Peter Hook Presents His Ego, I mean, Unknown Pleasures - A Joy Division Celebration (for him)

This past Friday, I spent the day reliving my Joy Division collection in the name of attending Peter Hook's 'Unknown Pleasures: A Joy Division Celebration'. I don't need to tell you that the aforementioned LP title got me through a certain time in Sydney -- there was nothing quite like wallowing to the beautiful agony that is Ian Curtis and co.



Despite the controversy surrounding former Joy Division/New Order bassist, Peter Hook, and Primal Scream's Mani's Twitter riff, punters were not discouraged by contributing to the "blood money". Mani has since apologised to Hook however the damage is done with explosive comments such as, "used to adore the man, now he's a self centred sellout reduced to hawking his mates corpse around to get paid. And he can't play." hitting the web in a twitter rage.



All rubbish aside, I got to the wonderful Palais Theatre for the 8:30pm show. The crowd was a mixture of Manchester geriatrics and hipster tools all wearing cover art like no one had ever bought a Joy Division shirt. One guy actually looked like David Bowie circa The Labyrinth, scary shit. Anyway, the show opened with this audiovisual 'disclaimer', if you will. Basically a compilation of clips explaining the success of Joy Division and New Order, lazily told with an assortment of clips from bio films Control and 24 Hour Party People. Steve Coogan didn't need to tell me who Peter Hook was, it didn't seem necessary.



When Hookie and co. took to the stage, I was surprised to watch the controversial bassist take to vocals but not without bass in tow. The poor bassist on stage got to play everything but the cool bits, poor brother. The set opened with an out of order 'No Love Lost' and the sound exploded throughout the auditorium. I tried to close my eyes and cast my mind back to how this would have sounded originally, late 70's early 80's -- how explosive that sound would have been then considering it was blowing me away right now. Nothing sounds like Joy Division, nothing, though many have tried.



Hook with all the bravado he has, managed to carry off the lower vocal range similar but not offensive to Curtis. The music in tribute to itself was huge, like a wall of sound but the vocals could have stood to be a little louder -- sound guy, I'm looking at you. I think the most annoying part was the ego of Hook. I know, it's no surprise and I know his bass stance hasn't changed since New Order formed but he still looks like a wanker.



The best job for my money was done on 'Candidate' and I know this is one of my favourite Joy Division songs so this is a little bi est, but the lights went low and the bass lines unmistakable. It was conducted quite perfectly. Other well executed and non-offensive performances were, 'New Dawn Fades', 'She's Lost Control' and 'Shadowplay'.



The encore came after 'I Remember Nothing', however the band reappeared shortly after, with Hook declaring ".. this song still makes me shit myself". Though 'Transmission' does not appear on 'Unknown Pleasures' it was added to the set for kicks and got some of the crowd out of their seats and into some tasteless Ian Curtis dance aerobics.

In a predictable but equally appreciated finale, the set closed with Joy Division's biggest hit 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'. In response, everyone respectively got out of their seats and danced and some sang along terribly. I appreciated Hook's vocals in this tribute and a friend of mine actually went so far to say that he prefers Hook's vocals over Bernard's, which for my my money could be a valid notion. I enjoyed the show, maybe it's because the songs are still perfect, maybe it's because I didn't shell out $80 for a ticket. I don't know, I think it was just something a Joy Division fan should see.