NEW ORDER - HOOK: 'NEW ORDER SPLIT ANNOUNCEMENT WAS A RELIEF'

Former NEW ORDER star PETER HOOK is relieved the world knows about the band's split because he was finding the "awful secret" increasingly difficult to bear. Hook - who is now working on a solo project with Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell - made the admission during a radio interview earlier this month (May07), citing Bernard Sumner's work with dance act Electronic as the reason for the disbandment. Although news of the split wasn't supposed to have leaked during the interview, Hook is grateful he no longer has to keep up pretences. He writes on his internet blog, "I suppose it was the interview with Clint Boon that started it all off. He'd asked me for a few words on Perry Farrell's Satellite Party single... so I went on and lo and behold mentioned the New Order split. "So I suppose because it was me saying it, it was out at last. I'm relieved really. (I) hated carrying on as normal with an awful secret so let's move on shall we?"