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Episode details

Radio 5 Live,2 mins

Bernard Sumner on 'shock' death of Joy Division's Curtis

5 Live In Short

Available for over a year

Former Joy Division guitarist Bernard Sumner has spoken about the "shock" he and his bandmates felt when they heard of singer Ian Curtis's death. Sumner, who formed New Order after Curtis took his own life aged 23, said the news turned the lives of everyone he knew "upside down". He added that if Curtis had not died, he "couldn't have continued in the band" due to his "deteriorating" health. "I think he'd have lived somewhere very quiet and become a writer of books... He was destined to be some sort of literary figure," Sumner said. This clip is originally from Richard Bacon on Thursday 18 September 2014.

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