Peter Hook continues to fan the flames of his very public conflict with former band New Order. On Wednesday morning, the synth-pop quintet unveiled a new Twitter account for defunct post-punk outfit Joy Division – which also featured the bassist – though they didn't tell their former bandmate. "Thanks for telling me," Hook replied to the tweet announcement. "As a member of@joydivision it would have been nice to have been informed."
Hook's final album with New Order was 2005's Waiting for the Sirens' Call, their eighth overall. In 2007, the bassist wrote on his MySpace blog that "this group has SPLIT UP!" and asserted that the remaining members didn't "have the rights to do anything NEW Ordery" without his involvement, as The Guardian reported. But New Order did reform for live dates in late 2011, with bassist Tom Chapman replacing Hook. The Live at the London Troxy LP was released in December 2011, and the band continued to tour throughout 2012.
Of course, Hook wasn't happy upon hearing the initial news. "Everyone knows that NEW ORDER without PETER HOOK is like QUEEN without FREDDIE MERCURY, U2 without THE EDGE, SOOTY without SWEEP!," the bassist wrote on his website.
The band started debuting newly written songs on stage during their 2014 touring cycle. Earlier this month, they announced their signing with Mute Records; a new album – their first without Hook – is planned for 2015.
Guitarist Bernard Sumner teased the band's new material in a 2013 interview, saying they were returning to more electronic/synth-based material, but still saving room for guitars. "That's not to say there won't be enough space on the album for enough cool guitar tracks if someone's got them," he said. "I think New Order's a hybrid band and will always remain so."
Meanwhile, Sumner will release Chapter and Verse, a memoir chronicling his life and music, on September 25th via Bantam Press.
