Artist: Peter Hook & The Light

Venue: The Assembly Hall

Town: Worthing

Date: 6.11.25

Get Ready may not be everybody's go to New Order album of choice, released in 2001 it came after a hiatus of some years with a more song oriented approach. On hearing it performed in its entirety at The Assembly Hall in Worthing it came across as a more guitar / rock sounding record than previous New Order efforts. Not knowing the original too well I thought the way it was played by Peter Hook & The Light gave it more rock presence and several tracks were reminiscent of Oasis at their best. I shall endeavour to return to Get Ready with fresh perspective.

Peter Hook has recently had a shoulder injury, specifically a torn rotator cuff (yes of course). This was caused by his dog unexpectedly wrenching his arm while on the lead, I think many dog owners may sympathise with this predicament. So after surgery he has braved the stage again, obviously not at his bass swinging best as yet. Standing in for him was his son Jack Bates who must be relishing the opportunity to step into his dad's boots.

The first half of the show was as mentioned the Get Ready album in it's entirety, the crowd were engaged and it was brave of Peter Hook to select this as the focus on the Tour, I personally enjoyed hearing it though there weren't the bigger numbers to get the crowd bouncing, I tip my hat to Hook for playing it.

Part two of the show is as expected a journey through Hook's varied past with many Joy Division and New Order songs along with a solitary "What Do You Want From Me" when Hook formed the band Monaco with two members of the current band, Paul Kehoe on drums and David Potts on guitar, vocals. In fact the two members bring a quality to the evening, especially Potts vocals which were excellent on that single.

A long run of Joy Division songs are played with B-sides and songs from the original EP "An ideal for living" being aired (where else on planet earth could you hear this?). So plenty for the totally immersed fans to enjoy and dissect. "Disorder", "Transmission" and "Atmosphere" were all untouchable before moving onto the New Order classics with "Regret", "Blue Monday" and "Temptation" triumphant as always, before the anthemic "Love Will Tear Us Apart" produced the expected emotional sing along for those who hold the song dear to their hearts.

Review and Photographs by Dan Reddick