Gillian Gilbert has revealed that it’s not her husband, drummer Stephen Morris, who is the seriously ill one in New Order – it’s her.
Earlier in the summer you may recall that the band announced that Morris and Gilbert would not be touring with the band “for the foreseeable future” due to “personal health reasons”. No more detail was given, regarding which of the couple was ill, nor what they were suffering from.
Then in a Rolling Stone interview last week about Eternal, the latest Joy Division archive release, Morris gave some more info - “I’ve got a bit of a health problem at the minute, which precludes leaving the country for any length of time.” Asked whether he would return to playing with New Order at some point, the drummer said: “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.”
Now it turns out that the health problem Morris ‘has’ is something is supporting his wife through. Gillian has put the record straight in an Instagram post. “I would like to gently clarify a misunderstanding from the interview, in the course of which comments were misinterpreted, leading people to believe that Stephen is seriously ill,” she wrote.
She continued: “Thankfully, he is well. It is in fact me, who like many other people, is living with cancer. We completely understand how the misunderstanding arose and simply wanted to ensure that the correct information was shared.”
“We are enormously grateful for everyone’s kindness and support and would appreciate some privacy as I continue with my treatment.”
It does mean that it’s very unlikely that there will be a New Order reunion of any description when the band are inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame in November. Estranged bassist Peter Hook has said he’ll be there though and at present might be the only member to accept the award.
Gilbert and Morris are, of course, one of the few couples in bands who have gone the distance. More than forty-five years after Gillian joined New Order as keyboard player, they are still together. And, one hopes, for many more years to come…
