Splendour In The GrassFrank Ocean is likely to cancel tonight's sold out Melbourne Festival Hall sideshow as he suffers from sickness in the lead up to Splendour.
Tonedeaf have reported that Ocean has pulled the plug on tonight's show – the second planned for Melbourne – although no official word has emerged from promoters Live Nation.
He is billed as the closing act of Splendour In The Grass' Supertop stage this Sunday, and has two Sydney sideshows booked for next week.
Multiple calls have been placed to Live Nation representatives by theMusic.com.au, but at time of publishing nothing had been confirmed. Earlier today Live Nation had indicated that a limited amount of extra tickets had been released for tonight's performance.
According to theMusic.com.au's Stephanie Liew, who attended last night's performance, Ocean announced early in the set that the cold weather had made him sick. His voice cracked a couple of times, and he shied away from many of the big notes, either rearranging the melody, letting the audience take over or singing high parts the octave down.
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He left the stage momentarily, saying, “I'll be right back,” before returning with a cup of liquid – spectators closer to the stage allege it was a cup of tea. He appeared to be pained and frustrated at not being able to sing his songs the way he normally would have, and refrained from speaking in between songs. Towards the end of the one-and-a-half hour set his voice was audibly husky and rough.
“I don't wanna speak much tonight but I do wanna thank you guys, you made that a lot easier,” he said. “But I do have to say goodnight.” There was no encore.
