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Franz Ferdinand Bassist Hospitalised

added 29 November 2004 at 12.19

Franz Ferdinand bassist Bob Hardy was hospitalised following a show at Osaka’s Mother Hall in Japan. He was diagnosed with a severe case of gastro-enteritis.

During Franz’ sell-out Japanese tour, Hardy had started to feel ill on the Friday night during the journey to Osaka. He completed the show at the Mother Hall the following evening, Saturday, in considerable pain and for the most part seated.

He was then taken to hospital in Osaka that evening where he was diagnosed with a severe case of gastro-enteritis and admitted for the night before being transferred to a Tokyo hospital last night (Sunday November 28).

The remaining members of the band performed at Nagoya’s Diamond Hall that evening with the help of stand in bassist Dino from support act The Beat Up. The band performed four songs with Dino – ‘Michael’, ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Cheating On You’ and ‘Tell Her Tonight’. The remaining eight songs of the set were performed acoustically without a bassist and included two new songs ‘Walk Away’ and ‘Jeremy Fraser’.

Dino then returned during the encore to play a second rendition of ‘Michael’ and a shortened version of 'Darts Of Pleasure’.

However, Bob is set to return and play the show tonight (Monday November 29), at Tokyo’s Shibuya Ax venue. He will then return to hospital where he is scheduled to remain until December 2 when he will fly to New York and join the band on their U.S. tour.

Bob will also miss the band’s first two dates of Franz’ US tour - Detroit on the December 1 and Philadelphia on December 2 (where he’ll be replaced by Fiery Furnaces bassist Toshi Yano) but Bob is expected to play in New Jersey on December 3).

Xfm send all their best wishes for Bob and hope he has a speedy recovery.

Tagged as Franz Ferdinand, archive

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