you know I'm immensely proud of what we achieved as Joy Division I'm immensely proud of the music
we wrote in New Order I'm certainly not immensely proud of anything to do with
new order they asked a thousand DJs which would be the track that they put on to rescue a night
and almost unanimously it was Blue Monday which was such a great compliment and yeah it's amazing
and we were gonna throw it away it's absolutely incredible Factory records our record label was
very anarchic we we honestly didn't know what we were doing we were all very very driven to do
what we didn't know we were doing
this is our champion for absolute radio we are backstage at the Isle of Wight festival and we
welcome back to the island the legend that is Mr Peter hook welcome back thank you no stranger of
course uh no oh yeah I've been there not as many times as you not as many times now that
that takes some doing that but yeah I mean it was funny because I was just having a picture
took over there next to the murals and um I was thinking about when I saw Jimi Hendrix
when he played the Isle of Wight very famous you were here no oh sorry on TV right I'm not that
old hang on a second I should do the math really quickly I'm study on and he set fire to his guitar
and I tried to emulate it at Reading right how did that go miserably oh my God it was so embarrassing
and then someone later told me that it's not the liquid that burns is it it's the fumes that burn
and it was very windy at reading right so yeah so yeah the Isle of Wight Festival got me in trouble
um well I mean that year to be fair got the entire Festival banned by Parliament oh good for a fair
few years in that case I feel a little better as you should um obviously headlined the big
top a couple of years with a Hacienda classical first time here with Pete's Hook and the light
though yeah I mean it's uh it's an interesting the the way because I don't use the brand name
um it affects you in many different ways so the other um as Noel says um people use the
brand name and for me to sort of break through this is quite nice this is very very very nice
at last to be able to do it and I'm hoping that it'll lead you know to to a lot of others
um the reviews just recently of peterkin the light have been outstanding um all music for instance
said probably the best performance and emotional reaction I've ever seen at a gig wow well do you
feel that emotion on stage yourself I am very very happy with what I'm doing and I'm very very
grateful and I realize how difficult the world is and how important it is that we all let loose
enjoy being together and enjoy wonderful music so yeah I am I mean I you know I always used to get
accused of wearing my heart on my sleeve and I do quite happily you know I'm immensely proud of what
we achieved as Joy Division I'm immensely proud of the music we wrote in New Order I'm certainly not
immensely proud of anything to do with New Order um so yeah and to share that music and see people
react it's absolutely fantastic and the lads are you know they I wish they had written it
to be honest with you because they really do put a lot of heart and soul and they've been wonderful
with me the light have absolutely been wonderful and I actually worked out the other day that I've
actually been with potsie Dave Potts my guitarist longer than I was with space really yeah really so
it's yeah it's it's quite interesting it's quite strange you know I mean and yeah I'm I'm very
happy you know what you're saying is I think it's a touches on a lot of it um I know for instance
you didn't have the greatest time making Republic but I don't know if in 2023 you've looked at
the YouTube comments for instance on you know a song like regret which I did yesterday
powerful what people say you know how they how they talk through you know how that
song has helped them through some genuinely really rough times in their lives which which
incredible thing do you know what when I meet artists that have done the same to me yeah you
know I have the same feeling we were on a train going to um Festival Fuji in Japan and Barney came
running into me and he said okay he said come here he said Neil Young's in the next Carriage
let's go and say hello well I went Neil Neil Young it's like that I mean Neil Young must have been
with me when I've been at my lowest and to get the opportunity to meet him I just said No and
went lock myself in the toilet well I didn't want to never meet your Heroes no no oh my God yeah
never without a shadow of a doubt remember being at Glastonbury we were staying in real world and
I'd been out with Primal scream for about three days and three days I got back to the
um real world because we were recording and I thought I've not eaten for three days
I better go down and have some breakfast and Peter Gabriel always had loads of people
real world was open when Glastonbury is on and loads of people coming in and out and
I just thought I've got to eat went downstairs got some corn flakes put the milk on and I was
just carrying it to the table and I put it down and I thought around nearly there all I've got
to do now is eat it right and I looked up and Lou Reed was sat there and I went off
straight back to bed I can't I just I just can't no not right now no another of my heroes no yeah
yeah um I'm as a music lover a real fan of the stories behind the songs how a classic song
came to be and it's only very recently that I found out the story behind Blue Monday is
that you essentially needed an encore song so you could go backstage and have a beer
how Blue Monday started we were getting in trouble when we were touring for not doing
encores because Johnny Rotten had shown us that we didn't believe in him and it wasn't right to
do them and we were holding that standard very high and so we came up with the idea of to
stop the promoter moaning because we're having all these riots and because of the riots we're
having a lot of fights and getting into a lot of trouble that we thought we could I mean it's
so naive that we could get that's what it's like Ai and it could get the machines to do the work
for us and then the audience wouldn't be upset now the fact that we just shows you how little
we thought of ourselves that we thought that the audience would be okay with us just pressing go
on the button and going off so yeah I mean it was absolutely true and what happened was we were in
the studio recording it and as it got better and better Rob gretn our manager started insisting
that we put the base on it that we we put guitar on it that we then put vocals on it and we were
going no we don't want to why why would we do that you know and my God lo and behold yeah
I mean the biggest compliment that I'd heard for years was that mixmag did a poll of a thousand
DJs and they asked a thousand DJs which would be the track that they put on to rescue a night
and almost unanimously it was Blue Monday which was such a great compliment you know to I produced
it with Mike Johnson our engineer and yeah it's amazing and we were gonna throw it away it's
absolutely incredible yeah Bonkers something else that I feel like is well known but perhaps isn't
because actually I've spoken to a friend of mine about it is is that because of that phenomenal
artwork you actually made a loss but I think it was 10p for every record sold right yeah
Pete Saville was really amused that the floppy disk that we were using for the samples on the
emulator one you'll have to Google it people yeah very very early early sampling keyboard
he loved the shape of it and he loved the cutouts and he said oh my God it's like a little 12-inch
record so when we presented him with the song he went to that and as Steve Morris quite rightly
says the money the cost of it was the bits that you didn't get so the punch took the thing away
and it was that die punching three people had to do it separately to the production of the records
yeah and we didn't find out until we'd sold 200 000 copies can everyone stop buying it now
well yeah may not presumably they've found a way to do it cheaper because I noticed that when they
reissued it Warners did I can't be the original sleeve so yeah but I mean you know factory factory
records our record label was very anarchic we we honestly didn't know what we were doing we were
all very very driven to do what we didn't know we were doing we didn't know the effect that it
was happening it's when you said about you know one of the greatest compliments I ever get as a
musician is when someone comes along and says thank you your record your song helped me you
know in so many ways and yeah as I said to you you know it works for me as well well on that
I mean just personally obviously Joy Division New Order gets so much love and rightly so genuinely
hand on heart one of my favorite songs of the 90s is Monaco what do you want oh thank you you know
what we were funnily enough potsy and I forgot to put it in because we've been playing it so much
and it's been going down so well particularly at Festival yes and it was only when we'd got
ready and done the set list and all that lot and um I said oh I forgot what you want from me
so yeah I'll be honest my producer shame in the setlist I know I know I know but I mean you know
it's it's quite odd because I play for two and a half hours two and three quarter hours 45 minutes
just goes in a heartbeat yeah I barely have time to get a sweater but on that big tour coming up
35th anniversary of substance yes I I mean I've I've been very lucky when we were together as new
order we we did very little and we certainly didn't do much to celebrate anything to do
with either band so now that I'm free I'm able to celebrate it as much when and play all the
tracks and you know what it's it's one of the wonderful things is that I can dig a track out
that we did quite happily and we loved at the time and realized that it's not been played
for 35 years or 40 years and go whoa and it is such a pleasure my aim before I shuffle off this
Mortal coil is to play every track that we've ever written and recorded and I'm not doing
bad we've got get ready coming up so I'm coming up to um you know the last two LPS waiting for
the sirens call and lost Sirens so yeah I'm looking forward to it because I said I would
and I will well today we're looking forward to your set so much it's the Friday night
crowd it's the best crowd isn't it you know I always keep saying stop telling me
that it's on it's on it's early or whatever because he makes me nervous no I'm really
nervous because it is there even after all this time I mean I frighten my spot I mean yeah
it's it's a very true it's such an honor to be in a place like this with the lats
doing something that I absolutely love so yeah I'm very happy to say the least