This informative article spills the beans: Peter Hook is to play the album Closer in its entirety on 18 May 2011 in Manchester (the date no doubt a complete coincidence) ....and then tour with it.
Hmm...listening to Hooky doing Unknown Pleasures is one thing (all that ace power bass from Day of the Lords etc. has his stamp all over it), but the likes of The Eternal and Decades? Hopefully he will not totally crucify the songs...or maybe a crucified Decades is better than none at all?
Tickets available here.
Interesting; and one could see this coming. Based on how much better the Unknown Pleasures show became on the tour, I'm looking forward to hearing how Closer might sound. Cynics, give Hooky a break and be thankful that he, seemingly alone among his erstwhile bandmates, still believes that JD's music works in a live setting.
ReplyDeleteWish I were in Manchester this month...
At first when I heard Hooky was doing an Unknown Pleasures tour, my first thought was "GOD NO!!!".
ReplyDeleteBut after seeing a few of his gigs on You Tube, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.
One thing that annoyed me about New Order over the last 10 or so years, was the fact that they played more and more Joy Division songs.
It wasn't that they played the songs that annoyed me, it was Barney's singing of them.
If they had left them as instrumentals, it would have been much better.
Don't get me wrong, I love Barney singing New Order songs - just not Joy Division songs.
It just didn't seem right with the whooping etc.
But having heard Peter Hook singing Joy Division songs, I'm quite impressed with him.
Sure, he's no Ian Curtis, but the songs I've heard haven't been butchered like Barney has been known to do (in my opinion).
I've listened to Revenge and Monaco, and while his voice was tolerable, it wasn't great (although I think Junk was brilliant and better than most New Order stuff since).
He's come a long way since Dreams Never End.
Now if only New Order/Joy Division would reform as a three piece and leave Barney off the vocals, I'd be one happy boy.
i shouldn't really have an opinion. Hooky part wrote the music so he can play it whenever he wants, but great music is about context not just playing the notes. England, the mire of the late seventies , the emotional world of four young men, especially the lyricist . these songs were written and performed in this context. The truth is Joy Division and the conditions existed for a very short period. Very few people saw them play . During the band's lifetime they were often derided for being doomy and pretentious, but their performances were ecstatic and changed peoples' lives. i know people now want a piece of the tragic story and i know it is Hooky's story. Good luck to him to make some cash or try to relive those electric moments, but they are a long time gone. He seems to have become the rock dinosaur his band obliterated with truth some 30 years ago and it's all become a bit of a theme park. All the same thank you Hooky for the electric ballroom, for mallet street and for canterbury when i first saw you with the Cure. You are a legend, but only with the other three. long time passing.
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