Getting Fleetwood Mac to play the Isle of Wight Festival was a real coup for John Giddings, indeed, once he’d got them for this year, he admitted to Music Week that it had taken him ‘six or seven years’ to get the band.
Islanders are now getting a bit jittery about the legendary, 100-million album selling group playing, after the band cancelled their second big gig in a row this week. Words of reassurance are being provided.
Birmingham, then Manchester stopped
This evening the band were due to play the massive Manchester Arena, a venue with a 21,000 capacity, but announced this afternoon that they won’t be playing ‘due to illness’. This was even after Manchester fans were reassured that their gig would go ahead, despite the Birmingham problems earlier in the week.
On Tuesday this week they cancelled their second night in Birmingham, at 16,000 capacity Genting Arena, rearranging to return in July. Illness was also cited.
It’s been known for a while that John McVie has cancer, but it’s not known if he is the band member that has been declared as ill this week.
Isle of Wight Festival update
The official word (at 1:38pm) on the Festival organisers Facebook page was, “Following recent cancellations Fleetwood Mac have confirmed that they will be restarting their tour at the Isle of Wight Festival on Sunday 14th June.”
OnTheWight spoke to an spokesperson for Isle of Wight Festival this afternoon, who sought to assure fans, “As far as we know, it’s still going ahead.”
Fleetwood Mac’s official page on Facebook saw a statement released at 4pm: “The band intend to resume the tour with their scheduled performance at the Isle of Wight Festival on Sunday 14th June.”
A slight difference between the two
There’s a slight, very small, difference between the words from the band and that of the Festival. The band says ‘intend to resume’, the festival says, ‘have confirmed that they will be restarting their tour’.
Crossed fingers!
Let’s hope the illness is overcome as many of the older Isle of Wight Festival goers are really looking forward to Fleetwood Mac playing.
Image: petersell under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license
