by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“He’s disappeared, the poor bugger,” says Peter Hook, Hooky to his friends. He’s referring to Richard, a novice singer in a band of famous bassists called Freebass, featuring Hook, Mani Mounfield of the Stone Roses and Andy Rourke of the Smiths. After over a year of stalling for New Order tours and DJ tours (all three bassists have been spinning lately, something of a phenomenon in their hometown of Manchester), Freebass is ready to record—and their singer is MIA.

“With a bit of luck, I’ll have to put out an appeal in Wigan,” Hook jokes. “I think Bernard [Sumner] may have kidnapped him and chopped him up into little pieces.”

More likely, what with New Order’s busy schedule since the release of their 2005 album, Waiting for the Sirens’ Call, Sumner is enjoying some time off. In fact, New Order have made no plans for the future, and both Hook and drummer Stephen Morris told journalists, following their most recent show in Buenos Aires in November, that it had been their last.

“Bernard never relishes the idea of touring,” Hook explains, “he never seems to relish the playing itself, and he certainly doesn’t relish the travelling, so really, maybe it’s just time to let him stay at home.”

No love lost?

Recording isn’t completely ruled out, however, for a band that’s weathered two and a half decades, and its fair share of downtime. The band was born of an involuntary hiatus, when Sumner picked up the mic in late 1980, following the sudden end of New Order’s first incarnation, Joy Division.

When Ian Curtis committed suicide earlier that year, he left behind two classic albums and change, along with a one-year-old daughter, Natalie, and wife, Deborah, who wrote her late husband’s 1995 biography, Touching From a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division. The book was the starting point for an upcoming film by photographer Anton Corbijn, who made his name on the strength of his Joy Division photo shoot in a London tube station. But Hook says that Corbijn presents a more balanced portrait of Curtis than that of his widow.

“She didn’t know what was happening with the band ’cause she wasn’t there,” says Hook. “I’ve had many discussions about Debbie’s role and, in all fairness, all she was was married to the guy.

“It’s a terrible position for her to be in,” he adds. “We were all so young, and when you’re young, you can’t handle it. The book was her opinion, and we all have our opinion of what happened. It’s not a pretty story, is it?”

Control, which premieres at the Berlin Film Festival next month, features a score by Hook, Sumner and Morris, interspersed with Joy Division songs and other period music. Hook feels that he can’t comment on the film itself (“It’s like somebody reading your diaries out,” he says), but he’s pleased with the soundtrack.

“Anton Corbijn actually stopped Steve and I at one point and said we were making it too beautiful, that the music was detracting from the film! A lovely backhanded compliment from the Dutch fellow.”

The beatification of the beat

In Michael Winterbottom’s 2002 film, 24 Hour Party People, the Joy Division story is only the first chapter in the larger tale of Factory Records and Manchester’s legendary dance club, the Hacienda.

“I fuckin’ hate Steve Coogan, but I enjoyed the film,” says Hook, who was initially annoyed at the comic depiction of Factory and Hacienda’s poor business sense. It’s said that the pricey packaging of New Order’s “Blue Monday” 12-inch, the best-selling 12-inch ever, resulted in Factory losing 10p per copy, and that the Hacienda lost 10 pounds per punter, partly due to Wilson’s exorbitant decor. Regardless, the Hacienda was, arguably, the birth-site of rave culture. It’s a source of pride for Hook now, but he was unimpressed with Manchester’s budding turntablists back in the day.

“I thought they were just a bunch of bastards, to be honest, really full of themselves. I suppose what one of them should have said to me was, ‘Well, if you think it’s so fuckin’ easy, why don’t you try it?’”

With New Order grounded and Freebass on hold, Hook is savouring the opportunity to party with fans around the world in his new role as DJ. His eclectic sets range from punk and reggae to hard vocal house and (somewhat reluctantly) tunes by his old bands, usually rare mixes or edits. But, because of New Order’s history, he’s sometimes booked on the assumption that he’ll stick strictly to house music. He rarely gets a bad reception, but he’s not afraid to provoke a promoter or a crowd when he does.

“I played in Italy last week, and they absolutely hated me, which was fantastic. They were shouting for the support DJ to come back on, which I thought was extremely rude, so I put the Sex Pistols on and just stood there laughing.”

With resident Overdose DJ Mini at Parking
tonight, Thursday, Jan. 11, 10 p.m., $9

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