| Peter Hook |
Peter
Hook playing with New Order in Manchester (Nov 2005).
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Peter Hook |
| Born |
February 13, 1956 (1956-02-13) (age 51)
 Salford, England |
| Instrument(s) |
Bass
guitar, Guitar,
Electronic drums, Keyboards, Vocals |
Associated
acts |
Joy
Division
New
Order
Monaco
Revenge |
Peter "Hooky" Hook (born February
13, 1956 in Salford, Lancashire)
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 Joy Division's Ian
Curtis, the band reformed as New
Order, and Hook has played the bass with them throughout
their career. He has also recorded two albums each with the bands Revenge
and Monaco (both as bassist,
keyboardist and lead vocalist).
|
Contents
- 1 Playing
style
- 2 Equipment
- 2.1 Basses
- 2.2 Amplification
and effects
- 3 Other
work
- 4 Trivia
- 5 External
links
|
Playing style
As bassist for Joy Division, Hook was described as "a bass
player who thought he was playing lead guitar"
(similar statements have been made about The Who's
John
Entwistle and Yes's Chris
Squire). He has developed a unique melodic style,
achieved by leaving the bass and treble up on his bass guitars, but not
the mid-range. This unusual approach was largely influenced, Hook
reports, by the inexpensive, second-hand, low-quality equipment he
played early in his career; with such shoddy gear he was only able to
hear his amplifier clearly when he played higher pitched notes.
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's playing position is also unusual. He tends to wear his
bass hanging down around knee-level, with an extra-long strap, and then
staggers around the stage while playing. Hook has admitted to adopting
the style after seeing all of his favourite players, such as Paul
Simonon from The Clash, wear their bass guitars low.
Hook's low-slung style was also adopted by Nicky
Wire of The Manic Street
Preachers and Simon Gallup from The
Cure, with whom Joy Division performed as
support band at the legendary Marquee Club in 1979.
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).
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 18/7/77 Warsaw demos.
- Hondo
Rickenbacker 4001 bass copy - Used on Joy Division's 1978-1980
recordings and used live with Joy Division 1978-1980. Possibly damaged
during a gig at The Factory, Manchester 28/9/79 but there are photos of Hook playing it on the
January 1980 European Tour.
- Yamaha
BB1200 - Basically a neck-through Precision 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 Gibson ES-335, main live bass. He
wanted a hollowbody with Yamaha electronics, so Chris Eccleshall took
the active electronics from a BB1200 and built a full-scale
neck-through bass with 24 frets.
Amplification and effects
Hook first plugs into an Alembic F2-B valve [tube] preamp, which
goes to an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory
chorus pedal, a Line 6 Echo Park delay pedal, then to a Crown DC-300A
valve power amp. At one point he had six Crowns, but they kept going
down all the time. He used to use a Roland SIP-301 preamp as well. He
uses two 15" Gauss 5460 speakers, which add distortion.
With Revenge and Monaco,
he updated his setup to an Ampeg SVT, turned all the way up to maximum
volume live.
[1]
Other work
In the late 1980s, Hook also worked as a producer for bands
such as Inspiral Carpets and The Stone
Roses. In 2003 he contributed his distinctive bass to a number of
tracks on Hybrid's album Morning
Sci-Fi, including the single "True to Form".
New Order have broken up more than once, and Hook has been
involved with other projects. 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. 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.
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).
Since 2002, Peter Hook has begun doing DJ sets. Inspired by
Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets, he
started with the Return To New York nights in
London, which he enjoyed so much that he is travelling the world to
perform as a DJ. He plays a lot of New Order, Joy Division and Monaco
songs in his sets, which have garnered scorn for consisting merely of
Hook putting on a pre-mixed CD and playing with the mixer's equalizer.
Trivia
- He is usually referred to by his nickname
(taken from his surname) by the rest of the band and fans.
- He is well known for writing messages on his
amps during tours.
- He was married briefly to actress and comedian
Caroline Aherne
- In the 2007 film, Control: The Ian Curtis
Film Hook will be played by actor Joe Anderson.
- In Michael Winterbottom's 2002
film "24 Hour Party People", the part
of Peter Hook was played by The Royle Family actor Ralf
Little. Happy Mondays frontman Shaun
Ryder stated it was an odd choice because "Hooky is about 40
stone, and Ralf's about 4 stone !!"
- He bought one of The Who's
John Entwistle's bass
guitars when Entwistle's son Christopher sold them.
- He selected 4 songs for the tribute album Community 2: A
NewOrderOnline Tribute in 2006.
External links
| New Order |
Bernard
Sumner | Stephen Morris | Phil Cunningham
Former members: Gillian
Gilbert | Peter Hook |
| Discography |
Albums:
Movement | Power, Corruption &
Lies | Low-Life
| Brotherhood |
Technique | Republic
| Get Ready | Waiting for the Sirens'
Call
|
Compilation
Albums: Substance
| (The Best of) New Order
|
(The Rest of) New Order
| International
| Retro
| Singles |
EPs: 1981-1982 New Order
| Peel Sessions
1982 | Peel Sessions
1981 |
The Peter Saville
Show Soundtrack |
| Singles: see New Order discography |
| Videography |
Substance| New Order Story |
New
Order - 316 (Reading Festival / New York) | New Order - 511
(Finsbury Park) |
New Order - Item
| New Order - A Collection |
|
| Related
articles |
Side projects:
Electronic | Revenge
| Monaco
| The
Other Two | Freebass
Topics: Joy
Division | Factory Records | The
Haçienda | 24 Hour Party People
People: Ian Curtis | Martin
Hannett | Peter Saville | Tony
Wilson | Rob
Gretton | Stephen Hague |
|
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