Belle & Sebastian cancel North American tour due to Stuart Murdoch’s health

24 January, 2023

Stuart Murdoch performing live

Belle & Sebastian have cancelled their upcoming American tour, citing Stuart Murdoch’s health.

The band announced details of the upcoming North American tour last October. They were due to kick off the tour in Mexico before heading to cities including Milwaukee, Detroit, Columbus, Toronto and finishing up in St. Louis and Kalamazoo.

Now, the band have released a statement saying that Murdoch had not yet recovered from an illness in late 2022.

The statement read: “Hi folks. It’s Stuart from Belle and Sebastian here. We are sorry to have to announce the cancellation of our North American tour for 2023.

“As you might be aware my health took a dive around November 2022. While I am hoping that I will improve over the coming months, we felt it would be a safer route to cancel this tour and leave a clear path to recovery, rather than take a risk and have to cancel at the last minute.

“We had a great plan in place, to release our second LP in six months and hit America up again! While the record made it out, we’re going to have to wait a bit longer until we can tour it. We apologise again for the inconvenience we have caused you. Sincerely yours, Stuart.”

The affected dates are as follows:

APRIL
24 – Guadalajara, Mexico – Theatre Diana
25 – Mexico City, Mexico – Metropolitan Theatre
28 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
29 – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theatre
30 – Columbus, OH – Athenaeum Theatre

MAY
02 – Toronto, Ontario – History
03 – Ottawa, Ontario – Bronson Centre
04 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
05 – Ithaca, NY – State Theatre
06 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
08 – Hudson, NY – Basilica Hudson
09 – Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall
10 – Richmond, VA – The National
12 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
13 – St. Augustine, FL – Backyard at St. Augustine Amphitheatre
14 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room
15 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Landing
17 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn
18 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
19 – Kalamazoo, MI – Bell’s Brewery (Outdoor)

Earlier this month, Belle & Sebastian announced details of a surprise new album, ‘Late Developers’ and shared the single ‘I Don’t Know What You See In Me’.

It’s the Scottish indie veterans’ 12th studio album and was released on January 13.

Arriving just eight months after their last record ‘A Bit Of Previous’, Murdoch recently told NME that ‘Late Developers’ was born of the same sessions in the band’s native Glasgow in 2021. After plans for to record in Los Angeles were abandoned due to the coronavirus pandemic, the group converted their rehearsal space into a COVID-safe makeshift studio. Murdoch explained how after the downtime of lockdown, he entered sessions for ‘A Bit of Previous’ “with about 30 songs”.

“I just said to the band, ‘Come on, let’s make it two LPs!” he said. “Let’s give the record company what they want first, and then keep the second one back as a secret.’”

Murdoch told NME how the two albums were distinct from one another, with ‘Late Developers’ exhibiting a more playful side. “The first one was the one where the record company were saying, ‘We’re going to do this and that,’ and we were thinking, ‘We’d better take it seriously and give them value for money!’,” he recalled. “But then after that we could be more relaxed.”

He continued: “The second LP is the fun LP. Even if some of the songs have serious subject matter, it was fun to put together. It’s my job to sequence the records, and putting two LPs together from 30 songs gives you a lot of options for having a nice flow.

“With the first record you’re trying to shape something that’s a little bit more cultured, maybe with the voices sitting at the same level and a constant narrative, whereas the second record is more all over the place, you’ve got more voices coming in.”

Belle & Sebastian are still set to embark on a UK tour this summer. Visit here for tickets and more information.

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