Bruce Springsteen has postponed his tour dates in Philadelphia hours before his first concert at Citizens Bank Park was scheduled to take place.
The 73-year-old rock icon’s official social media accounts announced Wednesday (16 August) that the Boss had been “taken ill”.
“Due to Bruce Springsteen having been taken ill, his concerts with The E Street Band at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 16 and 18 have been postponed,” the statement read.
“We are working on rescheduling the dates so please hold on to your tickets as they will be valid for the rescheduled shows.”
Springsteen and the E Street Band were scheduled to perform the pair of concerts at Citizens Bank Park as part of 22 new stops on their 2023 concert tour.
The tour comprising 90 shows in total, began on 1 February 1 in Tampa, Florida, marking the first time since 2017 that Springsteen and the E Street Band have toured together, and is scheduled to conclude on 12 December in San Francisco, California.
The musician recently returned to London for the first time since 2016. In her five-star review for The Independent, Annabel Nugent wrote: “How and why after all these years, the musician, now 73, still wishes to put himself through such a physically gruelling set is a mystery but one that serves the 65,000 people in the crowd tonight well. From the moment he and the E Street Band arrive on stage promptly at 7pm, it’s a breathless race to the finish line.
“... Again, I ask myself: has anyone on earth ever aged better than Bruce Springsteen?”
In a recent interview, fellow rock legend Paul McCartney said he blamed Springsteen for setting fans’ expectations when it came to lengthy live shows.
“You can’t now do an hour. We used to do a half hour. That was The Beatles’ thing – half an hour, and we got paid for it,” McCartney said. “That was it. A Beatles show, we were on and off like that. It didn’t seem strange.”
“Now, people will do three or four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen – I’ve told him so, I said, ‘It’s your fault,’” he added.
