Nick Aldwinckle spoke to former Joy Division and New Order bass player and all-round ‘Madchester’ legend Peter Hook, who brings his Haçienda Tour to Brighton this week when he opens the city’s new Bench store
What have you been up to?
That’s a loaded question! It’s pretty busy these days. Because I don’t have a manager anymore, so I ‘m now involved in all the negotiations I used to luckily get out of. It seems you spend a lot of time talking about things that come to nothing! It’s only at this point you realise what a manager actually does! I’m still very active in promoting the Haçienda nights, which are going very well and has given a new lease of life to all of us old f*ckers! I’m playing a DJ set at the Brighton Stone Love night Friday.
Has not having a manager made you more business-like?
Yeah, definitely, unfortunately. It’s a funny thing, I suppose. It’s always the problem with life that you don’t like people wasting your time. It’s a funny situation, because when we started off with the Haçienda brand when we started, it seemed like an impossible thing to do. Now, we’ve actually got something that people want to hear, it’s like ‘wow!’, but if you believe in something you’ve really got to keep at it. I do find that even though it’s immensely frustrating doing the business side of things, it’s also really satisfying when it comes together. It’s difficult to find people that feel the same as you. It’s been nice going round with Graham Park, 808 State, Happy Mondays, as you do realize why you were together in the first place. Y’know, Factory Records, The Haçienda, that old ethos; the atmosphere, the music; I think that’s still as valid today as it was then. It’s about making it attractive to a younger audience and to be honest, the younger audience seem really up for it and really open. We incorporate sounds from today in with the old sounds of then, really. I’m doing a Haçienda Acid House evening soon which is proving to be fantastic for one reason or another. I don’t remember a lot of the music from first time round, so it’s great to sit down and experience it all again! Sometimes it’s like I’m listening to stuff for the first time despite it being twenty years old!
There are a lot of newer bands influenced by music from that era…
It was funny. I was reading a book and realized we payed £2,400 as Joy Division for a synthesizer in 1980, which must be the equivalent of about twenty five grand in today’s money. I was reading an advert that said you could buy a synthesizer in Asda for £25. If that isn’t a f*cking revelation, what is? It’s unbelievable. Maybe, in a way, you hit the point where, sound-wise, you’re not going to go any further. Technology’s so much better today it’s almost disposable. In a funny way it makes music open to everybody, but it also makes it open to people who can’t make great music.
“Rob Gretton told me and Bernard to shut up because we were a pair of f***ing idiots!”
Does technology exclude people from music who can’t afford it or don’t have much technological knowledge?
The technical knowledge thing: I’m not good at that- I can’t do that sh*t. I have to get someone to do it for me. The thing is that if you’re driven enough, you can find somebody. You don’t have to be technical-minded. If you have a kid that can play the keyboards or whatever, you don’t have to be like that. You can make a career out of being that person, like Brian Eno was. The thing is that it’s so much cheaper now that it doesn’t bear comparison to when we began. If you watch The X Factor and Pop Idol and all that crap, think of how easy it is: go to Old Trafford, do an audition, and you could be as big as Leona Lewis or someone. This just isn’t true for some people. It’s like what Mani always says: “Well, it’s just total f***ing b***cks is that! F***ing Simon Cowell is a ****!” (laughs madly). It’s just glorified karaoke. There’s the illusion that they’ve got some kind of control, but these kids have no power. There’s very little money for the performers and the record label gets all the money. I’m lucky that I’ve always been given a lot of freedom. That’s one thing Tony Wilson always gave us.
Read the rest of this article »
