Peter Hook

He and his brother Christopher were brought up by his maternal grandmother Alicia Acton (née Chapman; 1896–1968) until 1962, when his mother remarried Ernest William Hook (1914–1988).

Like his bandmate Bernard Sumner, he took his stepfather's surname, although in contrast to his friend he kept it, even creating his nickname, "Hooky", from it.

Because of his stepfather's work, he spent part of his childhood in Jamaica before returning to Salford, where he attended Salford Grammar School.

Peter Hook (born 13 February 1956) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and co-founder of the rock bands Joy Division and New Order.

Hook often used the bass as a lead instrument, playing melodies on the high strings with a signature heavy chorus effect.

In New Order, he would do this, leaving the actual basslines to keyboards or sequencers.

Hook was born Peter Woodhead on 13 February 1956, in Broughton, Salford, Lancashire, England, to Irene (née Acton; 1928–2000), and John Woodhead (1926–2005).

His parents divorced in 1959 when he was three years old.

Along with Bernard Sumner, Hook formed the band which was to become Joy Division in 1976.

On 4 June and 20 July 1976, childhood friends Bernard Sumner and Hook attended a Sex Pistols show at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall.

The following day Hook borrowed £35 from his mother to buy his first bass guitar.

Inspired by the performance, Sumner and Hook formed a band with their friend Terry Mason, who had also attended the shows.

Their band, originally called Warsaw, debuted on 29 May 1977 at the Electric Circus, supporting Buzzcocks, Penetration and John Cooper Clarke.

The band played their first gig as Joy Division on 25 January 1978 at Pip's Disco in Manchester.

Following the death of lead singer Ian Curtis in 1980, the band reformed as New Order, and Hook played bass with them until 2007.

Hook has recorded one album with Revenge (One True Passion), two albums with Monaco (Music for Pleasure and Monaco) and one album with Freebass (It's a Beautiful Life), serving as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist.

He is currently the lead singer and one of the bassists for Peter Hook and the Light.

In 1980, after Joy Division, the remaining members formed New Order.

In the late 1980s, Hook also worked as a producer for bands such as Inspiral Carpets and the Stone Roses.

In 1984, Hook recorded the single "Telstar" with the short-lived band Ad Infinitum.

Hook also co-owned the Suite Sixteen recording studio, formerly Cargo Studios, which Hook purchased with Chris Hewitt in 1984.

Cargo and Suite Sixteen in Kenion Street, Rochdale were major studios in the history of punk and post-punk music.

The band continued until they first broke up in 1993.

In 1995 he toured with the Durutti Column.

He has recorded one album with the band Revenge and two with Monaco (both as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist) with David Potts, the latter of which scored a club and alternative radio hit "What Do You Want From Me?"

in 1997.

New Order reformed in 1998.

Hook contributed to Perry Farrell's Satellite Party.

His bass can be heard on "Wish Upon a Dogstar" and "Kinky".

Inspired by Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets, he started with the Return to New York nights in London.

In the mid 2000s Hook was regularly performing as a DJ, however he was discovered to be playing pre-mixed CDs and only miming the actions of a DJ.

He admitted he was only pretending to be a DJ on his Myspace blog, but then removed it due to public backlash.

He contributed a distinctive bassline to Hybrid's 2003 single "True to Form", as well as another track from their Morning Sci-Fi album, "Higher Than a Skyscraper", playing on stage with them on a number of dates of their ensuing tour.

On 4 May 2007, Hook announced on Xfm that he and New Order singer/guitarist Bernard Sumner were no longer working together, effectively spelling the end for the band; the band later denied disbanding.

He then played and recorded a studio album, It's a Beautiful Life, with a new band project called Freebass with bass players Mani (The Stone Roses) and Andy Rourke (ex-the Smiths).

Hook and Potts reformed Monaco on two occasions in 2007, with original drummer Paul Kehoe and Hook's son Jack completing the line up for two gigs at Manchester's Hard Rock Cafe in March and at the Ritz Theatre in October.

A blue plaque was unveiled on the Kenion Street music building in Rochdale that used to house the studios in September 2009 and Peter Hook played a special concert in Rochdale on that day with Section 25 donating all proceeds to the Back Door Music Project, a Rochdale youth project for people interested in music.

He is featured on "Dirty Thirty" and "Blunts & Robots", two tracks off of the Crystal Method's 2009 album Divided by Night.

Hook compiled "The Hacienda Acid House Classics" in 2009 following on from his original mix of "The Hacienda Classics" from 2006.

In October 2009, Hook published his book on his time as co-owner of the Hacienda, How Not to Run a Club.