New Order's Peter Hook Calls It a Day

New Order bass player Peter Hook confirmed that he's left the seminal dance band
this week, and said on his Myspace page that he'd been thinking about quitting for
ages.

"I suppose it was the interview with Clint Boon that started it all off. He asked me
for a few words on Perry Farrell's Satellite Party single Dogstar 'which he thought
was great" so I went on and lo and behold mentioned the New Order split so I suppose
because it was me saying it, it was out at last," he wrote.

"I'm relieved, (I) really hated carrying on as normal with an awful secret so let's
move on, shall we?"

Throughout the 90s, stories regularly surfaced in the media of New Order splitting
as they concentrated on solo projects, though chatting to Skrufff four years ago,
Hooky said they never actually broke up.

"We came close to it because I think we blamed each other for all the problems,
though the wonderful cleansing aspect to the situation was being taken out of New
Order and having to begin again with our solo stuff," he said. "That meant you had
to climb a lot more steps, which made you realise what you'd previously had. After
a few years, I understood that I loved the music but hated the business side so
when we got back together to start doing music, it was easy to start again," said
Hooky.

Skrufff man-in-Berlin Mark Reeder, a long-term friend of New Order who was also
instrumental in turning them on to dance music after Joy Division finished following
the suicide of Ian Curtis, paid tribute to the band and their impact on dance
culture.

"Undoubtedly, New Order's impact was immense. they successfully managed to fuse
guitar rock music with electronic disco, Blue Monday ultimately paved the way for
rock fans to be able to dance to disco music without embarrassment and that idea in
turn, went on to become the Hacienda and eventually develop into rave and then
techno," he said.

"New Order symbolised everything that a credible 'indie' band needed. They were
always cutting edge and their music had authenticity, art, design and simplicity.
Plus, anyone could sing along to Bernard's vocals."

"But having said that. Hooky may say that New Order have split, but maybe it should
just be seen that Hooky has left?" he added.

Bernard Sumner was understood to be on a sailing holiday crossing the Atlantic when
Hooky made his statement, so has yet to comment on the split.

http://www.myspace.com/peterhookneworder