PETER HOOK TALKS TO RUSSELL PORTER

For the second time in recent memory, Peter Hook finds his early days in Joy Division the focus of a celluloid re-enactment, with long time collaborator, photographer and friend Anton Corbijn in charge of directorial duties. Control is already being hailed as the “coolest British film of 2007” and substantiated these claims when it scooped the prize for Best British Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

“Twenty Four Hour Party People was mainly about entertaining people, but Anton has made a much more realistic and personal film”, opines Hooky, when asked where Control differs from Michael Winterbottom’s 2005 jocular tribute to Tony Wilson and the world he created. Corbijn is able to give an authentic version of events, as he started taking photographs of Joy Division in 1979.

“He was a photographer who became a friend, a very interesting person who was interested in other peoples moods” an attitude that was clearly a prerequisite for anyone wanting to document Joy Division, Curtis’s moods being the catalyst behind Joy Division’s brooding, destructive music. Sadly, just as this side of his character was the driving force behind the music now loved by millions, it was also played a huge part in his downfall. Curtis committed suicide at the young age of 24, leaving a young family fatherless and Joy Division without a front man on the eve of their first American Tour. Corbijn had been invited to take photographs of the band only months before, behind the scenes of a video shoot for what many people now regard as one of the greatest songs ever written: Love Will Tear Us Apart, or Fac 23 to give it its correct serial code. How did the band find the Dutch snapper during the shoot?

“He could be very obtuse, but that was something we were all used to- working with Martin Hannett as we did.”

Hannett was the legendarily difficult producer responsible for both of Joy Divisionrsquo;s &classic albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer. Years later, with New Order, Hook also worked with another maverick producer, New York’s Arthur Baker, who helped the band cross over into the world of dance music. What did wisdom did these epoch making knob twiddlers impart to him, both in and outside the studio? He is aloof and venerate in equal measure

“We owe them so much, they did such a great deal for us. And they were both complete revolutionaries, but in completely different ways.”

Both with Joy Division and New Order, bass is one of the predominant instruments- Hook is one of the few legendary bass players who can lay claim to having his own sound (John Entwhistle being another). Strikingly melodic and equally sonorous, Hook’s signature sound is primarily achieved by turning up the treble on the EQ, but leaving the mid range turned down. Pedals, effects and amps also contribute.

“ I always use Electro Harmonix gear and valve gear, and JBL speakers. That’s my secret right there.”

This signature sound has always been influential, but recently a swarm of bands on both sides of the Atlantic have referenced Hook as an influence. Are there times when a song comes on the radio and he thinks to himself “hang on, isn’t that one of my bass lines?”

“It happens all the bloody time, there are loads of them.”

Is that something you’re proud of, or does it display a lack of imagination? Case in point being bands like Interpol, The Killers or Editors; do you see them as acolytes or plagiarists?

These days Hook spends less and less time with New Order, favouring instead the life of a DJ. As one of the founders of the Hacienda he was privy to the burgeoning house scene throughout the nineties. Which DJs does he remember tearing up the Mancunian dance floors of days gone by? “Those that are now thought of as legends: Sasha, Graeme Park… all of ‘em”