"We need to talk about what we are going to do and see and decide. We'll have to wait and see"
About this Quote
Peter Hook’s line has the deadpan rhythm of a bandmate trying not to start a war in public. “We need to talk” signals urgency and agency - the grown-up phrase you use when something’s fraying. Then he immediately sands it down with a shrug: “We’ll have to wait and see.” It’s a neat little loop of momentum and stasis, the kind of contradiction that feels familiar if you’ve followed Hook’s long, public afterlife with Joy Division and New Order: the music is definitive; the relationships, less so.
The intent reads as tactical ambiguity. Hook telegraphs that decisions are coming (“do and see and decide”), but refuses to hand fans, journalists, or former bandmates a clean headline. That repetition is doing work: “do,” “see,” “decide” lays out a sequence as if there’s a process, a plan, a mature path forward. Yet the final sentence undercuts it, turning process into postponement. It’s diplomacy with a bassline - acknowledging stakes without committing to terms.
Subtext: control. “We” implies collective ownership, but the vagueness protects individual leverage. It also reflects how legacy acts operate now: every reunion, reissue, or tour is both emotional history and intellectual property negotiation. Hook’s phrasing keeps the door open to reconciliation while signaling he won’t be rushed into someone else’s narrative.
In context, it’s the language of cultural maintenance. Fans want closure; brands want certainty; old band politics thrive on neither. So he offers the only honest commodity left: waiting.
The intent reads as tactical ambiguity. Hook telegraphs that decisions are coming (“do and see and decide”), but refuses to hand fans, journalists, or former bandmates a clean headline. That repetition is doing work: “do,” “see,” “decide” lays out a sequence as if there’s a process, a plan, a mature path forward. Yet the final sentence undercuts it, turning process into postponement. It’s diplomacy with a bassline - acknowledging stakes without committing to terms.
Subtext: control. “We” implies collective ownership, but the vagueness protects individual leverage. It also reflects how legacy acts operate now: every reunion, reissue, or tour is both emotional history and intellectual property negotiation. Hook’s phrasing keeps the door open to reconciliation while signaling he won’t be rushed into someone else’s narrative.
In context, it’s the language of cultural maintenance. Fans want closure; brands want certainty; old band politics thrive on neither. So he offers the only honest commodity left: waiting.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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