New Order announced Monday that Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert will not be joining their show at Primavera in Chile in November “due to personal health reasons.”
“Circumstances make it impossible,” the band said in an Instagram post. That leaves frontman Bernard Sumner as the only original member of the seminal post-punk band who will perform at the Santiago, Chile Primavera festival, which runs Nov. 26-28. Phil Cunningham and Tom Chapman, who have been performing with New Order since 2011, will join Sumner onstage.
“New Order are very happy to be playing Primavera in Chile in November marking the band’s first performance there in seven years,” New Order posted on Instagram.
“Due to personal health reasons, Stephen and Gillian won’t be touring for the foreseeable future and will not be joining for this show. Bernard, Phil and Tom are really sorry that Stephen and Gillian can’t join us this time, but unfortunately the circumstances make it impossible.”
New Order did not specify whether it was Morris or Gilbert having health issues — the pair are married — or what the nature of the issues are.
Joy Division/New Order are set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 14 in Los Angeles. Original Joy Division/New Order bass player Peter Hook, who split from the band in 2007, has said he will attend the ceremony. However, after a famously acrimonious split and legal battle, he told Rolling Stone he didn’t want to stand near them, “No. No. Not after what they did to me and my family, no. No. I won’t stand with them.”
Hook, who now performs with his band The Light and is embarking on a U.S. tour in August, said he would prefer to perform at the Hall of Fame ceremony with Oasis, who are also being inducted and with whom he has a long relationship. “Definitely. Without a shadow of a doubt, for that first gig I gave them in 1990. Do you know what? All I can say is that plans from my side are underway. I’m hoping they come to fruition.”