The group’s fall outing was set to be the second leg of their first American tour in four and a half decades.
Mott the Hoople, the venerated 1970s band that had recently begun touring America again after a lull of 45 years, has canceled its fall tour in the U.S.
Singer-songwriter Ian Hunter, 80, was said in a statement to have “recently developed a severe case of tinnitus and has been advised by his doctors to discontinue performing until this condition subsides.”
The group had done a handful of dates in the U.S. in the spring, mostly in the Northeast. Based on the positive reaction and fan demand from other parts of the country, Mott had announced an 11-city followup that would have taken them to the west coast and the South, as well. The fall tour was to have started Oct. 11 at New York’s Capitol Theatre and gone on to include their first dates in cities like Los Angeles, Nashville, Dallas and Seattle since their mid-’70s breakup.
Writing about the group’s northeast dates in the spring, Variety called the tour “2019’s great rock resurrection” and said, “If you saw Mott’s brief, recently wrapped reunion tour of the Northeast — their first American tour since splitting up in 1975 — you came away believing in rock ‘n’ roll regeneration and resurrection, against all bell-tolling and stone-rolling odds.”
That tour found many fans from other parts of the country flying in for the handful of gigs. After that initial Mott the Hoople swing through the U.S. wrapped up, Hunter resumed his scheduled solo tour dates with his longstanding backing group, the Rant Band, which lasted into early June.
Refunds for the October and November dates can be had at the point of purchase.