Former members of Manchester band Joy Division are calling for a bridge in the city to be named after lead singer Ian Curtis.

Ex-bandmates Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris have backed a campaign to create a lasting memorial to the late frontman, who died in 1980.

 The Epping Walk Bridge, over Princess Parkway in Hulme, is the location of a series of iconic photographs of Joy Division - including one used on the front of their 'best of' album.

Campaigners say renaming the bridge will be a suitable way of commemorating the 30th anniversary of Curtis's death in May this year.

Hook told the M.E.N. he thought it was a 'fantastic idea'.

He said: "I think it's very fitting for him to cross Princess Parkway on a road that leads to the Hacienda.

"It's right next to TJ Davidson's rehearsal rooms, the same road as where the Boardwalk club was and where Tony Wilson's flat still is."

Hook added there should be a sign on the bridge saying 'This Way to Unknown Pleasures' - a reference to Joy Division's debut album.

The other former band members, Sumner and Morris, are out of the country but their manager Rebecca Boulton said they supported the idea.

The campaign is the brainchild of Gayle O'Donovan, who is standing as the Green Party candidate in the Manchester Central constituency in the forthcoming General Election.

She said she hoped it would recognise the role Hulme played in Manchester's music scene.

The Russell Club, on Royce Road, was home to Tony Wilson's Factory night - which helped launch the career of Joy Division.

The live version of Transmission, on the B-side of Atmosphere, was recorded at the club in 1979.

 Gayle said: "We believe if this campaign succeeded, we'd be putting Hulme back on the map, restoring some local pride, creating another reason for people to visit our city and saluting a local legend.

 "Renaming the bridge gives Joy Division fans their own part of Manchester."

Gayle has set up a Facebook group for the campaign, which has already gained around 1,000 members.

She now intends to get signatures from people in Hulme and present a petition to Manchester council's highways department.

The images were taken on the bridge in January 1979 by celebrated rock photographer Kevin Cummins, who said he was interested in the outcome of the campaign.

He said: "I know people in Manchester already refer to it as the Joy Division bridge.

"It's the photograph that sums the band's sound up because of the sparseness, space and bleakness."

Joy Division were formed in Salford in 1976 and released Unknown Pleasures on Wilson's Factory record label in 1979.

Curtis, who spent most of his life in Macclesfield, killed himself on May 18, 1980.

The other band members went on to form New Order.