CityLife

Peter Hook: Unknown Pleasures

Unknown Pleasures (Peter Hook and friends)
FAC251
May 18, 2010

In a room upstairs at FAC251, the white VOX Phantom guitar once played by Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is attracting an endless line of onlookers.

Sitting in quiet isolation, it has become a symbol of a band cut short when Curtis took his own life on May 18, 1980. In the 30 years since, respect for the band has grown exponentially; in their day, they were critically acclaimed cult heroes, now they’re rightly regarded as bona fide musically visionaries.

The guitar is here to mark the 30th anniversary of Ian’s death, but it is part of a larger programme put together by his former band mate and Joy Division bassist Peter Hook. A big part of that is a live reworking of the group’s seminal album, Unknown Pleasures, as well as a surprising romp through their only album as Warsaw.

Starting pre-Joy Division, though, is a logical decision for Hooky, who is charged with filling in for Curtis on vocals while his son Jack Bates shares bass duties, Nat Watson ably handles Bernard Sumner’s guitar melodies and Paul Kehoe batters hell out of Stephen Morris’ drumbeats.

Warsaw’s material owes far more to punk than the introspective paeans of Unknown Pleasures, and as Hooky yells his way through At A Later Date and Warsaw he seems relieved to have the chance to shout his obvious tension out. Consequently, No Love Lost and Leaders Of Men also burn with more attitude than their recorded counterparts, which originally hinted at what would become Joy Division’s brooding signature sound.

If anyone is entitled to mark Curtis’ passing with a musical tribute, it’s Hook, but this clearly isn’t easy for him. At times, he looks elated, at others like a rabbit in headlights. Occasionally, he appears quite overcome by the palpable pressure to get this right.

The still astonishing rhythms of Digital and angular aggression of Glass, then, serve as a reassuring bridge and make extraordinarily good use of the dual-bass sound provided by Hooky and Hooky junior. And then the unmistakable bounce of Disorder’s guitar hook hits, leading the way into the night’s most difficult 35 minutes.

But there’s light relief even here. Former Happy Mondays regular and X Factor runner up Rowetta brings a soulful slant to Insight and New Dawn Fades, both of which are received so rapturously that it leaves a beaming Hooky declaring himself “a very happy old man”.

Nothing, though, sounds as timeless or iconic as She’s Lost Control and Shadowplay, which both motivate Hook into his trademark low-slung bass stance.

Encore one is a slightly jumbled rendition of Transmission, with A Certain Ratio’s Simon Topping on guest vocals (and not for the first time; he famously filled in for Curtis back in 1980), and after much debate, Love Will Tear Us Apart – the band’s only charting single, which reached an ironic No.13 a month after Curtis’ death – crowns the evening with a venue-wide sing along.

Nights like this are a reminder of what generations of music lovers have missed out on for three decades. But Unknown Pleasures is also a moment that should pull all aspiring musicians up by the seat of their pants; this album still sounds like a breakthrough moment 31 years after it was written, and that is a tribute to every member of Joy Division.

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