This morning, a tearful Adele took to Instagram to announce that she’s had to postpone the entirety of her Las Vegas residency.
Adele was scheduled to play the first of 24 shows at the Caesars Palace’s Colosseum on Friday night. Coming on the back of her fourth album, 30, which was released in November last year, the ‘Weekends With Adele’ residency was to be the superstar’s first series of live concerts in five years. The superstar was expected to make north of $500,000 per night.
Many fans were already in the Entertainment Capital of the World, and are set to find themselves out of pocket on flights and hotels. Tickets for the shows – which range from $85 (£60) to $685 (£500) – will be valid for when the shows are rescheduled.
Adele said, “”I’m sorry, it’s last minute. I’m so upset and I’m really embarrassed and I’m so sorry to everyone that’s travelled.”
The postponement seems to have been caused, primarily, by Covid. “Half my team have Covid and it’s been impossible to finish the show,” she said, explaining “delivery delays” had also contributed to the situation. In 2017, Adele was forced to cancel the final two installments of her tour, set to be held at Wembley Stadium. This was a result of damage to her vocal chords.
Adele is, of course, not the first artist to change concert plans at the last minute. Instead of making a list that’s all doom and gloom, we’re looking back at some of the more unusual cancellations in history…
Kings of Leon Shat On by Pigeons
The year was 2010, the city was St. Louis, Missouri, and the venue was the Verizon Amphetheatre.
Kings of Leon walked out on stage, unsuspecting the horror awaiting them. For they soon incurred the wrath of a loft of pigeons, who had been nesting in the rafters of the stadium, and decided to defecate all over the band beneath them.
Somehow, the band managed to plough on through the first two songs of the set. On the third, however, one poorly placed bird dropping hit the cheek of bassist Jared Followhill, landing perilously close to his mouth. It wasn’t quite an Ashley Young bullseye (obligatory warning before clicking, but for anybody sick and curious, voila) but it was understandably enough to force the band off stage.
Drummer, and Jared’s brother, Nathan Followill took to Twitter to explain, writing: “So sorry St Louis. We had to bail, pigeons shitting in Jared‘s mouth and it was too unsanitary to continue.
Neil Young’s Misplaced Sandwich Slice
During the summer of 1997, a ham sandwich came between Neil Young and his European fans. The Canadian star’s entire Europe tour, comprising 16 dates, was scrapped after he sliced off the top of his left index finger while cutting the sandwich in half.
In a statement, he said, “I’d have eaten the thing in one piece if I’d known that cutting it in half would jeopardize the tour. It’s macaroni and cheese from now on.” Thankfully, Young made a full recovery. He just had to stay away from his guitar for a few weeks.
Keith Richards Falls Out a Tree
A coconut tree in Fiji was – at least in part – responsible for the delay of the Rolling Stones’ 2006 European tour.
The Stones’ two guitarists, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood were attempting to scale the tree on the pacific island, when Richards fell 15 feet and hit his head. The situation soon became more serious, when it was revealed Richards suffered a blood clot on the brain, and the accident required brain surgery.
Richards was able to laugh about the whole thing later, however, describing a “very little tree” and the whole thing as “a joke.” The neurosurgeon who operated on the rockstar was later invited to Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang world tour. It was always going to take more than a Fijian coconut tree to get Keith Richards.
Iggy Azalea Bored Of Her Own Music
Australian rapper (I think we can call her that?) Iggy Azalea cancelled her 2015 US tour at the last minute, claiming she was tired of singing the same songs. Not that I blame her, but you’d think she’d at least keep it to herself.
She cited a “creative change of heart,” and explained that going on tour would mean she would have to delay producing her visionary new music until after Christmas of that year. We couldn’t be having that now, could we?
Azalea did go on to say that after two years of non-stop work, she needed a mental break. “I’m not in a bad place,” she explained, but that she just needed time off and the decision was for the best. “I don’t want to disappoint my fans. I feel really bad. It was a tough decision to make, but it was the best thing.”
