Peter Hook

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Peter Hook (born February 13, 1956 in Salford, England) was the bass player for the influential British post-punk band Joy Division and later New Order.

When bassist for Joy Division Hook was described as "a bass player who thought he was playing lead guitar" (similar statements have been made about The Who's John Entwistle and Yes's Chris Squire), Hook's unique melodic style of bass playing continued while in New Order. This unusual approach was largely influenced, Hook reports, by the inexpensive, second-hand, low-quality equipment he played early in his career: with such shoddy gear he was only able to clearly hear his amplifier when he played higher pitched notes. His playing position is also unusual; he tends to wear his bass hanging down around knee-level, with an extra-long strap. Hook also contributed backing vocals on numerous Joy Division songs and sang lead on two New Order songs (Dreams Never End and Doubts Even Here from the 1981 LP Movement).

With New Order's ever increasing use of sequenced synthesized bass, especially throughout most of 1989's Technique and 1993's Republic, Hook's bass playing became ever more melodic and rhythmic, often exploiting the baritone guitar range of the Shergold Marathon 6 string bass guitar which has a 30" scale putting it between normal bass (34") and guitar (around 24").

Hook also recorded two albums each with the bands Revenge and Monaco (both as bassist, keyboardist and lead vocalist), the latter of which scored a club and alternative-radio hit What Do You Want From Me? in 1997. Starting in the late 1980s, Hook also worked as a producer for bands such as Inspiral Carpets and The Stone Roses. In 2003 he contributed his distinctive bass to a number of tracks on Hybrid's album Morning Sci-Fi, including the single "True to Form". He is currently in a band called Freebass with bass players Mani (ex-The Stone Roses and Andy Rourke (ex-The Smiths).