• on air
• artists
• music news
• gigs & tickets
• breakfast
• o2 academy

The Vines Cancel Festival Appearances

added 07 July 2004 at 15.14

We’d like to pretend it wasn’t a surprise, but it isn’t. The Vines have cancelled their upcoming Carling Weekender Reading and Leeds Festival appearances, citing singer Craig Nicholls’ mental and physical exhaustion.

The Vines have been no strangers to conflict over their brief history, with stories of onstage fights, cancelled dates and Craig Nicholls’ increasingly unpredictable behaviour filling the press over the past two years.

The band cancelled a US stadium tour supporting Incubus in early June and now it seems their scheduled Carling Weekender Reading and Leeds Festival shows won’t take place either.

"The Vines have reluctantly made the decision to pull out of their scheduled Reading and Leeds performances this year,” reads a statement issued to the NME, “The band were unable to take part in a planned US summer tour with Incubus due to lead singer Craig Nicholls’ needing to rest and recuperate following a mentally and physically demanding period. With the festival shows coming directly after the cancelled US dates, The Vines felt they would still not be ready to return to the stage."

"We’re really sorry that we have to pull out and want to thank all of our fans and friends for being so understanding about our situation this year. Reading and Leeds are definitely festival highlights – we all remember Reading two years ago as our best gig ever – so it’s been a very hard decision to make, but sadly we’re just not ready to play live again."

Following an on stage altercation with Nicholls in early June, bassist Patrick Matthews left the band (whether temporality or permanently is not know) and is now playing with Sydney based alt rock outfit Youth Group.

It is currently not known who will replace The Vines in the festival line up, but keep checking Xfm Online for more details as they arrive.

For more information on Reading and Leeds and all of this year's festivals check out the Xfm Online Festival Guide by clicking here.

Virtual Festivals Is Xfm's Official Festival Partner

To discuss this story on the Xfm News Messageboard click here.

Back to Music News

Have you got a music news story? E-mail the Xfm News Desk below.

• send to a friend