I’m humbled how much Joy Division songs mean to people- I cannot wait to perform Hacienda Classical again

Hook was a founding member of both Joy Division and then New Order, and both bands have gone on to join the rich tapestry of Manchester music decades after being formed. In the summer, Hook will return to Castlefield Bowl as part of the ‘Hacienda Classical’, an orchestra group that keeps the spirit of the iconic Manchester club alive.

In a chat with ManchesterWorld, Peter went into detail about his career, playing the classical, and the influence of Joy Division and New order’s music. He also admitted that he has a particular concern when he sees trains passing by Castlefield, and it stems from a dramatic scene in a certain soap opera.

“Manchester is always a difficult place to play and always has been,” Peter said. They get everything they want and they are uppity Mancs. It’ s been like this for 40 years. All of your friends are there, people who are most important to you, it's one of those things where if it goes wrong it goes horribly wrong but when it's right- it’s sublime.

“We don’t want to let people down. Since New Order split in 2009, people became suspicious of what we were doing. It took a while to win them over, and now we’ve done it enough for people to really get what we’re doing. There’s six songs that have never been played. It will be the first time we play them in the summer. There are a few others that have only been played between three and five times each and then never again. I’m well on my way in my ambition of playing every LP we ever wrote and recorded.

“It’s not just people who were at the Hacienda either, it's younger people who have bought into it. We sold out the warehouse project three years in a row, which was unreal. The crowd is getting younger, it’s to be expected, but it's a great complement to what we did that young people want to be part of.”

Peter has been a regular at Castlefield Bowl for years now, and he said that its the sort of venue that shows what he loves about Mancunians.

“It blends into the background. It’s a wonderful venue. What I love about Manchester people is that we’ve played it when its sunny, when its overcast, and when its p***** it down, and the enthusiasm has never been dampened. People know how to have a great time in Manchester, we’ve always led the way here for that.”

In 2010, Manchester-based soap Coronation Street aired a dramatic episode which showed a tram crashing off the viaduct and into the street. This scene is one that Peter always thinks of when at Castlefield.

“One of the drawbacks of Castlefield is that, being a Coronation Street fan, I keep on expecting the bloody train to come straight across. Every time they wave as they come past I think ‘go on, f*** off,’ and I think of that scene every time I’m there. I’m looking at the trains every time they come over.”

The Hacienda Classical has been a feature of the summer line-up at Castlefield for almost a decade. Peter described what it was like playing songs with such a large orchestra- and referenced one occasion where Happy Mondays’ Bez led to a slight friction.

“I’m flattered with the feedback we get from the classics. I never expected it to be so popular. I quickly learned that four people playing a song on stage is powerful, 74 people on stage is even more powerful. I get imposter syndrome when I’m with them. I can’t read music and I watch them and it's amazing.”

“I was pleasantly surprised to find out that many members of the orchestra had been to the Hacienda. It was wonderful. We sometimes get a clash of cultures, I remember one time we played at Bridgewater Hall. One of the section leaders said to me ‘I would like a line, because Bez keeps crossing over to me and he’s scaring me.’ I said to him ‘you don’t want to put a line on the stage, you’ll never get rid of him’”

Peter talked about how he and Graeme Park have come to love what they do with the orchestra- and said that he is pleased he didn’t get his own way.

“We are overall a very happy crew. I make sure of that, I make sure there’s no b***** We all look out for each other. I’ve also never seen a happier man doing what he’s doing than Graeme Park, and he’s been doing it for years and all around the world. We are just there with an orchestra, both beaming. I’m so pleased I didn’t do what I wanted to do and dump it. I used to think ‘you can’t play dance music with an orchestra,’ but now there’s not an orchestra out there that plays a club mix like we do.

“I’m so happy to be here and I’m so looking forward to the 10th year. We were robbed of having it earlier because of Covid, me and my manager Paul Fletcher have been sitting there wondering what we are going to do for the tenth.”

The influence of Joy Division’s music is something Peter still feels humbled by, and a scan of youtube comments gave him an immense feeling of pride.

“Ian Curtis always used to say that if we had a song we were stuck on, that we didn’t think was as good as the others, he always told us to push on with it because someone will love it. And I’ve met that person many times. The Youtube comments on ‘Get Ready’ were unbelievable. For Run Wild, a beautiful song, I looked in the comments and someone said it was their wedding song. This was repeated.

“Moments like that are humbling because you realise you might be arguing with the band about it, but someone out there puts a huge importance on that song. It’s moments like this that are very humbling.”