Jimmy Chamberlin discussed Jack Bates playing bass on the Shiny and Oh So Bright tour instead of D’arcy Wretzky and Melissa auf der Maur in a new NME interview.
D’Arcy’s absence has been pretty thoroughly explained. Was there ever a conversation to have Melissa Auf Der Maur involved or was it always going to be Jack Bates on bass?
“No, it was always going to be Jack. He’s a great musician and that was the deciding factor. Jack played with Billy and Jeff on the Manson tour. He’s entrenched in the band and knows the songs. The way that Jack plays is very reminiscent of the way that Billy played bass on a lot of the early Pumpkins stuff because he and James were really big Joy Division and New Order fans. A lot of those bass parts were mimicking Peter’s playing.
“To have Jack, who’s obviously genetically linked to Peter, there’s a real strange uncanniness to it. I mean it in the best possible way. Jack just gets how to play that stuff, which you can only get from being Peter Hook’s son! You don’t think about it until you’re on stage, then I’m like ‘Holy cow, this sounds so good. It sounds so right’. He’s a young man but his ability and perception is well beyond his years. We just played with Peter at our 30th anniversary show. We played a couple of Joy Division and New Order songs and it was amazing. He’s obviously a legend but also one of my all-time favourite people and bassists.”
