Peter Hook & The Light – A Celebration of Joy Division – Barrowland Glasgow 28th July 2022
The night was finally here after a lengthy delay due to Covid 19, fans eagerly holding onto their tickets waiting on the reschedule date for the show being announced. The queues snaked around the venue with the waiting crowds, a good mix of young and old fans counting down the minutes until doors open. The younger fans will have undoubtedly grown up listening to the music from their parents and more recently from watching the Transmission film the story of Ian Curtis and Joy Division.
As expected, the venue was packed, the excitement of what was to come could be felt around the venue from the waiting fans. The atmosphere was electric, as the lights went down, a flood of dry ice snaked across the stage, the intro music slowly began to raise the excitement within the venue, as the stage lights slowly came up one by one it was time to welcome back Peter Hook (Hooky) back to the famous venue he's played many times before with his old band New Order. As Peter took to the stage moving to the mic stand at front of the stage, he nodded to the audience before the intro started for New Order's ICB from the movement album, the noise level was deafening, the fans were well up for what was going to be an amazing night of music from Peter Hook & the Light. The celebrations had started, no support act needed, the sound of New Order was all that was needed to get the party started. The movement album was a great start, continuing with the excellent Ceremony and Everything's Gone Green. The Light and Hooky were sounding great, sometimes finding it difficult to see him due to the dry ice, catching his famous bass stance from time to time. The New Order set really has the crowd in full voice, dancing around the venue, finishing the New Order part of the set with the excellent Crystal, Thieves Like Us before bringing it to a close with Your Silent Face from the Power Corruption and Lies album from 1983, as the song ended Hooky and the band left the stage for a short break.
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The band returned, it was time to revisit the 1979 album from Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures, the band sounding awesome, Hooky really giving it all to deliver superb vocals for the epic songs that formed a new generation in music. Highlights from the album included Digital, New Dawn Fades, and the amazing version of She's Lost Control. Peter Hook was in his glory, performing the classics in front of the sold out Barrowland.
As the album closed, he moved on to the Second album Closer opening with Atrocity Exhibition, laying the foundations to the opening of the Closer album. The dry ice on the stage created a darker mood and the intense performance of the album created a beautiful atmosphere within the venue. This was an immense set with highlights from this album were Isolation, Heart and Soul and the excellent The Eternal. As the band finished with the last song from the album, the crowd were anticipating what was to come next, as Peter Hook had already covered a 27-song set. The band took a well-deserved break, the Glasgow audience still wanted more, this was one big party to celebrate the work that started back in 1979. The main venue lights were still not up, everyone knew there was more to come. The wait was now over, the band where back on stage, and my god they left the best to last.
Opening the encore with the awesome Atmosphere, had the Barrowland audience going mad singing and dancing, this was followed by These Days before the epic two song ending to the set with Transmission and brought the house down with Love Will Tear Us Apart had the entire venue in full vocals.
Tonight, was a night that no one would ever think they would witness live, thank you to Peter Hook for making dreams come true hearing these immortal tracks played live some of them for the first time. In total a 31-song set that saw Hooky at the end with his top off, looking as if he enjoyed it as much as the Glasgow audience did, ultimately this was the perfect way to celebrate the music of Joy Division.
Review and Photographs by James Edmond
