Peter Hook looks back at Joy Division, New Order and how not to be a DJ

Peter Hook, bold pioneer of the high, clambering, tune-filled bassline, is touring this autumn with Peter Hook & the Light. We talk to him in Prestatyn - about to deejay at mate’s birthday - about the first gigs he ever saw and played, heavy-handed club owners, tough crowds on dance floors, the world audience for his two old bands and few key moments of a long life onstage, which involves …

… why you should never read your reviews.

… how Ian Curtis was precisely the opposite of how people imagined him.

... why deejaying is “the loneliest job in the world” and three tunes to play when it all goes wrong - “and I don’t play Blue Monday for obvious reasons”.

… seeing the Nolans at Salford Rugby Club, aged 15.

… his bell bottoms, clogs and Heavy Metal phase.

… seeing Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols the same week – “the Pistols were so bad they were relatable. I thought I could do that!”

… Stiff Kittens’ first gig: “a third-rate punk band aping all the others”.

… how DJs need to be “belligerent” and why people find them hard to love – and the book he’s writing, ‘How Not To Be A DJ’.

… how Ian Curtis’s vision of an international Joy Division following has finally been realised – “and with three generations in the crowd”.

… radiogram-wrecking early adventures in bass guitar.

… and the reasons he wanted to leave New Order and the thrill of maintaining their legacy.

Peter Hook & The Light tickets here: https://peterhookandthelight.live/

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