When Peter Hook responded to New Order reforming without him early September, as Iman wrote about it, his tone seemed contained, disconcerted and sad, but not really angry. He may have had his own way to retaliate by touring with Joy Division’s albums, but he certainly was not talking the way he did to Spinner:
‘What they've done to me, to tour as New Order, is frankly disgusting.’
And when he is asked if there is a chance to forget about it and consider the music more important than these disagreements, he replied:
‘I'm not too sure because of the fact that they've decided to do New Order without me. It would have been the same if [The Light] were called "Joy Division." That's not New Order — they're just f—ing trying it on. It would be like me going out with Stephen and Gillian and saying it's New Order: "Where's Barney?!" They're going to be haunted by it, aren't they? [In] every interview they'll be dying to ask you what it's like without Hooky. It's going to be a hard thing for them to pull off, but they're doing it for financial reasons mainly.’
Not only he seems quite pissed off, but he denies the fact they are doing it for charity reasons: ‘Yeah. It's all bollocks. They're already hawking for an American tour; me mate told me yesterday. They're hiding behind the charity gig.’
He also declared that the other members ‘pulled a cunning limited company hostile takeover and managed to take over the trademark from me’, which cannot make things better. He added that he was fighting this at the moment.
And the interview ends on this bitter note:
‘I don't have any say in it whatsoever, and they've actually pulled some really dirty business shenanigans to get their own way, which they're not going to get away with. They can play together as much as they want. Good luck to them. I spent most of my life trying to get New Order to play, and I'm not going to stop them now. It was like banging your head against a brick wall. Unbelievable. I'm actually happy that they're going to play.’
And when asked if he will be watching, ‘No, I'll be washing my hair that night. And the other night’.
He seems to be a man, mad at his old pals to have stolen the music but not mean enough to wish them bad luck with it.