Peter Hook & The Light - “Closer - Live In Manchester 2011” 2xCD, “Unknown Pleasures: Live in Leeds 2012” 2xCD, “Movement: Live In Dublin 2013” CD, “Power, Corruption & Lies: Live in Dublin 2013” CD

Co-founder revisits Joy Division and New Order classics

Peter Hook and his band The Light have a right, a legacy and a license, to cover the immortal Joy Division (and early New Order). Even more so as the rest of New Order are busy releasing tedious and vapid disco pop and generally ignoring their inspirational and innovative roots.

Fans like me were either too young (me) or just not around during the prime eras of the Manchester bands’ heydays, so Peter Hook and The Light are the closest we’ll ever get to seeing and hearing Joy Division’s material or the earliest (and best, in this writer’s opinion) New Order tracks in a live setting. Hook had a prominent part in these band’s sounds, and his re-claiming of them is a true godsend for fans of all ages and eras. 

All that said, these 4 CD releases of live shows from 2011-2013 capture the feels and vibes of the great studio recordings in top quality. Hook’s vocals are admirable and quite close approximations to Ian Curtis’, and his band, which includes his son Jack Bates on bass, cover Joy Division and New Order’s finest work with respect and power. 

“Closer Live Tour 2011: Live In Manchester” is a 21-song, double-CD set of album and single cuts, closing with (pre-Joy Division) cuts “Warsaw” and “Failure”, and climaxed by the legendary “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. “Colony” and “Atmosphere” are sung by former Happy Mondays and The Light collaborator Rowetta, bringing a soulful and reverential side to the “covers”. Overall, a great addition to any Joy Division collection, and a riveting live set.

“Unknown Pleasures Tour 2012: Live in Leeds” is another double-CD, including 24 tracks (with minimal overlay of the “Closer” set). The entirety of the great “Unknown Pleasures” LP is performed here, of course, alongside another wealth of other cuts from the era. As with the “Closer” set, it all sounds top-notch, with a post-punk fire that does the originals proper justice (and even reanimates them into a new era). “Interzone” or “The Drawback” out-punk the younger generation, and classics like “Transmission”, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, and “Ceremony” close it all out with intensity and passion. Hook and his boys know these songs inside out, and these albums do them a great service, bringing it all back to life again.

“Movement Tour 2013: Live In Dublin” is a single disc and opens with 7 Joy Division cuts, including faithful and intense covers of “Incubation” and “Autosuggestion”, as well as “Ceremony”, before hitting the New Order debut LP, “Movement” and the album’s great opener, “Dreams Never End”. This album was a sort of middle ground from the band’s previous Joy Division incarnation and their more electronic and dance-worthy future as New Order. It echoes Joy Division’s starkness and raw post-punk sound, only hinting at the group’s lighter future. Hook’s band pound through the brief album’s 8 cuts before hitting a few New Order single B-sides. In all, it’s 18 tracks here, well worth any fan of either band’s time and cash.

“Power Corruption & Lies Tour 2013: Live In Dublin” is another single disc, with 14 tracks beginning with early New Order favorite “Everything’s Gone Green” before hitting the band’s second album in it’s entirety. The band transitioned from the darkness of their earlier work with this electro-pop album that had great tracks like “Age Of Consent”, as well as lighter, funkier cuts like “586” that don’t hold up as well. Favorites like “True Faith”, “Temptation”, and “Blue Monday” are used as finales alongside “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, closing this chapter in Hook’s homages to his past works. Of the 4 albums released here, this is the one that to me seems a bit less necessary. Nonetheless, it’s a solid work that invites further re-investigation into New Order’s earlier releases.

Overall, Hook and The Light do great justice to these classic albums, leaving any serious fan impressed and relishing the originals, yet making a new life for them as well, keeping them alive and making them as much about “now” as “then”. Bravo.

Westworld Recordings

Stone Roses - "Made Of Stone (director: Shane Meadows)” DVD

Doc on foppy Madchester fools

Manchester’s Stone Roses were partially responsible for one of the worst late 80s/early 90s music trends...the foppy, baggy-trousered “Madchester” scene that sadly tried to meld acid house club music with slackerly psychedelic rock. These guys inspired some even more insipid acts (anybody remember the atrocious Inspiral Carpets?), and even the notoriously  pompous Gallagher boys took the Roses’ self-congratulatory praises themselves all too seriously, and all the way to the bank with their vastly overrated Oasis. Any band who heralds themselves as "the best band in the world" or “better than the Beatles” deserves a swift kick in the nads, right?

The Stone Roses, however, despite becoming a huge (and hyped) act with the release of their 1st self-titled LP in 1989, could never quite rise above, with label and personal squabbling taking a fatal toll on the group as soon as fame and fortune raised their greedy heads.

This documentary traces an ill-fated 2012 reunion that brought the members together for some high profile gigs, only to see attitudes tear up the band again. Fans (anybody out there?) will be enlightened by this well done doc, but others unconvinced of the brilliance of the Stone Roses (me) will want to steer clear.

MVD Visual

Stone Roses site

Happy Mondays - "Hallelujah It's The Happy Mondays" CD/DVD

In their late 80s/early 90s heyday, Manchester's Happy Mondays were the leading distillers of funky, dance-edged, drug-fuelled club rock music. Mainman Shaun Ryder was notorious for being well off his rocker, and an ardent student of heroin, booze, and pills -- enough to make him (and his band of fellow partiers) tabloid fodder numerous times. The band seemed to implode as much due to their well-noted excesses as from the music scene changing (remember this was the pre-Nirvana era).

This extravagant double-disc set was recorded in 2004, at a reunion show in Barcelona, and presents all the band's hits and favorites. We get soulful, loose, laid-back (and even fittingly sloppy) versions of "Kinky Afro", "Step On", "Hallelujah", "WFL (Wrote For Luck)","24 Hour Party People", and more. Shaun Ryder is as unhinged, off-key, and slackerly as ever. Nonetheless, the sound is solid and well-mixed, so fans will definitely be pleased. The DVD I can't comment on, as my promotional copy of the DVD had a hole bored through it! (Secret Records UK)

Happy Mondays Online

Freebass - "Two Worlds Collide" CDEP

Peter Hook, former bassist for legendary Manchester bands Joy Division and New Order, has rejuvenated himself after the dissolution of New Order a few years ago. His new projects show a healthy reflection and reverence for his classic work. All but gone (thankfully) are the club dance tracks that New Order became known for in their twilight years. "You Don't Know This About Me" is a highlight, and features former Charlatans UK vocalist Tim Burgess, and is a welcome return to the stylish indie-rock roots of Hook and his Manchester mates. It's really a lovely song and compares favorably with the best of Hook's past works. Pete Wylie fronts "The Milky Way Is Our Playground", which isn't quite as effective, with some cringeworthy lyrics. "Dark Starr" is a lengthy piece of wacked sound-poetry with Howard Marks, and Hook himself fronts the dancy and New Order-like "Live Tomorrow You Go Down". Certainly a tentative EP, but a fine start for Hook's next phase, whatever it may be. (Hacienda Records/24 Hour Service Station)

Freebass site

Man Ray - "Summer 88" CDEP

Man Ray is Peter Hook's new side project revisiting the acid house days, relevant as his old label (Factory) and friend's club (Tony Wilson's notorious Hacienda) were important centerpieces of this international scene back in, oh, say 1988. These 4 cuts are low-key retro throwbacks to the disco sound of acid house - minimal rhythms, some sirens and whistles, and simple electronic melodies. The two tracks, "We're On It" and "Ways Of Making Music" are presented with 2 mixes each, and they pulse along with primitive Roland drum machines and sequences pleasantly enough. Thing is, this music is basically a novelty now. There's little of "substance" (ha, pun there) on "Summer 88". Really, it's more of a minor diversion for clubgoers and serious New Order fans. (Hacienda Records/24 Hour Service Station)