Glass Animals drummer Joe Seaward was involved in a horrific bicycle accident in Dublin last week. He suffered extensive injuries, including a broken leg and brain damage stemming from a fractured skull. As a result, the band has canceled all of its remaining tour dates for the year.
The English indie rockers broke the news in a lengthy message posted to Instagram. “Last Monday my best friend and our drummer Joe was hit by a truck while on his bike here in Dublin,” singer Dave Bayley detailed. “His leg was broken on impact and he became tangled in the truck’s trailer where his skull suffered a complex fracture.”
Seaward was forced to undergo multiple long operations. One of those was neurological in nature and involved the reshaping of his skull, which had partially collapsed under the weight of the truck’s trailer. Although the surgery was successful, the part of his brain responsible for speech suffered noticeable damage.
Initially, Seaward could barely speak, but his bandmates have said he’s since made progress, and overall, they are confident he will bounce back. “It’s going to be a long, difficult, and winding road, but knowing how determined Joe is, and seeing how much his body has recovered already in the past 10 days,” Bayley’s post continued, “I am so optimistic that he will make it back to his cheeky old self.”
Glass Animals have scrapped all of their remaining 2018 tour dates, which included a handful of North American shows and festival appearances at Madrid’s Mad Cool and Velorama in Denver.
Read the group’s full statement below, followed by their updated tour itinerary.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlImFK1Dw29
Glass Animals 2018 Tour Dates:
07/14 – Madrid, ES @ Mad Cool
07/18 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head
07/19 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
07/20 – Philadelphia, PA @ Festival Pier
07/21 – San Marcos, TX @ Float Festival
07/24 – Tampa, FL @ The Ritz Ybor
07/25 – Miami Beach, FL @ Fillmore
07/26 – Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues
07/28 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre
07/29 – Charlotte, NC @ Amphitheatre
08/03 – Diepholtz, DE @ Appletree
08/04 – Leipzig, DE @ Parkbuhne
08/05 – Amsterdam, NL @ Bostheater
08/16 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Union Event Center
08/17 – Denver, CO @ Velorama
08/24 – Zurich, CH @ Openair
08/26 – Paris, FR @ Rock en Seine
