Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division

“It would be harder to find a darker place in music than Joy Division. Their name, their lyrics and their singer were as big a black cloud as you could find in the sky. And yet I sensed the pursuit of God, or light, or reason … a reason to be. With Joy Division, you felt from this singer, beauty was truth and truth was beauty, and theirs was a search for both.” – Bono

“An immense account of Joy Division’s rise, cataloguing the group’s struggle for recognition, their rapidly gained superiority on the Manchester scene and the epic numbness following Ian Curtis’ shock suicide. Having read Hook’s book, you’ll feel like you were he fifth member of the band.” – GQ (UK)

“It’s a window like no other into the reality of life in this most aloof of bands.” – Metro London

“Vivid, funny, and unexpectedly touching, Peter Hook’s memoir strips away the shroud of myth surrounding Joy Division to offer a refreshingly gritty perspective on the story of four ordinary young men who together made extraordinary music.” – Simon Reynolds, author of Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84

“Unflinchingly honest . . . Hook peels away the romantic sheen colored by its dark history and gives unfettered insight into the band’s origins and inspirations . . . this is required reading for anyone who ever felt moved by Joy Division’s cold, dark music.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The most colorful and intimate account of Joy Division ever written . . . a marvelous raconteur[,] Hook evokes the spirit of the age with a bluff authenticity that no outsider could hope to emulate, as if this self-styled “working class tosser from Salford” was holding court in a pub, explaining the creation of his band’s remarkable music with all the passion and insight it deserves.” – Keith Cameron, MOJO

With Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division fans can finally hear the band’s story from someone who was there from the very beginning-iconic bassist Peter Hook.” – SF Weekly

You don’t have to be a hardcore fan of Joy Division or New Order to appreciate Hook’s wry evocation of Britain’s 1970s punk scene and his street-level remembrance of the tragedy and ecstasy . . . that went into building the foundation for the next few decades’ alternative rock scene. – Neda Ulaby, NPR Best Books of the Year

An NPR Best Book of 2013 – NPR

A SPIN Best Music Book of 2013 – Spin

“Rich in detail.” – LA Weekly

“A comprehensive, illuminating portrait of the band that often takes the piss out of its doom-ridden legacy.” – Cincinnati City Beat

“Intimate.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“Reading Unknown Pleasures . . . is like talking to a bawdy uncle after his fourth beer. But better, unless your uncle has stories about trying cocaine for the first time at the Pretty in Pink premiere. Apparently being in the saddest post-punk art-goth band in history can occasionally be pretty fucking funny.” – MTV Hive

“Like talking to a bawdy uncle after his fourth beer. Apparently being in the saddest post-punk art-goth band in history can occasionally be pretty fucking funny.” – MTV Hive

“There are few bands that have generated as much mythology about their origins and eventual destruction as Joy Division. But most of the discussion around this pioneering Manchester punk outfit has come from the perspective of an outsider looking in. With Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division fans can finally hear the band’s story from someone who was there from the very beginning-iconic bassist Peter Hook.” – SF Weekly

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the complexities of life and art than the fact that a history of Joy Division is often laugh-out-loud funny. [Unknown Pleasures] gives back this mythologized band its humanity [and] shows hindsight truly can be great. It is also heart-rending, ruthless and redemptive.” – Michael Azerrad, Wall Street Journal

“Honest, punchy, and rough-hewn . . . a portal into a vivid moment in rock history . . . the life and times of a working band . . . and, in the middle of it all, the transformative power of music.” – Los Angeles Times

“From a musical-history perspective, there’s plenty to gnaw on in Unknown Pleasures . . . The passages where Hook details the recording of the Unknown Pleasures album are fantastic and insightful, with minute-by-minute details on the genius of Ian Curtis and producer Martin Hannett . . . the book itself is gorgeous, its cover mimicking the iconic Unknown Pleasures album artwork, complete with a dyed-black spine.” – A.V. Club, The Onion

. The passages where Hook details the recording of the Unknown Pleasures album are fantastic and insightful . . . . the book itself is gorgeous. . . – A.V. Club, The Onion

“A surprisingly funny-and gleefully profane-portrait.” – Entertainment Weekly

The most colorful and intimate account of Joy Division ever written . . . Hook evokes the spirit of the age with a bluff authenticity that no outsider could hope to emulate…explaining the creation of his band’s remarkable music with all the passion and insight it deserves. – Keith Cameron, MOJO

“A bittersweet, profanity-filled recollection of their brief existence . . . recalled with Hook’s winning Manc gallows humor . . . If you like Joy Division you really have to read it.” – Ian Harrison, Q Magazine

“A tiny gem written by a monster musician. It’s the best document yet to be produced on Joy Division. There’s nothing like hearing the story straight from Hooky’s foul mouth.” – Rock Cellar Magazine

“A candid, revelatory, and unexpectedly witty survey of post-punk’s greatest (if shortest-lived) band-a fond but unfiltered look back by a self-proclaimed “twat” who challenged the form, confounded the media, and confronted audiences. Peter Hook avails himself an engaging, unpretentious celebrity storyteller. It’s high time we got a firsthand account of Manchester’s most influential pop quartet, an impassioned deposition by a principal player rather than tenuously-connected kinsman or bystander.” – Cleveland Music Examiner

Joy Division changed the face of music. Godfathers of alternative rock, they reinvented music in the post-punk era, creating a new sound—dark, hypnotic, and intense—that would influence U2, Morrissey, R.E.M., Radiohead, and numerous others. The story is now legendary: in 1980, on the heels of their groundbreaking debut album and on the eve of their first U.S. tour, the band was rent asunder by the tragic death of their enigmatic lead singer, Ian Curtis. Yet in the mere three years they were together, they produced two landmark albums and a handful of singles—including the iconic anthem “Love Will Tear Us Apart”—that continue to have a powerful resonance.

Now, for the first time, their story is told by one of their own. In Unknown Pleasures, founding member and bass player Peter Hook recounts how four young men from Manchester and Salford rose from the punk scene to create a haunting, atmospheric music that would define a generation. Peter talks with eye-opening candor about the suicide of Ian Curtis; the band’s friendships and fallouts; and the larger-than-life characters who formed the Joy Division legend.

Told with surprising humor and vivid detail, Unknown Pleasures is the book Joy Division fans have awaited for decades.