Peter Hook And The Light – Leeds Academy 1st July 2022
Written by TotalRocker on July 8, 2022
Words: Diamond Dave
Photos: Nigel Chapman
The effect that the band Joy Division have had on modern music is unmistakeable and it is shown in this wonderful set from Peter Hook And The Light performed as they ventured across the Penines to play the two Joy Division albums “Unknown Pleasures” and “Closer” in full tonight. It is the way in which Joy Division were able to come out of a tired Punk scene and come up with something so special and inventive and over a short period of about 3 years produce two albums which today, some 40 years later still sound so breathtakingly beautiful and mysterious as they did when they were released.
The set is split in two and Peter Hook begins with the “Unknown Pleasures” album which as well as having one of the great album covers of all time will also within it’s ten songs sets itself apart from all of the others released in 1979 with it’s darkness oozing from every pore. “She’s Lost Control” with lyrics that seem to be Ian Curtis whispering into the listeners very soul and Hook recreates this uneasy feeling perfectly whilst still providing those driving bass lines that have become his trademark.
What becomes evident is how this band are able to create such a big sound eclipsing anything that Joy Division were able to put on vinyl. Right from the start of album opener “Disorder” each song is greeted like a long lost friend and it is incredible to watch from upstairs in the balcony that the crowd even though will know this album off by heart will greet each song from it with a cheer that is triumphant.
The one thing that always goes through my mind when I think of the second album that Peter Hook And The Light play tonight , “Closer” is the unfairness that Ian Curtis who sang on this incredible album never got to know the incredible effect that it had on Joy Division fans and rock music in general having taken his own life on the 18th May 1980 , two months before the albums released and coincidentally my birthday. This dark beauty which seeps out of every pore and is shown no more that the incredible “Isolation” which is my favourite on this night of many highlights.
If you are a young rock fan who has a penchant for goth/industrial or even dark dance music like Aphex Twin etc I urge you to try and catch this Peter Hook And The Light tour as it goes around the UK/USA and Australia/New Zealand and you will see just how important Joy Division are to the likes of Nine Inch Nails/Ministry/Therapy? Etc and the hordes of other bands who champion them!
