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Peter Hook Admits Forging Ian Curtis's signature

• 7th Oct 2009

The former Joy Division and New Order bassist says his name is mud among record collectors after he faked his late bandmate's autograph on various memorabilia.

Peter Hook has revealed a mischievous former hobby: forging Ian Curtis's autograph. The former Joy Division and New Order bassist says he developed “a reputation” for scrawling Curtis's name on various Joy Division memorabilia.

“I did have [that] reputation for … a long time,” Hook told Contact Music. Clearly tickled by the recollection, he described taking band paraphernalia, adding a faked signature, and selling it on to online collectors. Recently, he found one such fake at a Manchester record shop.

“There's some guy who had [Joy Division debut] An Ideal for Living and it was signed by all four members of the band and dated,” Hook said. “I went in and said, 'Have you not noticed that the date is after Ian died?'. It was me, I did them as a joke!”

Ian Curtis, Joy Division's singer, committed suicide in 1980.

“It was up there for £200, so my name is now mud among collectors,” Hook said.