Earlier this week, a song entitled “Aerial” was uploaded to YouTube, claiming to be an unfinished outtake from Joy Division‘s “Unknown Pleasures” album. Considering the recent discovery of old Joy Division master tapes in the basement of Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant, it was feasible that this track could have been sourced from the recent find, if only for a moment.

Joy Division bassist Peter Hook debunked the tape when he spoke to the NME this week, saying “I’ve heard it. It’s a hoax and it’s bloody awful. They’re quite clever, these guys, they sound like college kids to me, they’ve captured the atmosphere quite well, but it’s a hoax. If Ian Curtis ever sang lyrics like that, I’d have kicked him up the arse.” He’s right. The lyrics in this song are really bad and sound nothing like the gothic imagery Curtis was known for. As for the guy singing them, he may impress girls at parties with that impression, but as one YouTube commenter put it, “As if we need Peter Bloody Hook to tell us this is a fake!”

Facsimiles of popular artists being uploaded to the Internet have been on the rise lately. Two months ago, a baker from Canada put up a track on YouTube, claiming it to be a long lost Radiohead demo from “The Bends” sessions. In both that case and this, the perpetrators knew their subjects well, but miss the mark in terms of being unquestionable.

In regards to those Jamie Oliver tapes, Peter Hook has said that he and his family got a free meal out of it, as a thanks for the publicity for Oliver’s new restaurant. Hook has said that he’s heard a recently recovered tape (possibly not related to Oliver’s discovery), that features a lot of alternate versions of songs from Joy Division’s last album, “Closer,” all of which apparently sound a lot different than what appeared on the record. “I’ve got a tape that’s recently come into my possession, which is outtakes from ‘Closer’. It’s interesting because the songs are quite different, we changed the songs quite a bit in the studio and the songs are very different. I’m not planning to do anything with it at the moment.” Hook also specifies that there is unlikely any fully completed outtakes on any of those tapes, saying, “Everytime you hear about tapes being discovered, you think there maybe more songs, but I think I can safely say that there isn’t anything more to do with Joy Division to come out. There’s not much left over, when you’re young, you don’t think for tomorrow.” Oh well.

If you must, check out the fake Joy Division song, “Aerial” below.

NOT Joy Division – “Aerial”