STRATOVARIUS Forced To Cancel Paris And Lyon Shows, Bilbao Gig In Doubt

Finland's STRATOVARIUS, who are currently on the road in Europe supporting HELLOWEEN, were forced to […]

By Elina Papadogianni

• January 13, 2011

Finland's STRATOVARIUS, who are currently on the road in Europe supporting HELLOWEEN, were forced to cancel their January 11th show in Paris, France due to frontman Timo Kotipelto falling ill. Footage of Kotipelto addressing the crowd is available below.

Kotipelto: "We were touring with Helloween and we played, I think, in Poland and the Czech Republic, so I got some food poisoning, some bacteria. And my Christmas was not so nice and I still have some problems - my vocals cords are completely dry. I [saw] a doctor in Paris yesterday and today as well, so it's like... unfortunately, I can't sing a fucking note, and this never happened to me before. I'm very sorry about this and we wanna make it up to you, guys. We're gonna be back in Paris, back in France - I don't know when; hopefully this year. So I hope you understand the situation. Thank you so much. Merci beaucoup."

Keyboardist Jens Johansson issued the following update yesterday (January 12th):

"Well, the good news is that we're back on the road with Helloween. And Jörg Michael is back in his drum chair after his brush with death. The bad news is that Timo Kotipelto caught some sort of bacterial infection. We suspect it was something from the backstage food in December, but we don't know. Two of the other people on the tour had the same thing: a very bad dysentery-like stomach infection with vomiting and diarrhea, dehydration, also eventually had to go to hospital, etc.

Timo's infection is stubborn and in addition to ruining his Christmas break, it has dried out his vocal cords. In his own words, he can't sing a note at the moment. We are currently in France and so far we had to cancel playing in Paris and Lyon.

We are of course very sorry about this, and nobody is more heartbroken or frustrated than Timo himself. Apart from heeding the advice from doctors we are in touch with, the only thing we can do at the moment is to hope Timo gets better. We will ride the 1000 km to Bilbao tonight and hopefully we will all get some sleep on the nice smooth French motorways."