Peter Hook: 'New Order was an empty shell'

Peter Hook has spoken out about the last days of his former band New Order, claiming that a lack of communication had left the band "an empty shell".

Speaking as part of BBC Radio 2's New Order week, the bass player spoke about how relations between himself and frontman Bernard Sumner had broken down.

New Order split up last summer, apparently for the final time.

Asked by DJ Stuart Maconie about the prospects of the band burying the hatchet, Hook explained: "I've no idea really. Sometimes you wonder what you were arguing about.

"From what I can gather, Bernard was upset that I didn't go and see him to tell him that I didn't want to work with him anymore. To my mind it had gone.

"I had a manager and I was paying my manager 20 per cent, so got her to do the dirty work. I didn't see why I had to do my own dirty work. She told him in February and he never said anything, he just went, 'Right'."

Hook also spoke of his anger at the 'New Order' statement released by his bandmates that claimed Hook had gone to the press without telling the other band members he had left the band.

"I told him every night after the Brazilian tour that I wasn't going to do this again," Hook said. "I did Brazil for the money. I just felt it was like an empty shell, New Order. It really was for me. I can't talk for the others."

However, Hook went on to say that the process of remastering the band's five albums for Factory Records had given him closure on the turbulence.

"I must admit that when I listened to it, I was really proud of them [his former bandmates]," he said. "It did cheer me up because it made me realise that while we fight like kids in the playground we actually achieved something that we should all be proud of."