Elvis Costello Cancels Tour Dates Over Cancer Surgery
Martin Kielty Published: July 6, 2018
Dimitrios Kambouris, Getty Images
Elvis Costello has cancelled the remaining shows of his current European tour with the Impostors after revealing he'd undergone cancer surgery and returned to the road too soon for his recovery to be complete. He apologized to disappointed fans while thanking those who'd attended the concerts he'd managed to perform.
"Six weeks ago my specialist called me and said, 'You should start playing the Lotto,'" Costello said via his website. "He had rarely, if ever, seen such a small but very aggressive cancerous malignancy that could be defeated by a single surgery. I was elated and relieved that our European summer tour could go ahead." He explained that medical advice regarding recovery time changed according to the amount of physical effort involved in a patient's career, and therefore it had been difficult to predict the correct timescale for a touring artist.
"[B]y the time we reached the Edinburgh Playhouse, I was almost fooled into thinking that normal service had been resumed," he continued. "I have to thank our friends attending last night's show in Amsterdam and those in Antwerp, Glynde and at Newcastle City Hall for bearing me up. The spirit has been more than willing but I have to now accept that it is going to take longer than I would have wished for me to recover my full strength. Therefore, I must reluctantly cancel all the remaining engagements of this tour."
He admitted it had been an "upsetting time" for him and his workmates and family. "To leave you with some more optimistic news, The Imposters and I – together with several of our other friends – have made a magnificent new record of which we are truly proud. It will be issued in October, I believe. We will return at the soonest opportunity to play that music and your favourite songs that still make sense to us all."
Costello's North American dates are not currently affected by his change of plans. They're set to commence on Nov. 2 and conclude on Dec. 4.
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