Peter Hook, who toured last year with The Light and played Joy Division’s albums in their entirety, has announced that he will release his memoirs ‘Unknown Pleasures – Inside Joy Division’ on October 1 via Simon & Schuster. It will be of course about his time as the bassist of the legendary band Joy Division, from the early days to Ian Curtis’ sad suicide.
Hook had this to say about Joy Division and his upcoming book:
‘It's very strange. Over the years Joy Division has become a huge part of music culture. A lot of people think they know what happened. But they don't.’
‘Anyone who’s ever written a book or made a film about Joy Division, unless they were sat in that van or car with us, they don’t know anything about it. Me, Barney, Steve, Ian, Rob, Twinny, Terry and Dave. Only us lot know what really happened… ‘
I totally get the part about Joy Division being a huge part of music culture, I cannot go to a concert without seeing someone wearing the iconic black and white ‘Unknown Pleasures’ t-shirt, and it gets to the point that people should realize it is not hip anymore.
Speaking about Curtis’ tragic ending, Hook also added this:
‘I supposed in the end it's almost too easy to look back and say what you should have done, how you might have changed things. How you might have done things differently and ultimately stopped Ian from doing what he did.’
‘What's harder, what's much, much harder, is to accept what you actually did do. Accept what you did do, and live with it.’
This book may well work like a self therapy for him, but let’s see how the other members will react to it, as there was already some bad blood when New Order reformed in 2011 without including Peter Hook in the new lineup.