Peter Hook is on a promo tour for his newly released memoir Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division. Though the book is about Joy Division, the topic of New Order has been discussed a lot during the interviews - Hooky left New Order in 2006 and is embroiled in a legal battle with the remaining members of the band over the New Order name. Two different interview with Hook are discussed below.
In British GQ's interview, Hook talked about Joy Division, his bass playing style, playing New Order albums in full next year, and revealed he's already started work on a New Order memoir. He did manage to say a few nice things about Bernard Sumner:
"He is a really hard worker, a total perfectionist, which can be infuriating, but ultimately he'll work very hard...So I've got nothing but admiration for what he does, but I might not agree with the way he does it, or his ambitions for it, but I'm very, very in awe of his work ethic."
Hooky admitted his departure from New Order wasn't handled in the best possible way:
"From my mind, looking on, I think Bernard was really, really hurt that I decided to stop working with him. I handled it badly..."
The legal bills Hook has incurred fighting with New Order are astronomical:
"It's pathetic. I wish we could have a boxing match or toss a coin and just get it over with...But we've chosen this way instead. As Pete Saville said to me last night, "I wish there was a grown-up." But there isn't."
Read the full GQ interview with Peter Hook here, plus read GQ's feature on Bernard Sumner titled Icon: Bernard Sumner here.
During Peter Hook's video interview with News Talk TV he told more Joy Division stories: Joy Division living with their parents while in the midst of the band's career, Ian Curtis' death and regrouping only days after to form New Order, and singing Curtis' lyrics now that he's playing Joy Division records on tour. Of course, the topic of New Order and the lawsuit (aka "the war with the others") came up at the very end of the interview, and this was Hook's response:
"I'm afraid we're both firmly trenched in. They're lobbing grenades, legal very expensive legal grenades at each other and unfortunate oh man, it breaks my heart every day, it really does, and I do wish to be able to get on with our lives happily would be fantastic, but not at the moment I'm afraid."
Watch the full interview below: