| Peter Hook | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Peter Woodhead |
| Born | 13 February 1956 Broughton, Salford, England, United Kingdom |
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| Years active | 1976–present |
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| Notable instruments:
Eccleshall Custom Bass (hollow body bass with Yamaha electronics) |
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Peter Hook (born 13 February 1956) is an English singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is best known as the bassist and co-founder of English rock bands Joy Division and New Order.
Hook formed the band which was to become Joy Division with Bernard Sumner in 1976. Following the death of lead singer Ian Curtis in 1980, the band reformed as New Order, and Hook played bass with them until 2007.
Hook has recorded one album with Revenge (One True Passion), two albums with Monaco (Music for Pleasure and Monaco) and one album with Freebass (It’s a Beautiful Life), serving as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist. He is currently the lead singer and bassist for Peter Hook and the Light.
New Order have broken up more than once, and Hook has been involved with other projects. In 1995 he toured with the Durutti Column. He has recorded one album with the band Revenge and two with Monaco (both as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist) with David Potts, the latter of which scored a club and alternative radio hit “What Do You Want From Me?” in 1997. Hook and Potts reformed Monaco on two occasions in 2007, with original drummer Paul Kehoe and Hook’s son Jack completing the line up for two gigs at Manchester’s Hard Rock Cafe in March and at the Ritz Theatre in October. On 4 May 2007, Hook announced on Xfm that he and New Order singer/guitarist Bernard Sumner were no longer working together, effectively spelling the end for the band; the band later denied disbanding. He then played and recorded a studio album, It’s a Beautiful Life, with a new band project called Freebass with bass players Mani (The Stone Roses) and Andy Rourke (ex-the Smiths).
After New Order split in 2006, things got strange. New Order eventually reconvened, but without Hook… and without asking him to be involved.
The bassist has since gone to form Peter Hook and The Light, playing early Joy Division and, now, early New Order albums in their entirety to solid acclaim.
It’s been a controversial move, for many. But “Hooky” remains upbeat, albeit with old wounds still to heal. Peter Hook and The Light recently toured Joy Division’s two albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Next up are U.S and U.K. tours reviving New Order’s first brace of albums, Movement and Power, Corruption and Lies.
Hook has said that he developed his high bass lines when he started playing with Joy Division because the speaker that he used initially (bought from his former art teacher for £10) was so poor he had to play that high to be able to hear what he was doing, as Bernard Sumner’s guitar was so loud.
With New Order’s ever increasing use of sequenced synthesised bass, especially throughout most of 1989’s Technique and 1993’s Republic, Hook’s bass playing became ever more melodic and rhythmic, often exploiting the higher notes on his basses.
Hook also contributed backing vocals on numerous Joy Division songs in concert and sang co-lead with Ian Curtis on Joy Division’s “Interzone.” He sings lead on two New Order songs (“Dreams Never End” and “Doubts Even Here” from the 1981 debut album Movement).
Asked about his playing style, Hooky states;
“The two people I picked up on were Jean-Jacques Burnell [of The Stranglers] and Paul Simonon [The Clash]. The first bass I really invested in was a Gibson EB-0. I love the sound of Gibson basses, but I needed a double-octave scale for my style of playing. So I had to get a copy of an EB-2 made by [U.K. guitar maker] Chris Eccleshall.
That’s an interesting bespoke instrument. It’s the same, for the width and depth of the neck, as a Gibson guitar. But it’s a straight-through neck, which I don’t think Gibson ever did? Medium-scale basses seemed renowned for losing their tuning, and I couldn’t have that.
I spent a fortune on my first Gibson EB-0, too! Maybe one day, Gibson can build a long-scale through-neck EB semi-acoustic bass. I’d buy it.
It was Ian Curtis, of anybody, who picked up on the way I play. Hard. Aggressive. When we’d be rehearsing and writing in Joy Division, he’d always say, “Hooky, play it high, play it high!” I don’t whether that was because he considered Bernard’s guitar playing inadequate or whatever… But I still think the music in Joy Division was absolutely fantastic. Three instruments taking a separate role… but when they come together with Ian’s lyrics and vocal melodies on top of that, we couldn’t go wrong. The chemistry in Joy Division was exemplary, and that’s what I love about Movement.
Power, Corruption and Lies was different. “Leave Me Alone” is very like “acoustic” Joy Division, a couple of other tracks, too. But it’s mainly sequencer-led. We cut our teeth with sequencers on “Hurt,” “Everything’s Gone Green” and “Temptation.” But sequencers and drum-machines paired were heavily-featured. “Blue Monday” was recorded as the same time as Power Corruption and Lies, but we always viewed it as a separate piece of music so it wasn’t on the album.”
and on his sound..
“The hardest thing in the world for bass players is to make the bottom-end sound great, and the top-end sound great. I was lucky. Martin Hannet said to me early on: Hooky, what you need is a huge amp. And as Bernard rightly said, that will suit your huge ego very well.
Martin Hannett built a set-up for me, an Alembic valve/stereo preamp going into a stereo Amtron DC300A. Although it was solid-state, the Amtron gave a really warm bottom-end but also made the higher notes really bite. I’ve never used a compressor. Don’t need to. I hit the bass so hard, my playing is always at the same level. Really loud. I got that set-up just at the end of Joy Division.
And when I started playing 6-string bass, early in New Order, the Alembic and Amtron amps seemed really suited to that. I had two channel settings – one for 4-string, one for 6-string. It worked perfectly.
And I was inspired by Jean-Jacques Burnell to get a Hiwatt amp. It seemed like you could get some great ones and some bad ones. But I got a few good ones with wonderful valve distortion. I still use Hiwatts now”
Bass Stuff 