Duran Duran have been forced to cancel their upcoming European summer tour, which was set to start in Dublin on 14th July , because of Simon Le Bon's continuing vocal problems. Le Bon damaged the muscles controlling his vocal chords during a show in France last May, causing him to temporarily lose the top part of his rage. This can be corrected by physiotherapy but can be quite a time consuming treatment, therefore meaning that Le Bon and his band must cancel the tour. Duran Duran hope to reschedule the dates late this year or early next year.
Le Bon said in a statement: "This has been an extremely difficult decision to make as the injury I seem to have sustained is an internal one and so no-one can tell me exactly how long it's going to take to mend completely. Every day I can see an improvement and each week I recover a part of my upper range. What the doctor's don't want me to do, however, is risk any further damage, so they are saying I need to take some more time away from shows to get back to full strength. If we knew exactly when that might be, we wouldn't have to let this entire run of dates go, but what we feel we can't keep doing is moving shows piecemeal - as it's just not fair on the fans.
I am lucky that this has never happened to me before, in thirty years, and that the injury, whilst extremely frustrating is nothing more serious. I am doing everything I can to work through this and get back on track as soon as possible. We have an incredible production we've been working on for this tour - and the new songs are sounding great. This couldn't have come at a worse time - but I am trying to be philosophical about my recovery as there's nothing else I can do."
The full list of cancelled dates is:
July
Thursday 14 Dublin, Ireland
Saturday 16 London, UK - iTunes Festival
Monday 18 Leipzig, Germany
Tuesday 19 Munich, Germany
Friday 22 Brenta, Italy
Saturday 23 Milan, Italy
Saturday 24 Savoia, Italy
Tuesday 26 Thessaloniki, Greece
Thursday 28 Istanbul, Turkey
Saturday 30 Tel Aviv, Israel
August
Monday 1 Ayia Napa, Cyprus
Thursday 4 Vienna, Austria
Saturday 6 Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Monday 8 Mallorca, Spain
Wednesday 10 Estepona, Spain
Friday 12 Ibiza, Spain
Saturday 13 Hamburg, Germany
Tuesday 16 Abufeira, Portugal
Saturday 20 V Festival, Stafford, UK
Sunday 21 V Festival, Chelmsford, UK
Wednesday 24 Warsaw, Poland
Friday 26 Langesund, Norway
Saturday 27 Oslo, Norway
Sunday 28 Bergen, Norway
September
Friday 2 Den Haag, Holland
Thursday 8 Copenhagen, Denmark
Saturday 10 Brussels, Belgium
Monday 12 Paris, France
