Bernard Sumner became a "miserable" person around Peter Hook.
The 58-year-old singer-and-guitarist admits he repeatedly clashed with his former bandmate – who left New Order acrimoniously in 2007 – because the bassist is so "competitive" and was convinced the frontman wanted to "seize power" in the band after their manager Rob Gretton died in 1999.
Bernard said: "I think when Rob died, he saw it as a chance to seize power in the band and I think he may have felt that I felt the same but I didn’t.
"He wasn’t particularly interested in being in the studio and loved playing live – and I preferred being in the studio.
"Perhaps he wasn’t that interested in making electronic music and wanted to make music of a more throbbing nature.
"I just think he’s very competitive and I’m not really – and he couldn’t stand that.
"I could be a miserable **** on tour – because I didn’t want to be around him."
The two musicians became friends at school but Bernard admits it wasn’t due to shared interests but because they were both "scum" at the bottom of their class.
Asked why they were friends, he told Uncut magazine: "Because we were both at the bottom of the class. We sat together.
"It wasn’t because there was any great musical enlightenment we shared, we were the scum at the back of the class."
Bernard Sumner: Peter Hook made me miserable
