Florence Welch has returned to the stage after postponing the rest of her Dance Fever tour dates due to a broken foot. The singer is known to dance around barefoot onstage (some could say she has… Dance Fever), and this unfortunately caused some havoc at her London 02 Arena show in November, after which she revealed on Instagram that she had broken her foot.
Welch stated, “I’m so sorry to say that after an X ray it seems I was dancing on a broken foot last night. It is not in my nature to postpone a show, and certainly not a UK tour, but I’m in pain and as dancers know, dancing on an injury is not a good idea. And have been told not to perform to avoid further damage.”
Her remaining shows were postponed to fans’ disappointment, but on Saturday she kicked (well… not quite) off the tour again at the same venue the injury occurred. She will continue the UK/Ireland tour in Nottingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Bournemouth and finish in Dublin, after which she will tour Australia and New Zealand. She returns to the UK in August for Boardmasters Festival.
Dance Fever is a vulnerable and fantastical album reminiscent of Welch’s earlier work. She took inspiration for the name and concept from the idea of ‘choreomania’, a social phenomenon that involved groups gathering to dance manically, thought to bring relief from shared stress and trauma – something that seems to strike a chord in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. She began to collaborate with producer mogul Jack Antonoff (known to mingle with other high-flyers in pop, namely Lorde, Lana Del Rey, and Taylor Swift) in February 2020, just before the pandemic broke out.
Joining her on the tour is Willie J Healey, a singer-songwriter from Oxford. He is set to release his third studio album, Bunny, in March of this year. In his own words, it is going to be a departure from his previous work, and will take inspiration from “funk, Philadelphia soul and R&B”. The lead single, “Dreams”, was released at the end of last year, and last week Healey dropped ‘Thank You’ featuring indie legend Jamie T.
Although tickets officially sold out for all dates, there are fan-to-fan resale tickets still available for the last dates of the UK tour available here.
Remaining UK Tour Dates:
31/1/23 – Motorpoint Arena – Nottingham
01/02 – OVO Hydro – Glasgow
03/02 – AO Arena – Manchester
04/02 – First Direct Arena – Leeds
06/02 – International Centre – Bournemouth
08/02 – 3Arena – Dublin
