Bring Me The Horizon's Oli struck down by throat infection

A picture of Oli Sykes
Oli Sykes (Image credit: Getty)

Bring Me The Horizon singer Oli Sykes has been diagnosed with a viral infection that has left him unable to speak.

The Sheffield band have had to cancel three shows in Australia, one in New Zealand and another in Singapore as a result of the frontman’s illness.

Their scheduled appearances at Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena tonight and tomorrow (September 23) have been pulled, along with the show in Auckland, New Zealand, that was due to take place on September (Saturday).

Tuesday night’s gig at Adelaide AEC Theatre was pulled on the day, and the September 27 show that was scheduled for Singapore Fort Canning Park has also been removed from the band’s listed tour dates.

In a statement, the band say: “Oli has a viral infection which has caused his throat to become very infected and he is hardly able to speak, let alone sing.”

Sykes – who has separated from his wife Hannah Pixie Snowdon – says via Instagram: “The concert for me in Sydney was a real struggle for me to sing, we got through it and I was really hoping a day off yesterday and 24-hours of vocal rest would be sufficient.

“Unfortunately I’ve woken up today and my symptoms have worsened, my throat and face has swollen up, along with ulcers, rashes and other not so great problems.

“So it appears I have some kind of viral infection. I’m so sorry to let you all down, but believe me when I say no one is more gutted than me.

“Right now the shows are one of the main things helping me get through a personally difficult period of my life, and being told that I’m not in any condition to perform and having to go back and sit alone in a hotel room until this infection subsides – well, is the last thing I wanna be doing.”

Sykes adds that he hopes to make it up to the fans who have missed out “in the not too distant future.”

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Bring Me The Horizon tour dates 2016

Oct 31: London O2 Arena, UK
Nov 01: Bournemouth BIC, UK
Nov 02: Nottingham Motorpoint Arena, UK
Nov 04: Birmingham Barclaycard Arena, UK
Nov 05: London O2 Arena, UK
Nov 06: Sheffield Arena, UK
Nov 08: Manchester Arena, UK
Nov 09: Glasgow SSE Hydro, UK
Nov 12: Brussels Forest National, Belgium
Nov 13: Amsterdam Heineken Music Hall, Netherlands
Nov 15: Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle, Germany
Nov 16: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany
Nov 17: Bochum RuhrCongress, Germany
Nov 18: Berlin Columbiahalle, Germany
Nov 20: Copenhagen Falconer Theatre, Denmark
Nov 22: Helsinki Ice Hall, Finland
Nov 23: Tallinn Saku Suurhall, Estonia
Nov 25: Stockholm Hovet, Sweden
Nov 26: Oslo Sentrum Scene, Norway

The Top 10 best Bring Me The Horizon songs

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.