16 July 2026 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words and pictures by Bec Harbour
There’s no support for Peter Hook and the Light tonight – it’s two sets: one featuring 2001’s New Order album Get Ready and the other a best-of collection from Joy Division and New Order. The place is packed, and the rain has not stopped punters from lining up outside the Tivoli in Brisbane this evening.
It feels communal tonight, and I’d wager that many of the people here also checked in for New Order’s pass through in 2025. Everyone is chatting, there are Joy Division and New Order shirts galore, and we are all ready for this show.
There are elements of tonight’s presentation of Get Ready that show where the sounds from each of these seminal bands came from, but there’s something uniquely Hooky here too. There are new elements and a freedom that isn’t present in either band, where tension often defines the atmosphere of the music.
Peter Hook & the Light – The Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
2001’s Get Ready came at a time when the band members had been together for more than 20 years. They had just lost their manager, Rob Gretton, and had perhaps settled into something of an elder statesman position within the music industry, pre-dating but heavily influencing Britpop and US indie bands that would later cite them as inspirations.
It is no accident that two of the biggest names in those respective indie scenes guested on this record: Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins on ‘Turn My Way’ and Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream on ‘Rock the Shack’.
Peter Hook & the Light – The Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
With two duelling basses, this music could have been very bottom-heavy, but with Hooky playing at the top end and the other bass holding down the low end, this was never an issue.
At the end of the album run, Hooky talks about the 25 years since Get Ready and how he can’t believe it has gone that quickly, saying that next up will be Republic and Waiting for the Sirens’ Call. ‘Krafty’ from Waiting for the Sirens’ Callis up next, followed by the standalone single ‘Here to Stay’.
After a short intermission came the best-of set. Those Joy Division songs still feel like pressure and tension, and they’ve lost none of that with time, with Hooky’s voice holding its own on the Ian Curtis material. They kicked off the set with ‘Exercise One’, after which Hooky dedicated the performance to Curtis.
Peter Hook & the Light – The Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
There was a slew of Joy Division songs next: ‘These Days’, ‘Disorder’, ‘Interzone’, ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘A Means to an End’, ‘New Dawn Fades’, ‘Heart and Soul’ and, of course, ‘Transmission’.
‘Atmosphere’ began to a sound of appreciation from the crowd and was once again dedicated to Curtis. ‘Ceremony’ received the biggest reaction of an already well-received night – fittingly so, given that the song serves as the bridge between Joy Division and New Order.
There were also a couple of Revenge songs thrown in before the final three songs almost lifted the roof off the Tivoli. ‘Temptation’ had everyone singing along, with people dancing right into the bar area. Then came ‘Blue Monday’, which somehow sounded more menacing than any version I have heard before, before the set wrapped with ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.
Peter Hook & the Light – The Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Peter Hook and the Light, but what we got was the darker, clubbier version of both bands – playing these songs harder and louder, all with Hooky’s unmistakable stamp on the music.
