I spoke to Peter Hook ahead of his UK tour. The Manchester icon reflects on decades of music, memory, and meaning.
When Peter Hook talks about his history, it’s like opening a time capsule smeared with distortion, sweat, and Manchester grit. The Joy Division and New Order co-founder has spent the last 15 years reclaiming, reinterpreting, and celebrating a catalogue that shaped modern music. Now, with Peter Hook & The Light, he’s taking the next step: performing New Order’s 2001 album Get Ready in full on a UK tour this November which starts October 6, 2025, at the Assembly Hall, Worthing, UK.
But for Hook, Peter Hook & The Light isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about continuity.
“Our identity has been crafted since 1976,” he says. “We’re under that Manchester umbrella and, luckily, Manchester still matters in music; you only have to look at what Oasis achieved recently in the city to see that. With this band, I’m celebrating the music I started with, and hopefully the music I’ll end with and everything in between.”
Since forming The Light in 2010, Hook has taken a meticulous approach to revisiting his past. Each tour focuses on a single Joy Division or New Order album, performed in full. What began as a tribute to Unknown Pleasures has grown into a global phenomenon. Nearly 900 shows later, he’s played ‘Closer’, ‘Movement’, ‘Power, Corruption & Lies’, ‘Technique’, ‘Republic’, and many more.
“When I started, I didn’t want to be a copy of the bands,” he explains. “Most people only ever heard Joy Division on vinyl. The LPs sounded very different live. So I decided to celebrate the records’ sound. That was the right path for me.”
“Joy Division tends to bring out the most earnest fans. New Order has a poppier, more frivolous edge, but Joy Division is taken very seriously, almost with a dour reverence”, he states.
“When I meet a young fan, 17 or 18, the first thing they always ask is, ‘What was Ian Curtis like?’ I look at them and say, ‘He was just like you.’ Confused, mixed up, worried about the future, not sure how to react to the world. Those are the same post-puberty feelings of isolation and disconnection we all had.”
From Punk to Post-Punk to Present
Hook sees the band’s identity as a mirror of his own: restless, inventive, and unmistakably Mancunian. “It’s completely schizophrenic,” he laughs. “We go from punk with Joy Division to post-punk, then through dance and synth-rock with New Order. We’ve got all of it in us.”
But revisiting this music hasn’t always been easy. Playing these songs again meant confronting grief, tension, and the shadow cast by Joy Division’s history.
“There was a certain innocence when we started out with Joy Division, a naivety. That obviously changed. We really enjoyed ourselves at the start, but when we lost Ian, there was a hell of a dark shadow over the start of New Order. The grief affected us deeply, and we weren’t the happy-go-lucky band we once were.” Hook says.
It took decades before Hook could fully enjoy the music again. “I only started enjoying it when New Order split in 2007,” he says. “When we split up, I was free. I was a DJ for a while, found myself in music again, and realised there’s no substitute for playing your own songs. Playing it with other people, without the emotional baggage, let me really enjoy it. And sharing that with new generations of fans, that’s a wonderful compliment.”
A New Kind of High
If the early days were chaos and excess, Hook’s life now is remarkably different.
“Oh my God, life is completely different and so am I,” he laughs. “I was a tearaway, hell-bent on destruction. This business doesn’t suit being a hellraiser! But I wouldn’t change it, it made me who I am.”
“Let’s face it, I was in good company; The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Oasis – the ’80s and ’90s were crazy. Then acid house came along in Manchester, and it’s a wonder any of us are still alive! It really was ‘live fast, die young’ which, now that I’m older, would’ve been a great shame.”
Now, he’s swapped wild nights for mindfulness, running, and early mornings. “I wake up early, go to bed early, work hard, and enjoy it just as much, if not more than back then.”
The transformation reflects the band itself: seasoned, sharper, and still electric. “By the time I get to the gig,” he says, “I’ve got that wonderful nervousness, those spikes of adrenaline. Pulling it off again, it’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
The Light On The Road Once More
As Peter Hook & The Light hit the road again, their mission is clear: not to rewrite history, but to illuminate it.
The Get Ready tour sees the band perform the entire New Order album live across the UK, followed by a full set of Joy Division and New Order classics. For Hook, it’s more than a show; it’s a continuum.
“Our identity celebrates everything from seeing the Sex Pistols back in the day to now,” he says. “Music gives us a couple of hours to forget it all, wallow in nostalgia, see everyone having a great time, and then get back to life. I wouldn’t swap it for anything.”
Peter Hook & The Light – Get Ready UK Tour 2025
November
06 – Worthing, Assembly Hall
07 – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
08 – Coventry, HMV Empire
13 – Liverpool, Olympia
14 – Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
15 – Newcastle, Boiler Shop
20 – Holmfirth, Picturedrome
21 – Bath, Komedia
22 – Cambridge, Junction
27 – Lincoln, Engine Shed
28 – Lytham, Pavilion
29 – Leeds, O2 Academy
Tickets can be purchased online now, with some still available for the upcoming Edinburgh show!
Follow Peter Hook & The Light:
Twitter: @peterhook
Facebook: facebook.com/peterhookandthelight
Instagram: @peterhook_thelight
YouTube: Peter Hook & The Light
Feature Image Credit: Paul Hudson / Rockaway Beach: Peter Hook and the Light / CC BY 2.0
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