Capsule Review Archive – Substance: Inside New Order by Peter Hook
This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 13, 2017.
Substance: Inside New Order
By Peter Hook – Dey Street Books – January 31, 2017
Review by Robin Marx
The third book written by ex-Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter “Hooky” Hook, this is also his best. While over 700 pages long, this was a gripping read that was simultaneously both expansive and incredibly detailed.
Joy Division and New Order are bands surrounded by a lot of mystique and mythology, a great deal of it cultivated by the band themselves. They avoided the press and only grudgingly promoted their own albums. I hoped lead singer Bernard Sumner's Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me would shed some more light on the inner working of the band, but I was left disappointed. Much as he did with his previous Joy Division memoir, Hooky stepped up to deliver the nitty gritty details—the Substance, so to speak—that Sumner's book lacked.
Hooky covers the story of the band both on-stage and off-, and he refuses to shy away from painting himself and the others in an unflattering light with tales of their intoxicated revels, property destruction, womanizing, and other rock star antics. There's also a great deal of information provided about the music-making process, the evolution of the equipment used, and set lists for individual gigs.
The core of the book, however, is the deteriorating friendship between Sumner and Hooky. Both were childhood friends and the first members of Joy Division, but it's clear that life in the music industry changed both of them. Hooky has always come off as combative and competitive, and he paints a picture of Sumner as becoming gradually more controlling and diva-like in his interactions with the rest of the band. I suspect that both members are equally to blame for the falling out. Now sober for ten years, Hooky speaks frankly about his damaging addictions to cocaine and alcohol, and it appears that Sumner was equally prone to substance abuse, and perhaps still is. Hooky chalks up the cause of much of his own bad behavior to his struggle with drugs, but seems curiously unwilling to extend the benefit of the doubt to his former best friend.
Regardless of how the blame for Hook's departure from the band should be best assigned, rather than simple hate Hook seems more hurt and wounded by how things have turned out than anything else. New Order fans who read this book might end up learning too much about their favorite band, seeing how fractured the internal dynamics were and how petty the members could be, but even provided by a biased storyteller I found this deeper understanding adds an extra layer of appreciation when listening to New Order's iconic music.
★★★★☆
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