Former New Order/Joy Division bassist Peter Hook is writing a tell-all book about his days in the Manchester club scene. It’s called Hacienda: How Not To Run A Club. He posted the libel report from his lawyer, which contains all kinds of juicy yet potentially defamatory details. Hook himself admits that he “thought it read Almost as well as the book.”
This is the account by Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order of his involvement in and subsidising of the Hacienda Club in Manchester. As there is a considerable amount of drug-taking and involvement of gangs with resulting violence and a fair degree of professional incompetence in the running of the club, there are obviously potential defamation issues.
My favorite bit:
75 We also have a problem potentially with XXXX being called a smack head. Might not she and XXXX also complain about the sexual reference. Again at the risk of sounding pompous, that is a private matter which XXXX could object to and might also claim it was defamatory. XXXX might also say that although she mentioned this to the author in conversation, she would not expect to see it in a book.
Old Hooky’s since removed the posts, but thanks to Google’s cache, they’re still available: Part 1, Part 2. If Google clears its cache before you get to it, you can read the full, unedited text of both posts after the jump…
Via Pitchfork.