James have pulled out of their Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival headline slot at the last minute after Tim Booth lost his voice to a viral infection. The band were hours from taking the stage in Scotland when the frontman announced the cancelation in an Instagram video, saying the band "hardly ever cancel" but had "no choice" this time.
"It's with deep regret that I have to tell you that we have to cancel this gig tonight at Belladrum," Booth said. "I've been fighting off a viral infection for a few days and I've finally lost my voice. This deep sexy rasp is not my usual voice, so we hardly ever cancel but we have no choice this time."
Razorlight to close the festival
Razorlight have stepped in to close the event. The post was captioned: "Truly sorry to inform you that James won't be playing tonight at Belladrum, on medical advice. Sorry to those of you who were really looking forward to seeing us, especially those who have travelled far and wide to come to this great event. We hate to let you down. Hopefully We can arrange to come back within the next year or so to make it up to you."
In the same Instagram video, Booth added: "We're here, the band's here, the crew's here and I know many of you have come in from miles around to see this concert and it's awful and I hate letting you down... I'm so sorry and I hope we'll be back..."
Fans send well wishes
Fans responded with concern and support. One wrote: "We wish you a speedy recovery," while another added: "Your health has to come first. The fans will wait get well soon Tim xx."
Booth on the band's live reputation
Booth recently told The Mirror about his love of touring, saying the band's live reputation is "snowballing." He said: "Yeah, and you know we're a nine-piece band, and that's a live event rather than when you see these rappers where they're just playing to backing tracks or musicians playing to backing tracks."
He added: "We believe that watching a really well constructed song with cello, violin, guitar, trumpets, two drummers, keyboards is is entertainment in itself, and our connection to an audience is is in the moment, is in the live moment. It's always been our strongest suit, and always for us, the mark of authenticity."
Booth also spoke about the feedback loop of live performance: "I love contact. I love eye contact. It's something that really feeds me, and feeds us as a band. The whole point of a live gig is you get this feedback loop going. That we put out this song, they give us back this response. We therefore have that energy, and then we put that back out, and then it keeps on building like some kind of battery of optimism, of positivism, of ecstasy, and that's what we're looking for."
