Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll - you can't beat them can you? I personally never understood the point of the middle vice, except for the resultant post-gig head-ache, ear-ache or neck-ache. But the other two, ahem, I'll leave you to think the thought and hum the tune, so to speak. Two men who certainly DO understand the central focal point of the famous phrase or saying above, are Howard Marks and Peter Hook.

Most of you should be familiar with Mr Hook by now - ex-New Order's bass-wielding Viking who has released the warts-n-all book, 'How Not To Run A Nightclub' and then, erm, opening a night-club (FAC 251), as well as playing the knee-slung six-strings on Joy Division, New Order, Revenge, Monaco, Hydrid and Devine and Statton tracks over the course of thirty-five years or so.

He has teamed up with notorious hashish 'entrepreneur', Howard Marks, for a series of evenings staged in rather more sedate and theatrical surroundings than certainly Hook has been accustomed to, 'live'-wise. The remit for each evening is a little bit of music, a little bit of spoken-word, a little bit of reminiscence, some unseen film footage from the Factory vaults and a lot of questions and answers with the audience. Hook intends to play solo bass versions of familiar and new instrumentals throughout each performance while Marks will compere the evening in his own inimitable style. The two performed together briefly at the launch weekend of FAC 251.

The tour, subtitled 'An Evening Of Unknown Pleasures', begins in Birmingham on April 11th before hitting Bolton (12th), Worcester (13th) and 12 further stops (including Hook's home-city of Salford on May 1st) before finishing up in Hull on the 2nd. Prices are around £16.50 upwards.

Marks himself is speaking on his own tour during March (Bolton - 5th, Reading - 16th, Poole - 21st and Derby 28th) plus a new date just announced on May 21st in York. These dates are a tenner max, a bargain for a man who has plenty of good stories to tell.