Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order fame is auctioning off pieces from his vast collection of rare music memorabilia. The collection includes the infamous Factory Records boardroom table, Hook’s own first guitar, a variety of rare vinyl records as well as hundreds of other unique items. The auction takes place next month with a proportion of the proceeds going to three different charities; CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), the Epilepsy Society, and The Christie. The collection tells the story of the Mancunian alternative music scene in the 1970’s and 80’s. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Hook said, “I have done my time as curator of all this stuff and now it’s time for other people to be able to see it and enjoy it”.

The Factory Records boardroom table is bound to be one of the most talked about pieces in the collection. The extravagant wooden structure was reported by label head Tony Wilson to cost £30,000 to make. In reality, it was only around £2,000. However, the strange and bombastic nature of the long wooden table came to symbolise the hedonistic nature of the label itself, with the fabled story of the Happy Mondays breaking it shortly after it was installed in the attic of the Princess Street HQ only adding to the table’s infamy.

Other significant items include Hook’s vinyl copy of the Durutti Column debut album. The album cover, designed as a ‘situationist prank’, had a sandpaper sleeve which would wreck the other albums in your collection. The members of Joy Division were paid by Tony Wilson to fold and glue together the album sleeves. A task which, according to Hook, made their fingers bleed. Some of the Manchester gig tickets that are going up for sale include Roxy Music at Belle Vue, Led Zeppelin at the Hard Rock Cafe and Iggy Pop and David Bowie at the Free Trade Hall. Hook is also selling his own ticket to the Sex Pistols 1977 gig at the Lower Free Trade Hall, the gig that prompted him to go out the next day and buy his first guitar.

Hook had a few things to say about the auction, and stated that the collection grew out of his hoarding nature and his desire to document Joy Division’s achievements. “I have always felt so proud of what we achieved and I wanted to document it. That’s been the driving force behind collecting all this stuff. It sounds corny but what I’m doing now is sharing the joy. It’s about everybody being able to have a piece of all this history.”

The auction takes place on March 2nd at 1 pm in Newton-Le-Willows.