Bass maestro Peter Hook last night christened his new Manchester club FAC251 — housed in the former headquarters of Factory Records — with members of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays helping perform a career-spanning set that included the live debuts of an unfinished Joy Division song and a New Order outtake, plus tracks by Monaco and Freebass.
Friday night’s one-off band — a modified version of Freebass billed as “Peter Hook’s The Light” — featured Hook backed by Roses/Freebass/Primal Scream bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield, former Mondays backing vocalist Rowetta, drug smuggler/Freebass guest vocalist Howard Marks and Haven/Freebass singer Gary Briggs.
According to the NME, the gig sold out in 10 minutes, and the club was mobbed by ticket scalpers and fans trying to get in to the show. Hook — who took the stage wearing a T-shirt bearing the Tony Wilson quote, “We made history, not money” — told the NME: “I was sat in the hotel room across the road before looking out of the window and it was mad. I was like, ‘Fucking hell, it’s like 1988 and The Haçienda all over again.'”
Hook’s ad hoc band opened the night with a pair of songs — “Dark Starr” and “You Don’t Know…” — from his long-in-the-works Freebass project with Mani and The Smiths’ Andy Rourke. The group also performed “What Do You Want From Me” and “Shine” by Hooky’s ’90s side project Monaco (what, nothing by Revenge?) and New Order’s “Ceremony,” “Dreams Never End” and “Blue Monday” — as well as “Sister + Brother,” an unreleased outtake from the band’s final CD, 2005’s Waiting for the Sirens’ Call.
Hook’s group also ran through a number of Joy Division songs, including “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” “Transmission” and “Atmosphere.” Most notable, however, was the debut of an unfinished 1978 track called “Pictures” (also known as “Pictures In My Mind”).
Hook told the NME he recently completed the Joy Division song:
“It went in an instant. Because its so punky, it’s on the cusp of Warsaw and Joy Division and it sort of showed that beautiful madness and Ian Curtis’ lyrics gave it that depth, and the music just developed around his focus really and that’s why I really liked it.”
Attendees of last night’s show were given a free CD featuring the Hook track “Tokyo Joe” and a video of the song, plus recent photos of FAC251 by Kevin Cummins. The blog Everything Starts With an A… has the cover art and a rip of the giveaway disc here.
See Peter Hook’s FAC251 setlist and live video after the jump…
Setlist: Peter Hook’s The Light, FAC251, Manchester, UK, 2/5/10
1. “Dark Starr” (Freebass, unreleased)
2. “You Don’t Know…” (Freebass, unreleased)
3. “Dreams Never End” (New Order)
4. “Ceremony” (New Order)
5. “Sister + Brother” (New Order, unreleased)
6. “Shine” (Monaco)
7. “What Do You Want From Me” (Monaco)
8. “Atmosphere” (Joy Division)
9. “Insight” (Joy Division)
10. “Shadowplay” (Joy Division)
11. “Pictures” (Joy Division, unreleased)
12. “Interzone” (Joy Division)
13. “Warsaw” (Joy Division)
14. “Transmission” (Joy Division)
15. “Sunrise” (New Order)
16. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Joy Division)
17. “Blue Monday” (New Order)
Video: The Light, “Blue Monday,” FAC251, Manchester, UK, 2/5/09
Video: The Light, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” FAC251, Manchester, UK, 2/5/09
Video: Official trailer for Peter Hook’s FAC251
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Bad Lieutenant, Bernard Sumner’s New Order spinoff, announces five U.K dates
- Milestones: New Order’s ‘Technique’ released 21 years ago today
- ‘Ceremony: A New Order Tribute’ proceeds to benefit Tony Wilson charity
- The Other Two reissuing ‘The Other Two & You,’ ‘Super Highways’
- Bernard Sumner’s Bad Lieutenant cancels debut U.S. concerts
- Peter Hook’s Freebass finishes first album, preps debut EP ‘Two Worlds Collide’
- New Order’s botched CD reissues finally to be re-reissued by Rhino Records
- New Order spinoff Bad Lieutenant announces ‘Never Cry Another Tear’
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