Deep Purple Call Off Remainder of U.K./European Tour as Ian Gillan Recovers

Deep Purple have postponed the rest of their U.K. and European tour on medical advice, four days after Ian Gillan was taken to hospital in Leipzig. The band announced on Monday that dates in Germany, the Netherlands, France and the U.K. will not go ahead, including the tour's scheduled final night at the Royal Albert Hall in London on November 25. The Leipzig and Hamburg shows, first waved off on October 31, are now part of a wider suspension.

YouTubeSmoke on the Water

Gillan, 81, described the sequence himself on Instagram. He wrote that he had "a medical problem whilst in Leipzig which required urgent attention at the hospital," and that he had hoped "to get the all clear to hang on until the end of the tour, but there are very serious risks involved in me doing so." He said the decision followed advice from his medical team and management, and apologized for the inconvenience. The band has not specified what is ailing him.

The scale of the cancellation is the story: five U.K. shows, four in France, four more in Germany and a Dutch date, all postponed "until further notice." A short South American tour is still listed to begin December 5 in São Paulo, a commitment that now sits awkwardly beside the European shutdown.

Gillan first joined Deep Purple in 1969 and has fronted the group across several stints, singing on the 1973 single that became their signature. ROMBO reported the initial Leipzig and Hamburg postponements, and his long tenure with the band is tracked in our archive on Gillan. The news lands weeks after former Deep Purple bassist and vocalist Glenn Hughes, who retired from touring this year, revealed he was recovering at home following 10-hour open-heart surgery.

For context on the voice at the center of this, the Ian Gillan channel's "Smoke on the Water" video is a reminder of the catalog those December and rescheduled dates would draw on.

The Royal Albert Hall date is the one to hold. A tour built to end there now ends nowhere in particular, and the hall, which has absorbed countless farewells, waits for a new date that nobody has named.