will be Republic, Get Ready, I'll finish on Waiting For The Sirens Call and then I'll retire...or die."
Death seems a little premature, as it looks like Hooky is just getting started - seeing through the red mist and shrugging off the 'lazy' touring pantomime he feared his former band had become. Now, he's finds himself where he did way back with Ian Curtis in the late 70s: starting from the bottom.
"We did start in smaller venues you know, we didn't grow into big ones overnight," he laughs. "It's a weird one, because the first gig we did with Joy Division, there was nobody there - just one guy sweeping the floor. Then when you look at doing something Glastonbury where it's 125,000 people, what you have to say to yourself is that as long as it's somewhere in the middle, it doesn't matter."
He continues: "I do think this is what spurred Bernard into getting New Order back - is that he toured with Bad Lieutenant and couldn't stand the shitholes. I will bet you a pound to a thousand that that's what it was. He must have been sat there, thinking 'I can't be doing with this - I'm stealing New Order off that bastard!'"
But it this stage of his life, it seems that Hooky wouldn't have it any other way - striking out on his own, exploring the depth of his work and challenging himself.
"What I do is more difficult anyway because I don't play a greatest hits set," he admits. "I'm playing the LPs in their entirety and LPs, by virtue of being long playing, it's an odd collection of music to play for a band to play to an audience, but I like that. You're not playing a greatest hits, you're not getting your rocks off. When you lay an album like Closer, which is a really powerful record with a lot of atmosphere, it's a weird performance - it's more like art.
"I suppose that one of the things about being a musician, is about making art and the awareness of what you do. To go out and play a greatest hits set is really boring, really fucking boring."
Shithole, festival, stadium, wherever - all that matters to Hooky is playing to the people that want to hear him, and that he can do it on his own terms.
"It's all about working and enjoying what you're doing, and I feel like at this point in my life, I really enjoy what I'm doing," he smiles. "It's really nice to be able to it without having to compromise with another musician. Now twatto has gone back to New Order and their greatest hits, so he must be having to compromise. And clearly, as you get older, men get worse at compromising -that's what happened with Freebass. Freebass couldn't work because we were too old to start a new group."
However it isn't all roses these days, and Hooky does miss that inimitable and irreplaceable tension that helped Joy Division and New Order write what were, quite frankly, some of the best music of all time. It's a void that Hooky (and his former bandmates) has been unable to fill.
"You get so used to doing things that it just doesn't work, but the thing you miss is the chemistry and the songwriting," he admits. "With bands and music, you can get any twat to play it, but not everybody can write it. Joy Division wrote fantastic music due to the chemistry between four people. New Order wrote fantastic music because of the chemistry between me, Bernard and Steve."
But chemistry aside, the modern music industry is not only one where audiences shy away from listening to albums in their entirety, but where many will refuse to even pay for music at all. This is what makes Peter Hook's current touring incarnation of his legacy seems all the more fitting: real music, played in full and appreciated for its full worth and value.
"I must admit, I've fallen victim to the old musician trick," laughs Hook. "Fucking hell, I used to get paid thousands for doing it and now I'm expected to do it for nothing. I can't my head around that, especially when you're supposed to be making a living. To lock yourself away and bare your soul on a record and not get paid for it is ridiculous. If you're a plasterer and you don't get paid for a job you'd be like 'you fucking what?'
"If you're a musician you're expected to do it for free. Fuck off. It's really weird and I can't get my head around it."
So if you fancy something a little more out of the ordinary, then Peter Hook And The Light's upcoming UK tour dates are as follows:
March 2014
Friday 21st The Nines, Barrow The Light - Unknown Pleasures / Closer
Saturday 22nd Fruit, Hull The Light - Unknown Pleasures / Closer
Sunday 23rd The Globe, Cardiff The Light - Unknown Pleasures / Closer
May 2014
Friday 23rd Bearded Theory Festival , Derbyshire The Light - Joy Division / New Order Set Saturday 24th Vegfest , Bristol The Light - JD / NO Highlights Set
July 2014 Thursday 3rd Rescue Rooms, Nottingham The Light - Movement / Power, Corruption and Lies
Friday 4th The Picturedrome, Holmfirth The Light - Movement/Power, Corruption and Lies
Saturday 5th Fibbers, York The Light - Movement / Power, Corruption & Lies
Thursday 31st Camp Bestival, East Dorset The Light - Set TBA
August 2014
Sunday 17th Alt Fest, Kettering The Light - Unknown Pleasures
September 2014
Thursday 25th The Ritz, Manchester The Light - Low Life & Brotherhood
Saturday 27th Shepherd's Bush Empire, London The Light - Low Life & Brotherhood
Peter Hook and The Light will then play Low-Life and Brotherhood in the US at the following dates:
11/04 – Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
11/06 – Philadelphia, @ Trocadero
11/07 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
11/08 – Boston, MA @ Royale
11/10 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Tellus
11/11 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
11/13 – Ferndale, MI @ The Magic Bag
11/14 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
11/15 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe
11/17 – Vancouver, BC @ Venue
11/18 – Seattle, WA @ Nuemos
11/20 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
11/21 – San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine
11/22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
