Peter Hook Shares His Post-New Order Plans

Billboard reports: *Peter Hook has no interest in being idle. The former New Order/Joy Division bassist is making progress with his new project Freebase, which gathers Smiths bassist Andy Rourke & Stone Roses' Mani. "I've sat down with Mani & Rourke and we desperately want to play the festivals next year... We're going to work our balls off up until Christmas to get this f*cking record finished." Hook reckons the album is more than a third, but less than half, complete.

A Freebase work-in-progress, "I Envy Us," is posted on Hook's MySpace page because, he explains, "I was sick of talking about it without it being there." As previously reported, some of Manchester's finest frontmen have been involved in the project, including the Charlatans' Tim Burgess and Stone Roses' Ian Brown. "With the demise of New Order, I was happy to just not play for a while but now I'm missing it. And I want to get into it as soon as possible. There's quite a few things as a musician that I want to get into." Hook has his fingers in a few other music pies. The artist has penned a track for Tony Wilson, the late entrepreneur who signed Joy Division & New Order to his Factory Records label, and will reform Monaco for a late September charity performance in Manchester, England. But after engaging in a recent war of words with his New Order bandmates, Hook admits there is no hope for a reunion. "We're getting on like a house on fire. We've patched up. But the bottom line is we won't be working together again."*

MP3: New Order - The Perfect Kiss (live) (via Street Party)