Peter "Hooky" Hook
(born 13 February 1956 in Salford, Greater Manchester) is an English bass player.
He was a co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division along with Bernard Sumner in the mid-1970s. Following the death of lead singer Ian Curtis, the band reformed as New Order, and Hook played bass with them throughout their career until his departure in 2007. He has also recorded an album with Revenge (One True Passion
) and two albums with Monaco (Music For Pleasure
and Monaco
) as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist.
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PETER HOOK TICKETS
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Playing style
With New Order's ever increasing use of
sequenced synthesized 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
baritone guitar range of his basses.
Hook has also contributed backing vocals on numerous Joy Division songs, sings co-lead with Ian Curtis on Joy Division's "Interzone" from the 1979 LP
Unknown Pleasures
, and sings lead on two New Order songs ("Dreams Never End" and "Doubts Even Here" from the 1981
LP Movement
).
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.
[1]
Equipment
Basses
- Gibson EB-0 copy - Hook's first bass, bought at Mazel's Music Shop in Manchester in 1976 and used live with Warsaw 1977 (there are at a 1977 gig at Rafters, Manchester) and on the 18 July 1977 Warsaw demos.
- Hondo Rickenbacker 4001 bass copy - Used on Joy Division's 1978-1980 recordings and used live with Joy Division 1978-1980.In an interview in Bass Guitar Magazine, he revealed that was given away to a child for a charity sale "He [the child] didn't even use my name! He just thought it was a bass guitar like any other. Nowadays that'd be worth what, nine or ten grand?"
- Yamaha BB1200 - Basically a neck-through, active version of a Fender Precision Bass with the pickup installed in a reverse configuration to a Fender P bass. Used on Joy Division's Closer LP and every New Order album.
- Shergold Marathon six-string bass - Has a 30" scale putting it between normal bass (34") and guitar (around 25").
- Eccleshall bass - Based on a Guild Starfire Bass, main live bass. He wanted a hollow body with Yamaha electronics, so Chris Eccleshall took the active electronics from a BB1200 and built a full-scale neck-through bass with 24 frets. Subsequent versions of the bass have been produced using custom circuitry designed by a Japanese student visiting Chris Eccleshall, a custom circuit was needed as Yamaha stopped producing the BB1200 preamp. He is currently awaiting a fourth incarnation of the Eccleshall bass. All are designed to be as nearly identical as possible.
Amplification and effects
The main equipment he used used during the early days of New Order was an
Alembic F-2B preamp/ Roland rack unit/Crown-Amcron DC-300A power amp fed through two large custom built 2 x 15 Gauss loaded flightcase cabinets. In the earlier days of Joy Division, he used a
Hiwatt Custom 100 Watt head on top of a 4x15 Gauss loaded
Marshall cabinet. He has also used an
Ampeg SVT rig, and has expressed interest in
Ashdown amplification.
For the most part, his distinctive tone comes from the use of a
chorus pedal, an
Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory. This has recently been reissued by Electro-Harmonix, and whilst having the same circuitry as the original has a somewhat different tone than the original 1970s ones (described by many reviewers/players as "less exiting").
With
Revenge and
Monaco, he updated an
Ampeg SVT, which is used at maximum volume when playing live.
In the May/June 2008 issue of
Bass Guitar Magazine he was reported to use:
Two
HiWatt Custom 200 amp heads
Two
Warwick NeoPro 115 cabs with 15 inch Gauss speakers
Other work
In 1984, Hook recorded the single "Telstar" with the band
Ad Infinitum, which was composed of him and members of the
Stockholm Monsters.
In the late 1980s, Hook also worked as a producer for bands such as
Inspiral Carpets and
The Stone Roses. In 2003 he contributed bass to a number of tracks on
Hybrid's album
Morning Sci-Fi
, including the single "True to Form". Hook also co-owned the Suite Sixteen recording studio. A number of Factory bands recorded demos there, including New Order and the Chameleons while with Geffon Records.
New Order have broken up more than once, and Hook has been involved with other projects. In 1995 he toured with
The Durutti Column [2].
He has recorded two albums each with the bands
Revenge and
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.
[3] He is currently working on a new band project called
Freebass with bass players
Mani (ex-The
Stone Roses) and
Andy Rourke (ex-
The Smiths).
He also contributed to
Perry Farrell's Satellite Party. His bass can be heard on "Wish Upon a Dogstar" and "Kinky". Inspired by Clint Boon of
Inspiral Carpets, he started with the
Return To New York
nights in
London. He contributed a distinctive bassline to
Hybrid's 2003 single "True to Form", as well as another track from their
Morning Sci-Fi
album, "Higher Than a Skyscraper", playing on stage with them on a number of dates of their ensuing tour.
Hook has also posed numerous times as a live DJ, but was discovered to be playing pre-mixed CD's and only miming the actions of a DJ. He admitted he was only pretending to be a DJ on his Myspace blog, but then removed it due to public backlash.
[4]
In November 2008 Hook performed a selection of Joy Division and New Order songs in Paris, Brussels, Oss and Krefeld with
Section 25.
Hook is featured on "Dirty Thirty" and "Blunts & Robots", two tracks off of
The Crystal Method's 2009 album
Divided by Night.
Personal
Hook was married to comedian
Caroline Aherne [5]. The couple divorced in 1997
[6].
Fictional portrayals
- In Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People
, Hook was played by Ralf Little.
- In Anton Corbijn's 2007 film Control
, Hook is played by Joe Anderson.
References
- Barrett, Christopher "Joy Division", ''Music Week'', 25 August 2007
- Durutti Column concert
- New Order did not split
- {{cide web | author=inthemix.com.au | title=Peter Hook's fake DJing exposed | url=http://www.inthemix.com.au/news/intl/35591/Peter_Hook%E2%80%99s_fake_DJing_exposed | date=2007-12-18}}
- Simpson, Dave. "You will become bitter enemies" The Guardian (UK). Retrieved on 16 September 2007.
- Independent profile of Caroline Aherne