Toronto's Meligrove Band Contract Swine Flu, Cancel Tour

Posted on Nov 13th 2009 6:00PM by Jessica de Melo
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Toronto indie troupe the Meligrove Band have cancelled the last four dates of their tour with the Most Serene Republic after drummer Darcy Rego and new guitarist Brian O'Reilly contracted the swine flu last weekend.

"By the time we were loading the van, [Darcy] was pale and awful," bassist Mike Small tells Spinner. "[The following afternoon] I got a text from Brian saying he'd been hit and was paralyzed in bed." Neither infectee knew anyone with H1N1 prior to contracting the virus.

"It knocked me on my ass... and fast," says O'Reilly, whose symptoms included fever, body aches and pains. "I felt like someone put me in a huge tire and rolled me down a hill, or left me in a dryer for a day."

"I was seeing things -- I was watching 'Mary Poppins' and it made its way into my hallucinations," he says, "and not in a good way."

The guitarist and synth player, who "went outside for the first time" on Thursday, says he's feeling "marginally better every day." He spent most of the week holed up in his bedroom. Rego, who is also self-quarantined, was not available for comment but Small says he's "doing okay."

With two members down, the band's agency suggested they call off the rest of their tour rather than cancel shows one by one, to allow more time to find local replacement bands. "We didn't wanna leave people hanging -- it's better to say no than maybe," says Small. They also didn't want to infect the Most Serene Republic, who will still play all scheduled dates and have an East Coast leg left to cover. "If we got one of them sick, it would kill the rest of their tour," says O'Reilly.

The Meligrove Band isn't the only rock act to get struck by the swine flu. Former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf de Maur caught H1N1 influenza back in May. Swedish indie rocker Jens Lekman contracted it while on tour in South America in June. And Marilyn Manson reportedly had it too.

While some artists like Billy Corgan have spoken out against the H1N1 vaccine and "the propaganda machine that accompanies it," Small says he's "not worried about scare stories in the media regarding the shot; about funny chemicals in it and what not."

He plans to get the vaccine, though he says that "after being so close to the virus and not getting sick, I can only assume I'm invincible."

If the Meligrove guys feel well enough (singer/guitarist Jason Nunes is also flu-free thus far), they'll play their last 2009 show on Dec.18 for XM Canada's free 'Xmas Party' at the Velvet Underground in Toronto, alongside Still Life Still, Dinosaur Bones and the Junction.

Fans can also expect an album in early 2010 that's "100 per cent finished and 100 per cent awesome," but still needs a label. It'll stray from 'Planets Conspire' with less piano and more guitar, and Small says "it's faster, heavier and dirtier."

Like a swine?