Peter Hook & The Light, 76//26//50 – Manchester Academy: Live Review

By Mike Ainscoe on 6th June 2026 • ( Leave a comment )

Peter Hook & The Light 76//26//50 – Manchester Academy – 4th June 2026

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame awaits Joy Division and New Order, and guilty by association, Peter Hook. Plus, for various reasons, a cause for celebration.

BIBLICAL…

Dates await for Hooky & The Light around the fields of the UK and various corners of the planet, but Manchester is of course, always a homecoming. Three years ago it was the Easter Homecoming with a mini three night stand residency at The Albert Hall. Tonight at The Academy, it feels like the attendees of those three nights have crammed into one single mass (many around the merch stall with its pleasing Hacienda nod with the colours and styling and is selling in the manner of warm bakery goods) for what’s billed as a celebration of 50 years of music making with a career-spanning retrospective set.

It’s a significant date too as we’re reminded in Kevin Briggs’ intro. The 4th of June 1976 will already be marked in the annals of Rock history with Malcolm McClaren selling his tickets for 50p for the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Fee Trade Hall – “It was shit – I thought ‘I can do this!‘” says Hooky. And so we thanks him and his pals for having a go, and with an eye on the date and some successful planning, fifty years TO THE DAY later, he and his band have prepared a set that takes on the five decade challenge and wins.

And while the latter days of those fifty years have seen some phenomenal sets by Hooky and his band with the Bates/Potts front line, incorporating many aspects of his legacy, tonight sets the bar impossibly higher. Liam (G) might call it biblical yet that would be an understatement.

IT’S 1976!

Suddenly it’s nineteen seventy six and within a few songs we realise that the plan is to be guided through the years in a chronological order (save the encore but fair do’s) that plots Hooky’s musical adventures. Thirty five songs lie ahead (be a nice triple vinyl…) and where else to start than to turn the lights full on and take a raucous blast through Anarchy In The UK.

It’s a sign of what’s to come in expecting the unexpected as them kick into the first song Joy Division (as Warsaw) played at their first gig back in 1977 when they supported the Buzzcocks – the first song they wrote he says – with the prompt sheet where he has to use a boot to hold or turn a page, in full use. Of course there are the darker moments from the JD days of which Shadowplay is epic, but you still can;t help get caught up in the air of celebration.

SPECIAL GUESTS…

As the Joy Division chapter draws to a close the hardly suprising appearance of Rowetta – Queen Rowetta, looking duly regal – sets the seal on Atmosphere. There’s a case, a strong one even, that Rowetta and Atmosphere should have ended the show but there’s really only one way to end a Hook gig. And then, the air of sobriety gives way into the New Order phase with a release and more cause for celebration with the rush of Ceremony.

And while Rowetta might have been expected, no-one could really have predicted the appearance of John Barnes! Kitted out in England top of the era that#s a snug fit, he delivered his World In Motion rap to a tee. An incredible moment as the JD/NO days come to a close and an appreciation over what must have been a constant tweaking to decide what stays on, and what loses a place the teamsheet to fit in the work in Revenge (all of which are live debuts with The Light) and Monaco (more live debuts) that get slotted into the New Order sequence before Crystal and Krafty clos eout.

Not quite the close though as Manchester legend Mani gets a nod via a Freebass inclusion and an anthemic Aires from the Gorlliaz collaboration is an interesting yet clever selection to close the main set. Lush and communal, we know the more obvious grand finale is to come, but what a way to go and props to the man who pushed for this set closer. An evening that’s not for repeating. An evening that can never be repeated. The ambience mics at the sides of the stage might suggest a live recording – please!

BUZZCOCKS

We also get an opening set by the Steve Diggle led Buzzcocks. Apt too that a couple of Buzzers of the time were also significant in the Pistols Manchester gig. An hour and seventeen songs that also travel right back in time back to Spiral Scratch and bring things right up to date with Attitude Adjustment barely a few months old. There have been those who’ve been dismissive of what trades as Buzzcocks these days – but we are fifty years on and as the guitar fizz has been replaced with power chording, the evolution continues.

Of course, the hits that are coated with a nostalgic glow of Pete Shelley make up the opening flurry and get dotted about the set in short sharp bursts of our youth while Harmony In My Head gets a full on guitar hero bashing for a rebellious yet safe finale. It might even be a bit Punk.