The Exploited Cancel Remaining 2022 Dates After Singer Wattie Buchan Collapses on Stage

Veteran Scottish punk band The Exploited have canceled their remaining 2022 tour dates following an onstage health incident that affected singer Wattie Buchan during a show in Bogota, Colombia on Saturday. “Yesterday, December 10th, 2022 during the end of the set Wattie collapsed on stage in Bogota, COL and was rushed into hospital by ambulance,” the band wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.

“Thankfully Wattie is feeling better now and is resting in a hotel in Bogota… Due to doctor’s orders all remaining shows for 2022 have been cancelled, including tonight’s performance in Cali, COL,” the band continued, noting that they were preparing to return home to the UK while also offering an apology to fans and promoters for the sudden cancellation; the group’s planned show on Friday (Dec. 16) in London has also been scotched.

“We are sorry about this but Wattie is exhausted and told to cancel all upcoming gigs for this year,” they added alongside a video from the Bogota show in which Buchan, 65 — rocking his signature towering liberty spike hairstyle — is seen doubling over with his hands on his knees before collapsing to the stage and being attended to by stagehands. An Instagram post featured pictures of Buchan in the back of an ambulance with an oxygen tube in his nose.

Back in Feb. 2014, Buchan collapsed on stage during a show in Lisbon, Portugal after suffering a heart attack and was hospitalized in Belgium in 2017 after suffering a heart issue while on tour. A band spokesperson reportedly told Scottish broadcaster STV that, “Wattie had another suspected heart attack. He tried playing on but had to actually stop a couple of songs until he eventually collapsed. He got taken away to hospital in an ambulance but over 900 people refused to leave the venue until he heard he was alright. The Exploited are held as idols over here, and Wattie is seen as the king of punk. He has kept the punk movement alive when everyone in the press said it was dead. He is actually a living legend.”

Back in March 2020, the hard-touring band steadfastly refused to cancel their planned 40th anniversary tour in the midst of the then-exploding COVID-19 pandemic. “F–k coronavirus! I have had five heart attacks, a quad heart bypass and a heart pacemaker fitted,” Buchan told tour promoter DRW Entertainment, who shared the rocker’s thoughts in a Facebook post at the time. “Cancel gigs for a virus? We ain’t f–king Green Day — we are the real deal. No danger will we be canceling our upcoming gigs. Punk’s not dead!”

The beloved punks formed in Edinburgh in 1979 and released their full-length debut, Punks Not Dead, in 1981; Buchan is the sole remaining original member.

See the band’s post below.

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A post shared by Wattie Buchan (@wattie_exploited)