Peter Hook has admitted that his ongoing dispute with his former bandmates in New Order is heading for the courts. New Order announced in late 2011 that they had reformed, but that Hook would not be part of their line-up. Instead keyboard player Gillian Gilbert, who hadn't performed with the band...
Peter Hook has admitted that his ongoing dispute with his former bandmates in New Order is heading for the courts.
New Order announced in late 2011 that they had reformed, but that Hook would not be part of their line-up. Instead keyboard player Gillian Gilbert, who hadn’t performed with the band for over 10 years, rejoined and bass duties were taken up by Tom Chapman, who was part of frontman Bernard Sumner’s recent project Bad Lieutenant.
Hook has been very vocal in his condemnation of the reunion and has now told NME that he will be taking on his bandmates in court to settle the dispute.
Asked about his legal situation with New Order, Hook replied: “It looks like we’re going to court; neither side looks amenable to backing down.”
Then asked if he wanted to stop the band using the name ‘New Order’, Hook replied: ” I’m not against them playing, but what I’m rallying against is the business dealings they’ve done to secure the New Order trademark, which is oppression of a minority, which is illegal. They’ve taken the New Order name and the trademark and basically thrown me 50p and said ‘That’s all your worth twatface. That’s what you get for playing Joy Division music’. It’s a business thing. They are in a position of strength because there’s three of them, but what they’re saying is that the New Order name has got nothing to do with me and that’s what I dispute.”
Hook also revealed that he’s seen some footage of the band playing live on their recent tour of Australia and New Zealand and is convinced that the band’s new bass player Tom Chapman is actually miming along to his bass parts.
He said of this: “I’ve watched so-called ‘New Order’ playing in Auckland and Tom Chapman is miming along to my bass on tape. ‘Round & Round’. Have a look at it. He’s got his fingers on the low and you can hear my high bass in the background. So he’s miming. It’s the Milli Vanilli of bass.”
Asked if he was annoyed by this, he said: “It’s a fantastic compliment, but I best get on to my intellectual property lawyer and see if it’s something you’re allowed to do. I do think that miming to my bass is pretty much the ultimate insult. Still, check it out, there I am lurking in the background like a ghost.”
New Order have responded to Hook’s allegations, telling NME that although part of Chapman’s bassline is pre-recorded, they are not using any of Hook’s basslines in their live show.
They told NME: “On the chorus of ‘Round & Round’ there is a low bass part, a high bass part and Tom sings backing vocals. It’s more than one person can manage so Tom recorded his high bass part and it’s replayed as part of the backing track sequence. We strongly refute the allegation that New Order are using any of Mr Hook’s bass playing in our live performance. When Mr Hook was part of New Order he tracked his parts that couldn’t be played live because they coincided with other parts. We are simply doing the same with our new bass player.”
They also said in response to Hook’s comments: “People living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones or their recent fake DJing YouTube hit might need to be recalled. Keep watching.”
Hook also spoke about the recent discovery of Joy Division and New Order master tapes in Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in Manchester and revealed that the find had yielded video footage and complete audio recordings of ‘Festival Of The Tenth Summer’.
‘Festival Of The Tenth Summer’ ran in the summer of 1986 and was given to celebrate Manchester. It featured a gig at the city’s GMEX venue with performances from the likes of The Smiths, Echo And The Bunnymen and The Fall.
Hook added that due to his ongoing situation with New Order, it was unlikely the material from the festival would be released.
Speaking about this, Hook said: “The greatest thing we found in Jamie Oliver’s was actually ‘The Tenth Summer’ tapes. But because we’ve now fallen out and there’s no communication between us, we’re not going to be able to do anything with them, which is sad and so they’re stuck in limbo. But there’s video footage and the complete audio recordings of all the bands, Echo And The Bunnymen, Smiths, Buzzcocks, New Order. It would make a great record.”
Peter Hook will play Joy Division‘s 1981 compilation album ‘Still’ in full at two shows at Manchester’s 251 venue on May 18 and 19. Charities Mind and Forever Manchester will both receive some of the proceeds from the shows.
