Stephen Morris has said he “doesn’t know” if he’ll return to New Order due to serious illness.
In June, the Manchester band confirmed that Morris, as well as Gillian Gilbert, would not be touring with them in the “foreseeable future” due to “personal health reasons”.
Morris was the drummer in Joy Division alongside Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Ian Curtis, and the remaining members formed New Order after Curtis’ death in 1980.
The news marks a major change to New Order’s live incarnation, which has been centred around Sumner, Morris and Gilbert since the band returned in 2011 without founding bassist Hook.
Now, Morris has shared an update on his position in the band ahead of New Order and Joy Division being inducted together into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame later this year.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Morris was asked if he would be attending the ceremony, to which he responded: “I’ve got a bit of a health problem at the minute, which precludes leaving the country for any length of time. We did try. We went to an exhibition, the Ian Curtis lyrics exhibition in New York a few months ago and thought, ‘We’ll see how this goes. If this goes all right, it might be worth thinking …’ And that was only two days, and it just ended in disaster. So maybe not, maybe, but I can’t really say things will get better, because they won’t.”
When asked if he might return to the band at some point, Morris also explained: “I don’t know. I really don’t want to dwell on what this illness is, but it’s pretty serious. It’s not something that someone’s going to come up with a cure for.”
He went on to say: “I can’t really not do music. That’d be a bit like losing a leg or something far worse. So, yeah, and I can’t really see me … I still see Bernard [Sumner] and Phil [Cunningham] and Tom [Chapman], and we’re all mates, it’s fine. I’m sure something will … I mean, if it was a gig down the road, I’m sure we’d be all right.”
New Order will be playing shows in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Colombia later this year. You can find more information here.
Hook left New Order in 2007, later becoming involved in a long-running legal dispute with Sumner, Morris and Gilbert over ownership of assets and the use of the New Order name. A “full and final settlement” was reached in 2017, but relations have remained strained.
At the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame later this year, Curtis, Gilbert, Hook, Morris and Sumner have been named as the inducted members, but back in April Hook told Rolling Stone he did not plan to stand alongside his former bandmates at the ceremony.
“No. No. Not after what they did to me and my family, no,” he said. “I won’t stand with them. No. I couldn’t give a shit [how it would work]. I’m not bothered. You’ve got to have morals.”
However, he has also joked that Oasis could potentially stage peace talks between the estranged bandmates, saying: “Maybe Liam and Noel could be the intermediaries that you’re looking for. They might be like, ‘OK, you two. Let’s shake hands and get up there and play ‘Transmission,’ ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart,’ and ‘Blue Monday’.’”
Earlier this year, New Order released ‘The Best & The Rest Of New Order’, a remastered collection featuring classic singles alongside rare and previously unreleased remixes.
Joy Division also recently announced ‘Eternal’, a huge new live recordings box set featuring 14 CDs and two DVDs. The set, due out on September 30, collects live material from the band’s short but hugely influential career.
