{"id":1184267,"date":"2023-03-07T09:10:46","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T14:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/new-orders-peter-hook-on-how-the-best-selling-12-inch-single-in-music-history-managed-to-lose-100000\/1184267\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07T09:10:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T14:10:46","slug":"new-orders-peter-hook-on-how-the-best-selling-12-inch-single-in-music-history-managed-to-lose-100000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/new-orders-peter-hook-on-how-the-best-selling-12-inch-single-in-music-history-managed-to-lose-100000\/1184267\/","title":{"rendered":"New Order’s Peter Hook on how the best-selling 12-inch single in music history managed to lose $100,000"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
New Order’s Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert, Bernard Sumner, and Peter Hook in the 1980s. (Photo: Steve Rapport\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>
Steve Rapport via Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

New Order\u2019s \u201cBlue Monday\u201d was released 40 years ago, on March 7, 1983, and went on become one of the most important and beloved songs of the new wave era. The nine-minute synth classic influenced and inspired everyone from the Eurythmics\u2019 Dave Stewart to even electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk on “Tour De France<\/a>,” and to this day it holds the record as the top-selling 12-inch single in recording history, shifting more than a million units in the band\u2019s native U.K. alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So… how<\/em> exactly did \u201cBlue Monday\u201d manage not only to make no<\/em> profit, but actually lose<\/em> a whopping $100,000?\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The Manchester group\u2019s iconic founding bassist, Peter \u201cHooky\u201d Hook, explains that it all came down to indie label Factory Records\u2019 decision regarding the single\u2019s very famous \u2014 but very costly \u2014 packaging.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Graphic designer] Peter [Saville] came to the practice place, and he saw a floppy disk and he loved it,\u201d Hook recalls, as he sits with Yahoo Entertainment reflecting on his illustrious discography with both New Order and the band from which New Order sprang, the equally influential Joy Division, who were just jointly nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame<\/a>. \u201cAnd he felt we should do the sleeve [to look] like this. \u2026 Unbeknownst to him, it had to be die-cut three times, which made the sleeve ridiculously expensive \u2014 which [New Order bandmate] Stephen Morris thought was hilarious<\/em>, because you were paying for the bits that you didn\u2019t<\/em> get, the hole, where the card had gone!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The die-cut packaging for New Order\u2019s \u201cBlue Monday\u201d 12-inch single. (Photo: Factory Records)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hook continues: \u201cBut, yeah, the sleeve unfortunately cost 10p [approximately 20 cents] more than the record could earn, so every time we sold a copy of \u2018Blue Monday,\u2019 we were losing 10p,\u201d Hook elaborates with a rueful chuckle: \u201cIt then went on to be the biggest-selling 12-inch of all time! I remember [Factory Records label head] Tony [Wilson] going to great trouble to cast a brass Factory symbol that said, \u2018Well Done, Hooky!\u2019 celebrating a loss of 50,000 pounds. \u2026 I suppose it really seals its place in history as a mythical being for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The financial failure of what should have been New Order\u2019s commercial career breakthrough was just one in a long line of both comedic and tragic errors for the beleaguered band. The most tragic<\/em> of all, of course, transpired when it was known as the legendary post-punk outfit Joy Division, fronted by the charismatic but deeply troubled Ian Curtis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Struggling with the dissolution of his young marriage, new fatherhood, an extramarital emotional affair with Belgian journalist Annik Honor\u00e9, and, most of all, his increasingly uncontrollable epilepsy, the 23-year-old Curtis committed suicide in May 1980, on the eve of what was supposed to be Joy Division\u2019s first North American tour \u2014 leaving his guilt-ridden bandmates behind to pick up the pieces and always wonder what might have been.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cWith the making of [Joy Division\u2019s sophomore album] Closer<\/em>, Ian\u2019s illness was degenerative, and it was getting worse,\u201d says Hook. \u201cThe big problem with Ian was \u2026 he was very empathic to other people. He would go out of his way to make sure you felt all right about what he was suffering. \u2026 Ian worked very, very hard and was still suffering grand mals right the way through [the recording sessions for Closer<\/em>]. He managed to hide it from his parents, from the doctors that he was being treated by. The guy wanted<\/em> success. He wanted<\/em> to achieve what he felt we deserved. And he hid [his epilepsy]. That was the problem. He would never let you know how poorly he was, so you were in ignorance. Even when you were picking him up off the floor when he smashed his head open on the sink or the toilet, he\u2019d just get up. He\u2019d never stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuicide of a very close friend or family member always leaves you with the guilt,\u201d Hook continues solemnly. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the beauty of suicide, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s not them worrying afterwards. It\u2019s everybody else saying who, when, or why, or \u2018Did I do enough?\u2019 I\u2019ve had enough of that in my life to realize that people who are left behind are the ones that suffer. But it was a great LP, and I think one of my greatest regrets when we finished with Joy Division and moved on to New Order was that we never got to play Closer. \u2026<\/em> It was heartbreaking to put it all away and never promote Closer<\/em>, never promote [the single] \u2018Love Will Tear Us Apart,\u2019 put it in a box, put it in the back of the cupboard. And we went off to New Order.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Incredibly, the surviving members of Joy Division immediately decided to reform as New Order. (\u201cI think the great thing about being young is you can carry on, regardless. The great thing about being a musician is people will coddle you and pamper you, and pander to you, so we didn\u2019t have to do much grieving. We just buried our heads and stuck together and ignored it, basically.\u201d) Reconvening in their Salford rehearsal space the Monday after Curtis\u2019s inquest, they went right to work on a prophetically titled new song Hook had written the previous weekend in tribute to Curtis, \u201cDreams Never End.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while New Order \u2014 pesky 50,000-pound loss aside \u2014 went on to greater success than the short-lived Joy Division had ever known, all was not dreamy in their world. At first, Joy Division fans were still in mourning, and they weren\u2019t quick to accept this new phase in the band\u2019s career. (\u201cWe got a lot of letters written in blood, things like that. People phoning you up. Being a \u2018man of the people,\u2019 I put my number in the phone book, and then I had every Joy Division loony phoning me up and being weird on the phone. That taught me a lesson,\u201d says Hook.) Then, when New Order went to America to play the tour that had been originally booked for Joy Division, \u201cfans weren\u2019t supportive. They used to spend the whole gig shouting for Joy Division titles,\u201d Hook recalls. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect them to be supportive, to be honest. \u2026 We actually lost a lot of our confidence. \u2026 The audiences were openly hostile. They wanted Joy Division.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

To make matters worse, on the very first night of New Order\u2019s maiden U.S. tour, all their gear was stolen from their van. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t insured!\u201d exclaims Hook. \u201cIn the space of two months, we\u2019d managed to lose our lead singer [Curtis], our group [Joy Division], and our equipment. \u2026 It really was being at the bottom of a very long ladder. It was a hell of an education, that trip to America.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Order went on to American success with perennial alternative radio staples like \u201cBizarre Love Triangle,\u201d \u201cTrue Faith,\u201d \u201cShellshock\u201d (which was included on the Pretty in Pink<\/em> soundtrack), and a 1988 rerelease of \u201cBlue Monday.\u201d But over the years, friction between Hook and lead singer Bernard Sumner continued to grow, and in 2007, Hook left the band for good. While New Order continues to tour and record sans Hook, fans still hold out hope for a real New Order reunion \u2014 possibly at Rock Hall induction ceremony, if the long-overldue Joy Division\/New Order get in this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

While a Hook-less New Order carries on, Hook is still out there on his own. He has penned three memoirs, and he regularly revisits the Joy Division and New Order discographies on tour with his band the Light, showcasing his distinctive bass style (which once even attracted the attention of the Rolling Stones<\/a>, when they were looking to hire a replacement for Bill Wyman).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great bit for me is that in 2011, I got to play Closer<\/em> [in its entirety for the first time], and it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life,\u201d Hook says happily. \u201cTo sit there and have my son, who was exactly the same age I was when I did Closer<\/em> [22 years old], playing the bass lines, and me doing my best to do Ian justice \u2026 the chills down your spine from hearing Closer<\/em> live was a wonderful, wonderful moment. I do think really Barney [Sumner] and Steve [Morris] missed out on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as for what might have happened if Curtis hadn\u2019t died by suicide, Hook confesses that he wonders about that sometimes. \u201cDo I think we\u2019d still be together if Ian had lived? I would hope so,\u201d he muses. \u201cYou know, one of the things about a song like \u2018Blue Monday\u2019 being as popular as it is, even now throughout the world, is that you\u2019d have loved to hear Ian Curtis sing on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the important thing you realize, as you get older, is that the fact that [Joy Division] didn\u2019t carry on wasn\u2019t the most important thing for Ian. The most important thing was a daughter lost her father. Parents lost a son. A wife lost a husband. A lover lost a lover. That is really the important thing \u2014 because let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s lots of groups. There\u2019ll be another along in a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:<\/strong><\/p>\n