Off: Decemberists cancel UK, Irish dates

The Decemberists have cancelled the remainder of their European tour after one of their number became ill.

In a missive released through the band's MySpace 'blog, the band detailed how:

"With much regret The Decemberists have cancelled the remainder of our European tour. One of our band members is ill and needs to return immediately home to mend.

"Our deepest apologies to all of our fans whom have purchased tickets to our forthcoming European shows. Unfortunately our calendar doesn't allow us to return to Europe at any point soon so please refund tickets at point of purchase.

"It saddens us to disappoint our fans. We hope everybody understands that it is because of an extreme situation that we had to make such an abrupt change in plans."

The affected dates are British and Irish - here:

October
9 Dublin Vicar Street
10 Liverpool Academy
11 Newcastle Academy
12 Glasgow Academy
13 Leeds Metropolitan University

Fans of the band have already begun to extol tales of woe, with one known simply as 'Randy' requesting "More details please. Who was ill? What was the illness? We travelled over 125 miles, with much dicomfort, to be met by a curt notice and many distressed people. As one of my friend's [gic] commented "What a bunch of lily livered American tossers".

What do you reckon? The Cribs had two members in hospital this weekend but will still persevere with the remainder of their tour dates. Are their Yank livers lily?