Peter Hook Signing At Amoeba, Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Co-founding bassist of Joy Division and New Order Peter Hook was doing a signing at Amoeba on Thursday night, just between his two Los Angeles shows, one at the Music Box on Wednesday and one at the El Rey theater on Friday, during which he and his band were playing Joy Division’s two studio albums ‘Closer’ and ‘Unknown Pleasure’ in their entirety.

At Amoeba, Peter Hook, showing a short Mohawk these days, and looking very relaxed and comfortable in his khaki long shorts, was welcoming everyone with a large smile and a real natural manner you cannot fake. He seemed to be a really nice guy, having a sincere contact with his fans, shaking lots of hands, talking, smiling, joking, signing everything that was presented to him, taking his time with each of the 150 people waiting to meet him, and posing numerous times for pictures.

The crowd was mostly young and dark clothed, with some ‘Unknown Pleasure’ t-shirts, asking him to sign vinyl, CDs, books, pictures, posters, guitars and bass, even a dollar bill or a ‘FAC 51’ (the hacienda) car plate.

Hook was not afraid to get close to his fans, really close, and although I could not understand the conversation he was having with all these people, his deep voice being covered by the DJ’s choice of some vintage New Order (among other music), he was acting like a friendly guy, hugging people, even giving a kiss to a girl,… I don’t know what she said to him!

He was mostly signing Joy Division related items, but there also were some New Order memorabilia, and on a table next to the signing one, they were selling black Joy Division t-shirts, with a large ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart Again’ on the back,… you may think the same thing that crossed my mind, how can he still sell Joy Division shirts and play these albums without being accused of exploiting his dead friend’s image?

But looking at his down-to-earth attitude, Peter Hook looked too nice to lend him such a bad intention, didn’t he recently declare to the LA Weekly that Ian Curtis was ‘too unique a person to copy’?

I am going to see him this Friday playing ‘Unknown Pleasures’, I know that Iman thought he sucked when he saw him last year,… but we’ll see!