The infamous Peter Hook flew into the Windy City this past weekend to talk with Chicago music aficionado and owner of the Metro and Smart Bar, Joe Shanahan. Approximately 50 people attended the invitation only gathering to meet and ask questions with Peter during the session hosted by the Red Bull Music Academy. Former presenters at the Academy and long time friends, Joe and Peter discussed their musical interactions through the years including several precarious hunts down the dark alleys of New York and Detroit in search of new underground, emerging sounds.
Over the course of the evening, Hook discussed everything from his early days with Joy Division and New Order to his most recent move into deejaying. The night was meant to be focused around his recent book, a memoir of sorts titled “The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club”, the story of the notorious Manchester club created by the members of New Order. However, once the two started talking, the conversation touched on all facets of Hook’s long music career. Not holding anything back, Hook told stories of performing in front of only a janitor, bouncing at The Hacienda, the origination of Factory nights, the birth of Acid House, the late night escapades, and the eventual sobering realization that the ultimate demise of the club was indeed partially his fault.
Amusing anecdotes provided by both Shanahan and Hook were scattered throughout the evening. One such story involved New Order’s first American concert that was actually held at the Metro in Shanahan’s early days. The two went on to talk about the lack of air conditioning in the venue, an unfortunate thing since it happened to be 105 degrees in Chicago that day. In fact, it was so hot New Order’s instruments began to melt on stage forcing the band to improvise and play more in the style of a rock band. Joe’s lack of clarity on the club’s legal capacity didn’t help either as the crowd was so large they spilled into the lobby, sat on staircases and basically broke every fire code. Luckily, Shanahan has learned his lesson since then.
As the two continued to reminisce, a poignant moment occurred when a somber Hook discussed the award winning film, Control. Hook, along with the other members of Ian Curtis’ clan, was able to work with director Anton Corbijn to ensure the depiction of Joy Division and Curtis’s life was accurate. He recalled watching the film for the very first time during the premier and while the audience clapped when it was over, it seemed so fresh and real he stated, “watching Debbie (Ian Curtis’ widow) scream when she finds Ian felt like someone stuck a dagger through my heart.”
The night concluded with Hook discussing his move into deejaying, a skill he uncovered in recent years and has been hitting the club scene around the world. “There is an art to deejaying. It is the unpredictability of it all that I really enjoy. You never know what the crowd is going to want to hear.” And the crowd seemed to love him during the after-party at Smart Bar much to Hook’s relief.
