The band, which did best of all the acts in this year’s European Talent Exchange Programme by picking up 14 festival bookings, was only four songs into its Munich show Nov. 9 when McVeigh lost his voice.

“We apologise to fans expecting White Lies shows in Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland this week. Unfortunately we’re having to postpone these dates due to illness,” the band said in a statement.

“Those of you in Munich will have witnessed the problem first hand, these things happen, in the last 12 months we’ve played over 200 shows around the world and this is the first time it’s happened to us, we’ll be rescheduling all of these shows for early next year.”

White Lies’ agent, Paul Bolton from London’s Helter Skelter, is trying to reschedule the postponed shows in Munich, Vienna, Rome, Milan and Zurich for February 2010. All original tickets remain valid.

The tour is expected to resume at Bournemouth Academy Nov. 18, the first show of the British leg.