It’s a sad day, as King Sunny Adé has been forced to announce that his entire North American tour, which was set to run from April through May, has been canceled.
The band began running into troubles when, in an unfortunate accident, both drummer Gabriel Ayanniyi and percussionist Omo Olope of Adé’s backing band The African Beats were killed in a car crash on March 26. Surprisingly, the band was able to find suitable replacements in time, but then found out that the US embassy would not grant visas to the substitute members in time for them to join the tour.
After hitting this final snag, the band and Adé realized that they still needed more time to recover from the deaths of their fellow bandmates and could not come to a mutual decision as to how to keep the tour plans moving forward. Accordingly, the band issued a statement informing fans that the tour would be canceled until the band once again feels mentally and emotionally capable of a cross-country tour.
• King Sunny Adé: http://www.myspace.com/mastersunnyade
