Newstalk’s resident music-head, Tom Dunne was delighted to welcome Joy Division and New Order legend Peter Hook to the studio.
Peter was here to tell Tom about his new book ‘Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division’, detailing his years with his first band.
Peter Hook Interview: Highlights
On the early days in Joy Division
“Joy Division lasted from start to end, two and half years, and we were professional for six months…if you can call professional getting £7 a week.
“Part of the problem for Ian, God rest his soul, was that he not only had to work late, he had to drive home from wherever we were, but then we’d all have to get up for work in the morning. Â Of course he was ill, so it really took a toll. Â Plus he was a new father, plus he was the only one that was married, you know…at least we were all waited on hand and foot by our mothers.
“The group became such an austere mythologized group, the whole aura surrounding Joy Division is so big, and dark and intense, and yet we were all living with our mothers.”
On the Sex Pistols gig that spawned a generation of bands
“Mark E. Smith, Pete Shelley, Mick Hucknall, Paul Morley, Kevin Cummings [all present at the show]…it certainly is the strangest happening.
“The thing is, it certainly for me wasn’t about the music; it was about the attitude. I was 20; I was still searching for what I wanted to do in the world, and enjoying myself quite a lot.
“When I became a musician the day after the Sex Pistols gig, it became a 24 hour obsession that has lasted 36 years”.
On punk…
“It was very aggressive, but it was also that thing about when Johnny Rotten used to sing ‘get off your arse’ it was about physically doing something instead of being part of something.
“I didn’t really understand it, it wasn’t about music, it was just the attitude and the arrogance, and the aggression that seemed to sum up and give me a way out of my confusion as a teenager.
