Yesterday I spoke to one of the all-time legends in the game, Peter Hook. As bass player for Joy Division and New Order, his singular low end sound is often imitated but never duplicated. One of Manchester, England’s favorite sons is also a working DJ. Right now Hooky is promoting the band’s brand new DVD, Live at Glasgow, and Joy Division - The Documentary.

Within seconds of beginning our conversation he confirmed what many have speculated for nearly a year: “New Order have split up,” he said. Talking from Los Angeles, Hook wouldn’t rule out a reunion in the future, but he’s not waiting around for his relationship with singer Bernard Sumner to improve any time soon. Despite his issues with Sumner, Hook and drummer Stephen Morris put together Live at Glasgow, mainly because they both hated how their last DVD looked (“I can’t stand the look of it because “the editing looked like it had been done by a hyperactive five-year-old, and I couldn’t bear the look of it.”)

LWMB: You were very involved in the creation of Live at Glasgow. How do you rate it?

Peter Hook: Steve and I have made a video we can watch, and we worked hard to make sure it sounded as well as it could. We gave fans something they normally wouldn't see since we played some songs we haven’t played in 25 years. I think it’s a great package.

This might be a rhetorical question, but does one play any differently when they know they’re being filmed for a DVD?

Not after 20 odd years. No, you’re pretty good at handling yourself onstage, and it’s not like when you’re 21 or 22 and aren’t used to being in front of a camera.

You just confirmed to me that New Order is history. Can we expect any rare or unreleased tracks to surface?

Ironically enough, we just found a vault full of tapes that had been hidden away for 15 years in Manchester, and there’s a hell of a lot of live stuff. I think there’s a tendency when groups don’t exist anymore to milk the past. We all have to live, so we’ll hopefully work on a way to exploit the past….we’re not sure how we’re going to do it yet. The vault had one amazing tape recorded at a festival in 1987, which celebrated ten years of punk. Howard Devoto’s Magazine, the Buzzcocks, Echo & The Bunneymen, The Smiths and New Order [were on the bill] and the tapes had disappeared. According to the radio station that recorded the show, the tapes had been recorded over. Lo and behold we found this vault after 15 years and there tapes are.

Can you say as matter of fact that New Order will never reunite?

As far as I’m concerned New Order have split up and at the atmosphere is very frosty, unfortunately. Good God, if The Eagles could get together again after they went through then I suppose there’s hope for us all.

On Monday, we'll bring you the second half of the interview, where Peter Hook talks about his new band, Freebass, and his DJ career.