Peter Hook

Peter Hook
Peter Hook playing with Joy Division in Preston, England.
Background information
Birth name	Peter Hook
Born	13 February 1956 (1956-02-13) (age 53) Salford,Greater Manchester, England
Instruments	Bass guitar, Guitar, Electronic drums, Keyboards, Vocals
Associated acts	Joy Division New Order Ad Infinitum Monaco Revenge Freebass

Peter "Hooky" Hook (born 13 February 1956) 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.

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 photos of him playing it at a 1977 gig at Rafters, Manchester) and on the 18 July 1977 Warsaw demos.^{[citation needed]}
• Hondo Rickenbacker 4001 bass copy - Used on Joy Division's 1978-1980 recordings and used live with Joy Division 1978-1980.^{[citation needed]}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.^{[citation needed]} Used on Joy Division's Closer LP and every New Order album.^{[citation needed]}
• Shergold Marathon six-string bass - Has a 30" scale putting it between normal bass (34") and guitar (around 25").^{[citation needed]}
• Eccleshall bass - Based on a Guild Starfire Bass, main live bass.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[2][3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.

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.

Peter Hook has also recently compiled & mixed "The Hacienda Acid House Classics" following on from his original mix of "The Hacienda Classics" in 2006.

In October 2009, Hook had his book on his time as co-owner of the Hacienda, 'How Not To Run A Club', published.

Personal life

Hook was born in Salford, Greater Manchester. He was married to comedian Caroline Aherne.^[6] The couple divorced in 1997.^[7]

Hook is a fan of Manchester United football club.

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

External links

• Peter Hook's Myspace
• Peter Hook RBMA video lecture session Pt.1
• Peter Hook RBMA video lecture session Pt.2
• Peter Hook biography
• New Order & Joy division site
• New Order & Joy division site
• Joy Division's most detailed discography
• Short bio at JoyDiv.org
• BBC interview with Peter Hook
• Peter Hook talks about saving a child's life