U2 LEAD singer Bono has been discharged from hospital in Germany after undergoing back surgery, but the injury has forced the band to postpone the entire 16-date North American leg of its 360° Tour until 2011.
U2 have also been forced to cancel an appearance at Glastonbury, one of the biggest events of the annual music calendar. There are no plans as yet to cancel the European leg of the tour planned later in the year.
Band manager Paul McGuinness, speaking outside the Munich hospital where Bono (50) was recuperating since being admitted for treatment last Friday, said yesterday that the singer felt “awful” about the tour changes, which will affect over a million fans.
Bono has been told by doctors to undertake a rehab regime as well as resting for at least eight weeks. The earliest possible date for Bono’s return, according to the band’s website, would be August 6th in Turin, Italy.
U2 were to have been the headline act on the main stage at Glastonbury on June 25th, but that has now been cancelled.
“I’m heartbroken,” Bono said in a statement posted on the festival website. “We really wanted to be there to do something really special – we even wrote a song especially for the festival.”
Prof Joerg Tonn, the neurosurgeon who operated on Bono, described his condition as a “sudden onset disease” which caused temporary partial paralysis. The injury happened while the singer was training in preparation for the tour.