After hearing news of New Order reforming for a string of dates later this year without him, Peter Hook was understandably furious. And in an interview with Spinner it seems the former bassist is still reeling from the news announcing he isn’t going anywhere and intends to f*ck over his former bandmates.
The intentional snub comes off the back of months and years of infighting within the band. In November of last year it was revealed that Peter Hook intended on re-recording some of New Order predecessor Joy Division’s songs to release on a new album.
Around the same time Hook was making a bundle of cash touring the world with his new band, The Light, playing Joy Division covers as close to the original as anyone could get. This blatant cash grab however irked his fellow former bandmates, and in an interview with us earlier this year frontman Bernard Sumner said “flogging of Unknown Pleasures is probably at a point of no return“, the best indication yet that Hook would not be invited.
Sure enough a few months later New Order reformed, without Hook, who said at the time to Rolling Stone “Them reforming as New Order, It’s not New Order. It’s some members of New Order going out as New Order. It’s like me saying I’m going out as Joy Division.”
Now in a recent interview Hook has come out swinging saying “It’s the same thing with New Order deciding to tour without me — [it] makes me all the more determined to f— New Order over in any possible way I can. If they think I’m just going to scuttle off to a cabin in the woods, they’ve got another thing coming. They’re dickheads. People go and hide, but I don’t. I’m a fighter. I’m going to come out fighting.”
When asked why such a rift had developed he answered candidly “What happened was that I didn’t enjoy working with Bernard anymore. I felt that our ambitions for the group and for the music were too far apart to ever come together again.”
He also revealed that he is locked in a trademark dispute with his former bandmates who he alleges stole the New Order trademark from him in what he calls a “cunning limited company hostile takeover”.
But could there be hope yet that Hook might eventually get back with Sumner and the rest of the New Order crew? “100 percent yeah. I’d get a picnic and go around their house as well, so we could spend the day together.”
