U2 Postpones Dates

Fans have suspected U2 might postpone more dates ever since the band announced Bono’s unexpected surgery late last week and said it would reschedule the June 3 leg opener in Salt Lake City.

Today the other shoe dropped as manager Paul McGuinness confirmed postponement of the 16 shows making up the next North American leg on the band’s 360° tour plus the band’s appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in England. Dates, including the SLC gig and ranging through July 19 in Meadowlands will be rescheduled for 2011.

“Our biggest and I believe best tour has been interrupted and we’re all devastated,” McGuinness said, according to U2.com. “For a performer who lives to be on stage, this is more than a blow. He feels robbed of the chance to do what he does best and feels like he has badly let down the band and their audience. Which is of course nonsense. His concerns about more than a million ticket buyers whose plans have been turned upside down, we all share, but the most important thing right now is that Bono make a full recovery. We’re working as fast as we can with Live Nation to reschedule these dates.”

Bono, who has been discharged from Ludwig Maximilians-University Hospital in Munich, underwent emergency surgery on Friday following a back injury. The band’s website says the frontman needs to begin a rehabilitation program and recuperate for at least eight weeks.

“Bono suffered severe compression of the sciatic nerve,” Dr. Muller Wohlfahrt said. “On review of his MRI scan, I realized there was a serious tear in the ligament and a herniated disc, and that conservative treatment would not suffice. I recommended Bono have emergency spine surgery with Professor Tonn at Munich’s LMU University Hospital on Friday.”

“Bono was referred to me by Dr. Muller Wohlfahrt late last week with a sudden onset disease,” Dr. Tonn said. “He was already in severe pain with partial paralysis in the lower leg. The ligament surrounding the disc had an 8mm tear and during surgery we discovered fragments of the disc had traveled into the spinal canal. This surgery was the only course of treatment for full recovery and to avoid further paralysis. Bono is now much better, with complete recovery of his motor deficit. The prognosis is excellent but to obtain a sustainable result, he must now enter a period of rehabilitation.”

While Live Nation works on rescheduling the shows for next year, U2.com reports Bono called Glastonbury’s Michael Eavis personally to say the band won’t be able to play this year’s festival.

“I’m heartbroken,” Bono told Eavis. “We really wanted to be there to do something really special – we even wrote a song especially for the festival.”

In response to Bono’s phone call, Eavis said U2 was “hugely disappointed” but would not comment on possible replacements for the band. U2 was scheduled to play Glastonbury June 25.

“It was obvious from our telephone conversation that U2 are hugely disappointed,” Eavis said. “Clearly, they were looking forward to playing the Pyramid Stage as much as we were looking forward to watching them. At this point, we have no comment to make about possible replacements for U2’s Friday night slot. Instead, we would simply like to send Bono our very best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.”

U2’s next scheduled date is Aug. 6 in Torino, Italy. For more information, click here for U2.com.