Peter Hook And The Light, Paradiso, Amsterdam, 18th April 2016

Peter Hook And The Light are on a six date tour of Holland, and tonight is the penultimate date of the tour and marks almost thirty six years since the death of Joy Division’s singer, Ian Curtis. What is clear is that there still seems to be a fanatical demand for Joy Division‘s music to be played live four decades after they first emerged as Warsaw . Tonight’s show at the Paradiso is completely sold out and the venue is filled with a delirious and noisy crowd, and what a stunning venue this is, the Paradiso is housed in a converted church and above the stage the stained glass windows are still in place which seems appropriate given the reverence that Joy Division and New Order generate amongst their following.

Tonight there is no support act, Peter Hook And The Light play a New Order set to open tonight’s proceedings. The New Order set warms the audience up nicely and the inclusion of Ceremony, New Order‘s debut single, early in the set is well received but for me and many others it would seem that tonight is about Joy Division. The bass drum reverberates throughout the venue as they open with Atmosphere before playing Closer in full. Then it’s time for Unknown Pleasures, for me Peter Hook‘s Mancunian growl is best suited to the earlier Joy Division material and this dark post punk classic is played faithfully and goes down a storm, Peter Hook can still knock out his trademark low slung bass lines but whilst he’s fulfilling his vocal duties he has a fine secondary bass player in his son Jack Bates.

The final encore ends with Transmission and Love Will Tear Us Apart, to which the already frenzied crowd respond as you would expect to hearing these two classic singles played back to back and with Peter Hook‘s rabble rousing cries during the final song the audience are left sweaty and enamored and pour back onto the streets of Amsterdam. The band played a total of four sets over the two and half hour show which covered the material of two of Manchester’s most influential bands. The Light have toured extensively across the world and this shows as the songs sound as fresh and relevant as they ever did and even though Peter Hook is now 60 there are no indications he’s ready to hang up his bass just yet.