Fans attending Volbeat’s recent show at Belfast’s Ulster Hall were left disappointed when the band were forced to abandon the gig due to “technical issues” affecting vocalist and guitarist Michael Poulsen.
The band launched into set opener Pelvis On Fire, only for Poulsen to walk off the stage a couple of minutes into the track.
He then re-emerged, telling the crowd: “We’re having technical issues with the guitars and I can’t really hear what’s going on, which means I can’t play. But we’re going to give it a shot, OK?”
The band kicked back into the song from their new album Rewind, Replay, Rebound only for Poulsen to pull up, saying: “Sorry, sorry. It’s not going to work,” before leaving the stage for a second time.
Volbeat later released a statement which read: “We in Volbeat want to extend our most heartfelt apologies for having to cancel tonight’s show in Belfast.
“As many of you know, Michael has been having some throat issues and we ran into multiple technical issues on stage that prevented the band from being able to hear each other play.
“While he has mostly recovered his voice at this point, it was decided that had he continued to play the show this way he would have risked blowing out his voice again and having to cancel even more shows.
“We’re gutted that we weren’t able to perform for you tonight, but we will be back to reschedule the show as soon as we possibly can.”
The abandonment came just days after Volbeat were forced to cancel their show in Bristol “due to illness,” and while their set in Dublin on Friday night went ahead as planned, the band issued another statement addressing the situation.
Volbeat said: “We want to say thank you to everyone who came out to the show last night in Dublin. Again, we want to apologies for the technical issues and illness that prevented us from performing in Belfast.
“We are still working on rescheduling the Belfast and Bristol shows, more information will come soon.”
Volbeat’s European tour continues tonight (October 7) in Luxembourg.
