Frightened Rabbit May Miss Coachella Due to Volcanic Ash

Before heading to the US, Frightened Rabbit is waiting for the dust to settle -- literally. The Scottish band is due to fly from London to Los Angeles tomorrow to launch a tour with a prestigious slot at this weekend's Coachella festival. However, the plume of volcanic ash from Iceland that descended on the UK and parts of Scandinavia resulted in all flights in the British Isles canceled until Friday morning.

"There's all sorts of puns we could apply to the situation, I'm sure," singer Scott Hutchison tells Spinner, attempting some lightheartedness. "We just finished a European tour and drove from Paris to London and found out about this natural disaster, as it were. So, we're just going to keep our fingers crossed."

Parts of the UK in the north apparently experienced darkening skies and Hutchison's father in Scotland called and said his car had a layer of thick dust on it. "It's a very strange one," Hutchinson says.

BBC News reported that the UK's air traffic control service said no flights would be allowed in UK airspace until at least 7AM BST on Friday amid fears of engine damage.

"The thing is I'm not a good flyer anyway," Hutchison says. "I think I will be truly worried when we do take off. The height of the plane is higher than the ash during flight. It's during takeoff that it can work its way into the engines."

If they can't fly tomorrow, the band will wait it out in London until they can. "We have an American tour for six weeks after Coachella so we're going either way," he says. "It's just a question of whether we play Coachella. I've been looking forward to this for so long -- 'Yeah, playing Coachella, that's going to be amazing!' And all these bands I wanted to see as well. I don't want to think about it, I just hope it works out for us."