The reunion of 2 Tone-era ska giants The Specials rolls into 2013 as the band this week announced a 10-date spring tour of the U.K. and even hinted it would fulfill its promise to return to America, tweeting this morning that “The Specials are discussing a possible two part TOUR OF THE USA in March and late August 2013.”

Peter Hook recently recorded a 2-minute video for the NME’s Song Stories series in which he discusses the origins of some of Joy Division’s most beloved songs, including “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” “Transmission” and “Atmosphere” — plus the future New Order classic, “Ceremony,” that Joy Division didn’t record.

Drew Crumbaugh — aka The Analog Loyalist, whose attempt to restore R.E.M.’s I.R.S. Records catalog was thwarted by Universal Music earlier this year — has taken a second crack at cleaning up the 1980 concert included on the reissue of Joy Division’s ‘Closer,’ and is offering the new version as a free download.

With New Order’s first U.S. tour in seven years underway comes news the band finally will release the ‘Lost Sirens’ album — a collection of outtakes from 2005’s ‘Waiting for the Sirens’ Call’ delayed for nearly a year by apparent legal wrangling with Peter Hook — and that the band may tour both North and South America in 2013.

Having performed all three of Joy Division’s official albums live in recent years, Peter Hook announced today that he will turn his attention to his other former band, New Order, and perform that group’s first two albums — 1981’s ‘Movement and’ 1983’s ‘Power, Corruptions & Lies’ — live at a pair of U.K. concerts in January.

Bernard Sumner previously has hinted that New Order — which reunited last year without bassist Peter Hook — may write new music, but now he’s talking about it in detail for the first time, telling interviewers that the band will meet early next year to begin writing new material with an eye on making an ‘electronic synth album.’

Journalist Hobey Echlin took advantage of his face time with New Order during a 2001 interview to grab Peter Hook’s four-string and play the bassline to Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in front of the man who wrote it — only to be told he was doing it wrong. So Hook took the bass back and showed Echlin how it’s done.