Canceled: Morrissey (Yes, Really) & O.M.D.

O.M.D.’s Malcolm Holmes was treated for heat exhaustion following the British New Wave group’s July 19 show at The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto.

The band posted on Facebook Saturday that Holmes was in the hospital “but is recovering well.” On Sunday O.M.D. added that the drummer “hopes to fly home on Tuesday.”

Holmes’ ailment has forced O.M.D. to cancel its remaining 2013 shows including July 20 in Detroit, July 22 in Minneapolis and July 23 in Chicago. Appearances at 80’s Rewind Festival in Perth, Scotland, and ERP Remember Cascais – The Recycling Festival in Cascais, Portugal, have also been nixed.

“Please accept our sincere apologies, we really appreciate your understanding at this very difficult time,” O.M.D. said.

Poor Morrissey! What else could possibly go wrong for that guy?! After a bad case of food poisoning wrecked havoc on most of his South American itinerary, the former Smiths frontman had said earlier this month his doctor had told him he should be fine to play the tour’s remaining shows.

Now those dates – scheduled in late July/early August in Argentina and Brazil – are scratched from his calendar as well. An announcement posted on fan site True To You blames a lack of funding.

And because Morrissey’s dramatic statements are too much fun, you can read it for yourself: 

“I am informed today that the projected tour of South America is snuffed out, thus euthanized – due, I’m reliably advised, to lack of funding. It’s quite easy to sell tickets, yet impossible to transport band and crew from F to G.

“In a year when far too many disappointments have been buried this really is the last of many final straws, and I am not alone in feeling this. The future is suddenly absent, and my apologies are now so frequent as to be somewhat ridiculous, and it is I who apologize because no one else would bother. It is agonizing to be responsible for imparting such news – especially when it springs upon me unexpectedly and inexplicably. But the collapse of South America rings the curtain down with a colossal thud, and the major problems remain as insoluble now as they were in 2009. The obvious conclusion stares back at me from the mirror, and the wheels are finally off the covered wagon. Cancellations and illness have sucked the life out of all of us, and the only sensible solution seems to be the art of doing nothing.

“As always I ask your pardon, and I offer pangs of overwhelming love and gratitude to the band and the crew, whose loyalty stretched above and beyond.

“I shall see you in my dreams,
“Morrissey”

Of course, the food poisoning (aka “deadly and delirious bedridden disease”) was the least of Moz’s worries. During the past year Moz has canceled numerous dates because of a variety of health issues including a concussion, double pneumonia, a bleeding ulcer and a case of Barrett’s esophagus.