Peter Hook, and his Books
At the recommendation of friend and photographer colleague Tim Soter I read two of Peter Hook’s music memoirs this summer. First, the epic Substance: Inside New Order; covering the full span of the band’s career from the day after Ian Curtis’s death until the present. The group had always been press-shy and mysterious so getting a frank and truly inside take is fascinating. A lot of the book deals the relationship between Hook and lead singer/guitarist Bernard Sumner, and as the book was written as they are in a personal and legal battle it can be quite biting. It’s certainly interesting reading but it can be depressing as well.
I will confess to scanning the book immediately to see if I got a mention (nope). In the summer of 1985 my friends and I went to see the New Order Toronto show. I was just beginning to get serious about photography and brought my 35mm camera with me, hoping to shoot for my “Rock Stars Footwear” series. I snuck backstage, and after chatting with the lead singer of A Certain Ratio for a minute moved over to approach Peter Hook. He was sitting on a couch, reading. He looks up at me, stone faced, “Who are you?” “I’m Chris Buck, I’m shooting a series of photos of Rock Stars feet.” “Get out,” he says. Excitedly I plea my case, “Oh, no, it will just take a second, I just want to get a picture of your shoes.” “Get the fuck out now, “ he says with a growl. And, so I did.
The other book, Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division, is strangely less depressing (given that it ends with the lead singer killing himself that’s a statement). I suppose that it’s because I knew that it was coming. Also, it’s kind of a love letter to a bandmate vs the hate-filled screed that the New Order book is.
Nevertheless, both books are great summer reading!
Top Image: Anton Corbijn’s portraits of Joy Division, and New Order.
Second Image: On page 283 of Peter Hook’s Unknown Pleasures he describes working with photographer Anton Corbijn (and how the pictures in the top image came about).
Bottom Image: Chris Buck pictured with Bernard Sumner (after a shoot with his side project Electronic) in 1991. Buck wearing a Love Will Tear Us Apart t-shirt in front of his family home, 1986.