Peter Hook has admitted he feels “sad” that there is no secret archive of lost Joy Division tracks.
The 69-year-old bassist co-founded the iconic band in the 1970s, but Joy Division ended in 1980 after the death of frontman Ian Curtis. The surviving members went on to create New Order. Hook has now revealed that there is little unreleased material left because the band had so few resources at the time. They only had a single cassette, which they reused by recording over it each time they wrote something new.
Speaking to NME, he explained: “Well, because of Joy Division being so young, there really isn’t much there. We had no money, so we didn’t have any of the luxuries like being able to buy cassettes and stuff. We had one cassette and we used to record over it. Anything we’ve got left is from the end of Joy Division’s life. It’s sad, isn’t it? It’s shocking to think that, but that’s the truth. With New Order, there’s a lot knocking about. Even on these box sets, there’s a lot of stuff that I don’t remember. Some of it’s good, some of it’s bad, and you can see why it was done. For the fans, it’s a great chronicle – and for me, actually.”
He continued: “[Joy Division] literally only existed for less than two years. It’s amazing what we achieved and what Ian has created for generation after generation of kids who were just like us: mixed up, confused, didn’t know what the world and the future held. They rely on that music to get them through, exactly the way that I did with The Doors. It’s wonderful to be a part of that.”
Hook later became a member of New Order alongside Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, but he left in 2007 following tensions within the group. He then formed Peter Hook and The Light in 2010, continuing to perform material from both New Order and Joy Division.
New Order still tour with Tom Chapman on bass since 2010, but Hook recently argued that the band no longer sounds the way it once did.
He told The i Paper: “I don’t think they’re New Order. They don’t sound anything like them. I’ve watched them play songs [online] recently, and they’ve dropped the basslines and play it like some weird, bad cover version of a New Order track. So the animosity is obviously still there now.”
When asked if he believes the changes are intended as a slight against him, Hook replied: “Well, do you think it makes the song better?”
Reflecting on the feedback he receives from fans, he added: “They’re like, ‘You can’t hear the bass!’ Obviously, there is a certain smugness one could adopt. But I’m, obviously, way above all that.”
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