Former Joy Division bassist Peter Hook has played the influential band’s 1979 debut album ‘Unknown Pleasures‘ in full to mark the 30th anniversary of the untimely death of frontman Ian Curtis.
Hook, playing at his club FAC 251 with his band The Light, opened the show with early favourite ‘At a Later Date‘, which was followed by other Joy Division favourites such as ‘Digital‘ and ‘Glass‘ before the band began the ‘Unknown Pleasures‘ section of the set. The band were joined by Hook’s former Factory label-mates Rowetta from the Happy Mondays on ‘Insight‘ and ‘New Dawn Fades‘ and A Certain Ratio’s Simon Topping for ‘Transmission‘.
Speaking to the NME after the show, Hooky said he felt the show went “really well”, and went on to outline the build up to the emotional gig. “The preparation for the gig was very interesting as it was the first time I’d analysed the music since we wrote it,” he said. “The funny thing is I never realised how many words Ian used to sing, every song is like a wonderful essay without much repetition, which means I had to learn so much that it has made me put his role in the band into a whole new perspective. I noticed a lot of really neat little song-writing tricks that he uses a lot and its only when you analyse them that you notice them, as when I just listen to them, I know its really good, but you don’t know why.”
Ian Curtis
After suffering with severe epilepsy and depression, Ian Curtis committed suicide in the early hours of 18th May 1980, shortly before Joy Division were due to visit the US for their first State-side tour. There are many events being organised to mark the anniversary of Curtis’ death, one of which is a Joy Division-inspired symphony being curated by school children in Curtis’ hometown Macclesfield. Festival director Richard de Peyer told the BBC of his plans for the symphony, which will see the school children working with the Northern Chamber Orchestra: “Macclesfield has never had the opportunity to celebrate Ian Curtis’s work in a way which benefits the communities of the town and also attracts music fans from far and wide. This summer seemed like the right moment to do that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Peter Hook also gave the NME his thoughts on playing Joy Division’s classic debut at such a poignant time for the group, who re-emerged as New Order following Curtis’ suicide: “I went to see Ian’s grave this morning as it was such a beautiful day that I though I’d go and say hello to him and see how he was,” he said. “Its really odd after all these years, that when you go and do something like that, that you see all these tributes and its really nice. Now some people will say, like they did about this show, that you shouldn’t do it and then a lot of people thinking that you should do it. So it was nice that we had a club full of people tonight who think we should be doing it and the others can just fuck off.”
Setlist:
‘At A Later Date’
‘Warsaw’
‘No Love Lost’
‘Leaders Of Men’
‘Failures’
‘Digital’
‘Glass’
‘Disorder’
‘Day Of The Lords’
‘Candidate’
‘Insight’
‘New Dawn Fades’
‘She’s Lost Control’
‘Shadowplay’
‘Wilderness’
‘Interzone’
‘I Remember Nothing’
‘Transmission’
‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’