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Peter Hook from Joy Division to play all of post-punk masterpiece 'Unknown Pleasures' at the Market/Showbox on Dec 7

[Joy Divison - Unknown Pleasures]

It's the album cover that has inspired possibly the coolest t-shirt in rock music history.

Peter Hook is taking Unknown Pleasures out on the road with his band The Light, and the ten tracks on the album will do for those of us reading this website what a reunion of Pink Floyd doing Dark Side of The Moon would do for our parents, aunts, and uncles. Unfortunately, due to dissolving relationships of his own and many other problems, there is no Ian Curtis to moan into the abyss this time -- but Hook has had experience in both JD and the follow-up band made from its ashes-phoenix, New Order, and is throwing in some tracks from original punk band Warsaw besides.

Can you believe all this live music revival goodness will be happening in Seattle next week, December 7, at the Showbox at the Market? There are some people who grumble about the "playing the whole album live" business, but I'm sure even they are intrigued. Especially them, actually. Unknown Pleasures is an album's album, great single tracks regardless, due to its uniformity of sound and over-plus of existential intensity, which these music fans are probably all up in. Unknown Pleasures is the album where the post-punk strip-down happened first, best, and the most -- it is to rock music what Wagner is to opera (and Hook's bass is to alternative dance music as Jimi Hendrix's guitar was to hard rock).

Chris Ott of Pitchfork in his 33 1/3 devoted to the LP called it "the end of pop ... ." The late Tony Wilson, famous for founding the Manchester-based label and club that would give Joy Division their boost into history, is quoted in Simon Reynolds' new book Totally Wired as saying about the "crazed (but) deliciously clever" producer, "Martin Hannett is the kind of man who could hear the sound of the moon moving around the earth." He also claims the band hated Unknown Pleasures due to it being created fully out of absolute hardship and creative suffering, and "if they'd had their way it never would have been released."

Though the historical and aesthetic reign of Unknown Pleasures may have had quite a bit to do with Hannett and with the patronage of Wilson, chief of Factory (the label for UP and its also-crucial follow up Closer) and The Hacienda (the club they got serious at and played regularly), the music played by those musicians is essential and immortal enough to keep young bands coming back to it year by year, a sort of dark pool of eternal creative life. All I know is when the girl I'd fallen madly in love with dumped me (for the first time), leaving me in a windowless basement bed-sit in Spokane in the middle of a deep-snowed winter, all I did was lie in bed and play this one LP over and over, only rising to flip it over. (Imagine if CD players with repeat had existed then! I'd still be there now, listening to "Interzone," my eyes no longer seeing, like a pale little fish at the bottom of the ocean.)

"She's Lost Control," "Transmission," "Atmosphere," and the stand-alone single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" all came from sessions Joy Division did starting in April of 1979, as 15 songs they'd been rehearsing -- and then sacrificed to the mercurial, drug-stoked Hannett, formed through their ferocious ambition and his "impatient, cerebral hyperactivity." Their sound was broken down piece by piece, the buzz-saw roar of Ian Curtis on vocals, Peter Hook on bass and backing vocals, Bernard Summer on guitar and keyboards, and Stephen Morris on drums minimalistically reinvented as Joy Division starring in their debut Unknown Pleasures.

Don't miss this chance to hear one of its primary players displayed all its icy charms at once!

Thursday, December 2, 2010
by Chris Estey

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1   Amy D said on December 2, 2010

I'm so torn. Really want to check this show out - but fear somehow, it won't live up to the album without Ian singing...

2   Ian Duggan said on December 2, 2010

Maybe this review will help you change your mind. From Manchester this past May. Cheers! Ian Unknown Pleasures (Peter Hook and friends) FAC251 May 18, 2010 In a room upstairs at FAC251, the white VOX Phantom guitar once played by Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is attracting an endless line of onlookers. Sitting in quiet isolation, it has become a symbol of a band cut short when Curtis took his own life on May 18, 1980. In the 30 years since, respect for the band has grown exponentially; in their day, they were critically acclaimed cult heroes, now they’re rightly regarded as bona fide musically visionaries. The guitar is here to mark the 30th anniversary of Ian’s death, but it is part of a larger programme put together by his former band mate and Joy Division bassist Peter Hook. A big part of that is a live reworking of the group’s seminal album, Unknown Pleasures, as well as a surprising romp through their only album as Warsaw. Starting pre-Joy Division, though, is a logical decision for Hooky, who is charged with filling in for Curtis on vocals while his son Jack Bates shares bass duties, Nat Watson ably handles Bernard Sumner’s guitar melodies and Paul Kehoe batters hell out of Stephen Morris’ drumbeats. Warsaw’s material owes far more to punk than the introspective paeans of Unknown Pleasures, and as Hooky yells his way through At A Later Date and Warsaw he seems relieved to have the chance to shout his obvious tension out. Consequently, No Love Lost and Leaders Of Men also burn with more attitude than their recorded counterparts, which originally hinted at what would become Joy Division’s brooding signature sound. If anyone is entitled to mark Curtis’ passing with a musical tribute, it’s Hook, but this clearly isn’t easy for him. At times, he looks elated, at others like a rabbit in headlights. Occasionally, he appears quite overcome by the palpable pressure to get this right. The still astonishing rhythms of Digital and angular aggression of Glass, then, serve as a reassuring bridge and make extraordinarily good use of the dual-bass sound provided by Hooky and Hooky junior. And then the unmistakable bounce of Disorder’s guitar hook hits, leading the way into the night’s most difficult 35 minutes. But there’s light relief even here. Former Happy Mondays regular and X Factor runner up Rowetta brings a soulful slant to Insight and New Dawn Fades, both of which are received so rapturously that it leaves a beaming Hooky declaring himself “a very happy old man”. Nothing, though, sounds as timeless or iconic as She’s Lost Control and Shadowplay, which both motivate Hook into his trademark low-slung bass stance. Encore one is a slightly jumbled rendition of Transmission, with A Certain Ratio’s Simon Topping on guest vocals (and not for the first time; he famously filled in for Curtis back in 1980), and after much debate, Love Will Tear Us Apart – the band’s only charting single, which reached an ironic No.13 a month after Curtis’ death – crowns the evening with a venue-wide sing along. Nights like this are a reminder of what generations of music lovers have missed out on for three decades. But Unknown Pleasures is also a moment that should pull all aspiring musicians up by the seat of their pants; this album still sounds like a breakthrough moment 31 years after it was written, and that is a tribute to every member of Joy Division. Reviewed: Wed, 19 May, 2010

3   Imaginary Nicky said on December 2, 2010

Chris are you going?  After much debate over whether I want to pay enough to buy a third ticket (rot in hell, Ticketmaster) or not, I decided that I just cannot miss this - despite clashing opinions over authenticity, this is still an important tour for any budding rock historian.  Aaaand Kevin Cummins' Manchester:  Looking for the Light Through the Pouring Rain is totally on my Christmas wishlist, along with a JD t-shirt.  

4   Chris Estey said on December 3, 2010

Thanks for the review, Ian. Nicky, by all rights I should be there, but I have lots going on that day/night. I am totally intrigued though and wish I could make it. I would love a report from you on it, if possible!

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