SALT LAKE CITY — To hear Joy Division's and New Order’s bass player and co-founding member Peter Hook tell it, if New Order had its way back in 1987, "Substance," their only U.S. platinum album, would never have been made.
“We didn’t want to do the album. We thought that Tony Wilson, who was the head of Factory Records, our record label, was being ridiculous. He had bought a new car that played CDs, and he simply wanted to play a CD of all our hits in his car. We said, ‘Well, mate, whatever you want to do,’” the dry witted Hook said with a laugh during a recent interview with the Deseret News.
"Substance," a double LP collection of all the band’s singles in their 12-inch versions, sold 2 million copies in the U.S. alone and made Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. On May 15, Peter Hook & the Light will perform both "Substance" albums from New Order and Joy Division, sequentially and in their entirety, at Salt Lake's Metro Music Hall. The 2½ hour show was such a successthat Hook said they were invited back to Salt Lake for an encore show after performing it at Urban Lounge in 2016.
“It’s interesting with this tour because it’s the first tour where we’ve ever been asked back," he said.
Hook, 62, was born in Salford, England. He, along with Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris formed Joy Division in 1976. After Curtis’ death in 1980, the surviving members continued under the name New Order. Throughout the 1980s, New Order was on top of the new wave/alternative music world. Hook’s melodic basslines drove many of the band’s songs, which managed to blend both guitar rock and the electronic sounds of the dance clubs of the era. New Order broke up in 1993, then got back together in 1998. That reunion lasted until their acrimonious second split in 2007.
And that’s when band relations really went south.
Hook told one publication that New Order was done. Sumner disputed that in another publication. Finally, New Order reunited again in 2011, but this time without Hook. And the two sides continued to quarrel.
New Order didn’t like the way Hook was using the Joy Division and New Order brand names with his new band. Hook felt the band was cheating him out of royalties and sued the band in 2015.
In September, New Order announced “a full and final settlement has been reached in the long-running disputes with their former bassist Peter Hook.”
Hook is the type of musician every reporter loves to interview: He’s well-spoken, easy going and funny, and he doesn’t need much coaxing to get a good answer out of him. He also isn’t afraid to speak his mind.
With his band, Peter Hook & the Light, Hook said it was important for him not to just do a greatest hits set each night, which is why he’s been touring sequentially each of Joy Division and New Order’s albums since 2010.
The reason for doing the albums, he said, was not to mimic his former group.
“I went to great lengths to make sure that I was not perceived as something I was not,” he said. “I didn’t think that was fair on anybody.
"I find that most of our fans that come to see us and then go to see New Order — so called — they have opinions about both. And some of them are good and some of them are bad. But I’m still here. I’m still playing. They’re still here. They’re still playing."
Hook said his band will move on to playing the albums "Technique" (1989) and "Republic" (1993) this fall.
On Tuesday, fans can expect to hear classics such as “Ceremony,” “Blue Monday” and “True Faith,” a song that was written for the "Substance" album and became one of New Order’s biggest mainstream hits.
But just as Hook didn’t initially like the idea for the "Substance" album, he wasn’t thrilled with “True Faith” either.
“I can’t say, from my point of view, we had a great time making that record,” he said. “It was that point that everyone goes through in every relationship where you just got a bit fed up with each other.
“We fell into a right way of working with ‘Truth Faith.’ I wouldn’t say by any means it’s one of my favorite songs. The bass, in particular, was put on very much as an afterthought, which I wasn’t happy about at the time,” said Hook who admitted he “sat there twiddling my thumbs with a very sour look on my face for most of that session.”
However, Hook concedes today that “'Substance' really did work.” New Order found themselves playing in arenas and stadiums to crowds of 25,000 to 30,000 each night up until their first breakup.
“It made us a huge group in America,” he said. “It certainly helped our career. … Our music was hard to come by until 'Substance.' … It made our music, especially in a huge market for us like America, readily available.”
Fans may wonder what will happen after Peter Hook & the Light complete touring on all of New Order’s albums, but Hook said not to worry — this isn’t a farewell performance.
“I don’t know, maybe I’ll have time hopefully before I join those great musicians in the sky, to maybe play it all again. Who knows?” he said. “I can’t afford to say goodbye. I still have to work for a living. One thing I’ve learned in life is when they used to say cocaine was God’s way of telling you you have too much money, I have since discovered that legal battles are definitely God’s way of telling you you have too much money and you should hand it over to various lawyers.”
If you go …
What: Peter Hook & the Light
Where: Metro Music Hall, 615 W. 100 South
When: Tuesday, May 15, 7 p.m.
How much: $27 for general admission
Web: www.ticketfly.com