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A review by jlmb
Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division by Peter Hook
4.0
Part of me wants to give this book five stars just because it's written by Peter Hook and is about Joy Division. I've been a BIG fan of the music for years (JD & New Order) yet there was a surprising amount of stuff I didn't know about the band. I guess because they were never in all the magazines and didn't tour much. (I only saw them live once -in 1985 in Austin. It was a big,big deal to see them.) I own a ton of their bootlegs I got in Europe and feel I know their music catalogue quite well. But personal stuff - nope. So a lot of this book was quite interesting to me. I didn't feel like I was reading about someone I knew a lot about. I also enjoyed the music details Hook included. When I read a rock memoir of a person whose music I'm not a fan of, the details about the songs and recordings can be a bit dull. Not in the case of this book. I feel like I have a deeper appreciation of their music now.
I ended up giving four stars because I feel like there is a lot I still don't know about the band. Obviously this is his memoir - not a bio of the whole band - and Hook mentions several times that this is only his perspective and he can't give a definitive answer to every question. Still, Hook seemed to not spend very much time with the band members at all - he hung out more with the crew and staff. SImilar to David Lee Roth's memoir I read - and Gene Simmons too - in that while the band worked musically(for a while at least) personally there were a ton of issues. I hope Bernard Sumner ends up writing his memoir. I think it'll really add to the information in this book.
Although I have always thought Peter Hook really hot - he was my favorite in HS, sigh (I made sure to stand in front of him the one time I saw New Order) he is an asshole. He would have scared me in real life - he's quite the curmudgeon. And he admits it - admits that he was a right arsehole and a wanker to others - but still, he is not a sympathetic character a lot of the time even with his self-knowledge/20-20 hindsight. I appreciate that he admits the times he was flat out wrong or stupid. I've read other memoirs where the person still think they were 100% in the right and the other band members were morons - it's hard to believe a memoir like that, one so delusional. Hook seems honest - honest and jerky.
I'm not sure how much a non-fan would enjoy this book. It's not like reading Keith Richard's memoir or that Motley Crue book The Dirt - where there is so much lurid, entertaining gossip the music takes a back seat to the band's antics. Joy Division weren't big druggies, they didn't lark about with models and celebrities. the stories are more interesting to fans than the general public at large. Don't get me wrong, there are so funny stories but not like Led Zepplin/Keith Moon wild.
I ended up giving four stars because I feel like there is a lot I still don't know about the band. Obviously this is his memoir - not a bio of the whole band - and Hook mentions several times that this is only his perspective and he can't give a definitive answer to every question. Still, Hook seemed to not spend very much time with the band members at all - he hung out more with the crew and staff. SImilar to David Lee Roth's memoir I read - and Gene Simmons too - in that while the band worked musically(for a while at least) personally there were a ton of issues. I hope Bernard Sumner ends up writing his memoir. I think it'll really add to the information in this book.
Although I have always thought Peter Hook really hot - he was my favorite in HS, sigh (I made sure to stand in front of him the one time I saw New Order) he is an asshole. He would have scared me in real life - he's quite the curmudgeon. And he admits it - admits that he was a right arsehole and a wanker to others - but still, he is not a sympathetic character a lot of the time even with his self-knowledge/20-20 hindsight. I appreciate that he admits the times he was flat out wrong or stupid. I've read other memoirs where the person still think they were 100% in the right and the other band members were morons - it's hard to believe a memoir like that, one so delusional. Hook seems honest - honest and jerky.
I'm not sure how much a non-fan would enjoy this book. It's not like reading Keith Richard's memoir or that Motley Crue book The Dirt - where there is so much lurid, entertaining gossip the music takes a back seat to the band's antics. Joy Division weren't big druggies, they didn't lark about with models and celebrities. the stories are more interesting to fans than the general public at large. Don't get me wrong, there are so funny stories but not like Led Zepplin/Keith Moon wild.