Peter Hook, best known as bassist for Joy Division and New Order, is currently touring with The Light. Ben Fitzgerald caught up with him on a ferry travelling between Newcastle and Amsterdam. Performing live - is it purely economics or is there something that draws you to playing music in front of fans? It’s a fascinating thing. When you look at Tina Turner, there’s no way that she needs to go touring, but there must be something about performing that is part of who they are. When we first formed Joy Division, it was just the most incredible feeling to perform in front of people. And that feeling has never left me. It’s such a privilege to be able to perform in front of people who want to hear your music. - every time I get up on the stage it’s like I’m looking at myself and thinking how did I get here? It’s the best feeling in the world. It’s about communicating with your audience. What do you think about the shape of the music industry - how has it changed since you started out? Everything has changed beyond recognition, when we started out the record companies would be interested in nurturing young bands and developing them. This doesn’t seem to be the case now, they want instant results and unless you are selling records straight away, they don’t want to know. People expect to be able to hear records for free now - this makes it very difficult for artists to support themselves - there’s no recognition of the fact that as an artist you have to lock yourself away for months at a time to produce something that you have put your heart and soul into. What was the spark that set you on this path? I can pinpoint one pivotal moment for me and Bernard - we both saw the Sex Pistols perform in Manchester at the Free Trade Hall in 1976 - when we came out of that concert, we both emerged knowing that we wanted to form a band. I had been to see other amazing bands before that time, you know, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and even Kraftwerk for God’s sake - they were amazing but none of them affected us in that way. There was something about the Sex Pistols that made us feel that anything was possible for kids like us. We didn’t need to have a lot of money or the best instruments - it was more of an attitude of mind. What does the future hold? I used to not think too clearly about the future - I’m an alcoholic and that tended to affect things. But I’m not drinking now and the future is good, I’ve never been fitter. We are already looking at putting together next year’s dates when we plan to play the two New Order albums Technique and Republic. What do you do when you’re not playing music? Normal things really. I love to take our dog for long walks. He’s not keen when I go away, He gives me this long look and I admit it makes me feel a bit guilty - it can be a bit of a wrench. What is the magnetic appeal of Joy Division songs - do you change them around? We play them straight through like the LPs. This time around we are going to be playing Substance by Joy Division and then we have a fag break and play all the way through Substance by New Order - it’s a three hour set, people are definitely going to be getting their money’s worth. Wow, playing for three hours, you’re just like Bruce Springsteen! I dunno about that, Bruce Forsyth more like!