Peter Hook is set to sue his former band mates in New Order.
The bass player departed in 2007, with relations long since souring between Hook and his former colleagues.
Peter Hook has taken his case to the High Court, as NME reports, arguing that "former friends" Bernard Sumner and Stephen and Gillian Morris set up a fresh company to handle the band's assets, steering assets away from him and leaving him £2.3 million out of pocket.
Hook's barrister, Mark Wyeth QC, told a High Court Judge: "It was as though George Harrison and Ringo Starr had got together at George’s house one Friday night and had acted together to divest Paul McCartney of his shareholding in the Beatles, and didn’t tell Yoko about it either."
The barrister explained that he believed the case was "not about musical direction or musical differences or personality clashes, but first and foremost about wrongdoers taking control of a company and stripping it of its property. Mr Hook seeks restoration of the company’s misappropriated property, property it has held for more than 20 years."
New Order's lawyer David Casement QC responded by saying that the hand had acted lawfully, and that Peter Hook was using the case as leverage to get back into the band.
Judge Cooke decreed that a full trial should follow, telling both parties: "I strongly urge the parties to seek to resolve the issues between them by entering into some commercial negotiations so that they do not incur the expense of pursuing this matter to trial".
The case is ongoing.
