Ex-New Order bassist Peter Hook will dig through his celebrated musical past this spring, embarking on a U.K. spoken-word tour and performing a set of Joy Division songs at his new Manchester club on the 30th anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death.

Peter Hook last night christened his new Manchester club FAC251 — housed in the former headquarters of Factory Records — with members of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays helping perform a career-spanning set that included the live debuts of an unfinished Joy Division song and a New Order outtake.

Turns out Peter Hook’s Freebass may not be the only Stone Roses/Smiths collaboration afoot: Ex-Roses vocalist Ian Brown this week told the BBC he’s planning to write and record an album with Johnny Marr, the Smiths’ erstwhile guitarist.
According to Brown, he and Marr hope to write soundtrack music for a friend’s in-the-works TV series: “The [...]

Former New Order bassist Peter Hook’s long-gestating Freebass project — which also features the four-stringed talents of The Smiths’ Andy Rourke and Gary “Mani” Mounfield of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream — is poised to release its debut EP, dubbed Two Worlds Collide.
The four-track collection will be released “soon” by Hook’s just-launched — and [...]

With Peter Hook having acrimoniously split from New Order, the rest of the legendary synthrock act has enlisted Blur bassist Alex James for a new project dubbed Bad Lieutenant.
The BBC reports the new band — featuring Joy Division/New Order members Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, along with late-era New Order guitarist Phil Cunningham and singer-guitarist [...]