Simon and Garfunkel tour postpones summer concerts indefinitely

For the time being, Simon and Garfunkel’s inaugural performance at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on April 24 will remain their only North American engagement of the year.

Late yesterday, iconic singer-songwriter duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel announced that their already once-rescheduled tour has now been tabled indefinitely. The one-month venture was slated to open July 3 at General Motors Place in Vancouver, BC, with a total of 16 concerts booked through July 31 at Etess Arena in Atlantic City, NJ.

The musicians credited the postponement to vocal paresis suffered by Garfunkel. His vocal strain became apparent early in the pair’s Jazz Fest performance, prompting an on-stage apology from Garfunkel, who reportedly acknowledged that “the voice is a little elusive right now.”

The weak performance was followed a couple days later by an official notice that the tour launch was postponed from April to July to allow Garfunkel sufficient recovery time.

However, according to a statement on Simon and Garfunkel’s official Web site, that recovery has been slow.

“According to his doctors, Art is expected to make a full recovery, however they cannot predict an exact timeline,” the statement read in part. “This condition (paresis) inhibits the duo from performing shows at the highest possible level and it is for that reason and out of respect for their fans that Paul and Art have decided to put the tour on hold.”

Unlike the first postponement, which was quickly followed with a revised schedule, new dates have not yet been announced for the tour’s 15 markets. Tickets had been priced in the $100-and-up range during select spring onsales and will be refunded at the point of purchase.

“I do feel bad about disrupting so many people’s plans,” Garfunkel said in the prepared statement, “but, as I continue to mend, I can’t yet bring my ‘A Game’ to a tour, and I would not perform for you with anything less.”

The pair’s announcement came in the middle of a turbulent season for the touring industry at large — and Live Nation in particular.

Simon and Garfunkel’s summer trek is just the latest Live Nation-produced outing to be canned this year. The tour cancellations — from the likes of U2, Christina Aguilera, Limp Bizkit and, most recently, Maxwell — have been credited to the standard industry cruxes of unexpected medical situations, in the case of Bono’s back surgery, or scheduling/logistical issues.

But the unusually high rate of arena- and amphitheater-level cancellations in general has turned an eye towards this year’s ticket sales.

A recent report from Billboard.biz noted that a combination of insufficient promotion due to a heavy tour season, “ill-advised touring” by artists in an oversaturated market, and consumer skepticism of the ticketing industry could be to blame for the onslaught of pulled tours and reportedly slumping ticket sales.

Simon and Garfunkel – POSTPONED:
(Dates below have not been rescheduled.)