Peter Hook & The Light – Powerstation: Nov. 21, 2022

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Peter Hook & the Light are on their fourth or fifth tour of Aotearoa/New Zealand since 2010 when they formed three years after his colleagues in New Order gave him the cold shoulder.

This is another of those covid delayed tours, and the trio of shows in NZ follow the “Joy Division: A Celebration” tour across North America. Tonight’s line up is almost the same as the 2017 tour, featuring Peter Hook on bass/guitar/vocals, Paul Kehoe on drums & David Potts on guitars/keyboards (both from Peter Hook’s side project Monaco) and the new kid on the bock, Martin Rebelski on keyboards/synthesizers (of Doves fame) Hooky’s son Jack Bates usually on bass/guitar is currently on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins, and I have no idea who is filling in, so let’s call him the unknown bass player.

The show is sold out tonight, and the few tickets making it onto trademe have been snapped up fast, the pub across the road is crammed with not-so-fresh fellows adorned in black and Joy Division t-shirts. Outside the Powerstation, the early queue of fanboys and fangirls snakes around the corner, anticipation is high after a two-year delay to this show.

It’s hot inside the room, but my excitement levels rise higher as I discover that The Powerstation has added a new craft beer to their bar selection, a decent Pilsner and a Hazy, in cans even. Hallelujah! I get asked if the mixtape blaring is one of mine, is that a compliment? The air-con finally comes on as Kraftwerk’s Autobahn blares, and then it is superseded by the Mario Newcomen Composed theme to the 1958 classic movie The Vikings (featuring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis) as the band start to appear onstage.

There was no mystery as to what the audience are going to hear tonight, setlists from previous shows are all over the interweb, but as the band launch into the New Order set, it’s obvious Auckland is getting a tailored set as the bass and synth heavy sonics of The Him from the sometimes forgotten first album New Order album Movement fills the room. Through the five New Order classics and a Monaco (a Hooky New Order side-project) The band blaze in a brighter sound that inspires much joy and action from the crowd. Live, Peter Hook and bandmates are able to combine the post pop-sensibilities of New Order with the post-punk darkness of Joy Division, transforming the songs into what a possible third album by Joy Division with Ian Curtis might’ve sounded. A set highlight is the extended version of Crystal, a late era New Order song, but one transformed by Peter Hook & the Light into a raw and mighty post-punk anthem. The set is far too short… far too short.

After a short break (far too short as the queue at the men’s toilet also snakes), the band returned to play through Joy Division’s first album – Unknown Pleasures. This is the album that incredibly reached #1 in Aotearoa/New Zealand on release, there is a story to this, but NZ Music Historian Simon Grigg would be a better teller than I.

It’s at this point that we realise that the Light are phenomenal musicians, and the months touring have provided us in Auckland with a tight unit. The audience are inflicted upon by Hooky’s angst driven finger and arm pointing, perhaps mimicking the darkness of the albums themes, but it is when he takes over the bass role he displays his classic styles and poses that delight fans and extenuate each songs impact.

Highlights of the set are New Dawn Fades and She’s Lost Control, though I Remember Nothing set audience members on a singalong mode as the album extinguishes itself. The take-away from this set is Hooky’s vocal delivery, not all the time, but when it counted, with eyes closed, one could’ve imagined it was a 60-year-old Ian Curtis onstage, not Hooky. His voice really did at times sound just like that of late lead singer, it begs why New Order didn’t feature dual singers, like The Stranglers.

After another short break (far too short as the queue at the men’s toilet also snakes), it’s 42 years since the suicide of Ian Curtis and an incredible mystic has grown around him, it’s also 42 years since Joy Division’s second (and final) album Closer was released, and it stands as a fitting taonga to the bands legacy.

Tonight’s live re-creation by Peter Hook & the Light supersedes the former set, as it becomes apparent that it is a much more rhythmic and dynamic body of songs. From the drum laden power of Atrocity Exhibition, to the melancholic drive of Heart & Soul and the finality and simplicity and sometimes sparseness of the album’s final song Decades, the band create a modern interpretation that ignites a true passion in the audience, and perhaps confirm Closer’s superiority over Unknown Pleasures.

It’s during this set that an epiphany transpires…throughout the show we are blessed by dual bass players Peter Hook and he unknown bass player, it is with appreciation of the I realise that when Hooky is singing, he never plays bass, only the unknown bass player plays, but when Hooky plays bass, the unknown bass player plays either in sync with Pottsy’s (David Potts) magnificent guitar work, or an octave down from Hooky, is It something only a fanboy/fangirl would appreciate?

Of course, there will be an encore, but like the first set, will it follow scripture or has the band got something up their sleeves. It’s raw and its just bass, drums, guitar and vox, as Digital, one of their earliest recorded songs from 1978 blasts the room back into a frenzy, followed by Ceremony, which sounded like what a third Joy Division album might have.

It’s time for the crowd to dance dance to the… as Transmission is followed by Love Will Tear Us a Part, in which the audience serenades the band back. It’s been almost three hours, and the ex-docker from Salford tosses his sweat laden shirt into the audience, bare-chested, he doesn’t look bad for a 66 year old that’s doing a fantastic job of keeping Joy Division’s music relevant in the modern day.

Simon Coffey
Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ivan Karczewski:

First Set – New Order
The Him

Everything’s Gone Green

True Faith

Vanishing Point

Crystal

What Do You Want From Me? (Monaco cover)

 

Second Set – Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
Disorder
Day of the Lords
Candidate
Insight
New Dawn Fades
She’s Lost Control
Shadowplay
Wilderness
Interzone
I Remember Nothing

Third Set – Joy Division: Closer
Atrocity Exhibition
Isolation
Passover
Colony
A Means to an End
Heart And Soul
Twenty Four Hours
The Eternal
Decades

Encore
Digital
Ceremony
Transmission
Love Will Tear Us Apart

Simon Coffey
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