The auction for Peter Hook‘s archive of Joy Division instruments, artifacts, and memorabilia has begun taking online bids. Hook’s collection includes his first bass guitar, various amps and pedals used in Joy Division recordings, original typed lyrics, tour posters and itineraries, band correspondence, Factory Records test pressings, Hook’s ticket stub from the 1976 Sex Pistols show that inspired the band’s formation, and more. Items were previewed last month at Record Planet’s 50th Anniversary Fair in Utrecht, Holland and the archive will be exhibited in full at the Omega Auctions headquarters in Newton-Le-Willows, England in February.
Hook explained why he’s auctioning the items in a fairly sad interview with Rolling Stone in which he reflects on frontman Ian Curtis’ death and his own bitter split with Joy Division’s surviving members, aka New Order. (Hook and New Order resolved their lawsuit over royalty payments last September.) “I’ve watched Ian Curtis’ house sell, and I’ve watched Ian Curtis’ kitchen table sell,” he said. “People go nuts for it, and I’m like the king in his castle counting all his gold. It’s just quite odd really when you actually sit there thinking, ‘What the hell are you doing keeping hold of Joy Division?’ I realized that the relationship between us all was never gonna happen, and I was holding on to something for the wrong reason.”
Fans can bid on items in Hook’s collection at the Omega Auctions website (which requires creating an account and sharing payment information.) The auction closes on March 2, five days before the scheduled U.K. release of punk historian Jon Savage’s Joy Division oral history. Savage’s book will hit America on April 23.
