DEF LEPPARD tour manager Malvin Mortimer has issued the following update:

"I have been around this band for over 25 years but I have never seen them hit so suddenly and with such devastation as I did in Quebec City last Friday, April 11 (oh, apart from the hurricane in 1987 um.....and the baseball park mini tornado in Camden three years ago).

Phil had been suffering from a viral infection which affected his chest and his ability to sing and breathe at the same time.We left Providence after midnight on April 9/10 to drive six hours to the Canadian border and as usual we were invited inside to wait while the paperwork was processed. It was then that I noticed that Joe was in bad shape, he was the wrong colour, sounds that I have never heard before were emitting (via the impersonation of a cough) from his throat. His chest struggled to pass air to his lungs and he could hardly stand up. We arrived Quebec City some three hours later and I bid Joe a good morning as we entered hotel rooms. The next I saw him was later that afternoon when he complained that he felt like 'crap'. I believed him because he actually looked like 'crap'! Luckily it was a 'day off'.

The weather didn't help, it had snowed heavily most of the winter and the snow was piled house-high everywhere. The temperature was too cold to pronounce. The next morning at 10.30 Joe called me and I hardly knew who I was speaking with. The doctor arrived less than an hour later and immediately asked me when the next show was taking place. I explained that the next show is tonight. He shook his head and asked me to promise not to let this man (Joe) move from this room. Joe and I did leave the room hours later, to visit a clinic where Joe had X-rays taken of his lungs and chest area.

When we returned to the hotel, the doctor met us again and gave us good and bad news: 'no pneumonia - no concerts for at least ten days.'

We explained to him that we can't not do the show! We ALWAYS do the show!

So I waited for Joe to recover, and at a certain time, later in the day, Joe and I had to make a decision based on his health. Had Joe made a miraculous recovery everything would have been GREAT! Except that Phil was really ill too and without Phil it would be impossible to do a Def Leppard show. And now here we are, six shows postponed.....a disaster for us. But we will be up again very soon, in fact we are striving to get up and running for the Boise show on Tuesday.

Any and all postponed shows will be rescheduled later this year. Sorry for the folks that were already on the way when we made the decision to postpone the Quebec show.

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