Psychedelic Furs Postpone 2021 Tour Including Concord Show

CONCORD, NH — One of the more popular, still touring, post-punk alternative rock bands from the 1980s, has shelved the rest of its 2021 tour after a member of its organization became infected with COVID-19.

The Psychedelic Furs, who were on tour promoting the band’s new “Made of Rain” album, released in the summer of 2020, were scheduled to perform at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord on Sunday. However, after the positive test for coronavirus, the tour was postponed.

The band made the announcement on Monday on both Twitter and Facebook. In the Facebook note, the band said it postponed the tour, “out of an abundance of caution,” after band and crew members were tested, a routine process for the band.

The Concord date has been rebooked for March 2022 and tickets will remain valid for the new dates.

The band has only played New Hampshire once before — at the Tupelo Music Hall, when it was the tiny club in Londonderry, housing around 100 to 150 patrons, in June 2009.

A number of fans were surprised by the announcement because the band had performed shows just hours before the announcement.

The band performed at The Cabot in Beverly on Sunday but without Mars Williams, who has played saxophone with the band, off and on, since 1987’s “Midnight to Midnight” album, according to a fan on Twitter. Williams, according to his website, is playing a number of Christmas shows in the south and Midwest after Thanksgiving.

The band postponed its New York City show, at the Apollo Theatre, on Saturday, according to online ticket agents, and its show Friday, according to the Atlantic City Weekly. According to an article on the Aquarian Weekly on Nov. 12, a New Jersey music website, there have been no other issues on the tour — which has been going on for months, with decent turnout and many sold-out or nearly full dates.

While it is unknown exactly how many tickets were sold for the Concord show, according to the Capitol Center for the Arts’ website, it appeared to be between 40 and 50 percent sold. Ticket sales also appeared to have waned after the promoter requested a venue change requiring every ticket holder to prove they had a COVID-19 vaccine or a negative polymerase chain reaction test 72-hours before. These requirements, which are being required by some performance halls, go against the current coronavirus science — since the shots do not prevent the spread of the virus ("breakthrough" cases) and a person who tests negative via a PCR test three days before a concert can be exposed to the virus and be a spreader of the virus in between the time the test was taken and the show date.

Troy Cromwell, the marketing and development coordinator for the Capitol Center, said the hall only requires “masks recommended” currently. Booking agents and bands, however, can request masks be worn or proof of vaccination. Patron feedback, he said, had been pretty even and its customers have been both willing to attend and refusing to attend due to what the artists’ request.

“The patron feedback has been pretty evenly split,” he said. “It’s seems, for every person that complains about having to show proof of vaccination at one show, there’s another person who complains that we aren’t enforcing any (COVID-19) policies at another show.”

Complaints, he said, have been few though while, at the same time, tens of thousands of tickets have been sold to events since shows restarted. It has been tricky, he added, to figure out if ticket sales have been affected by the vaccine requirements some artists request.

“Most of what I’m hearing are things that I’m picking up on social media not specific to our venue, or random things that I’m hearing through the grapevine,” Cromwell said.

Cromwell said the Capitol Center had seen a higher percentage of last-minute sales than in the past. A lot of customers are waiting until the last minute to purchase tickets or buying tickets the day of the show, due to, probably, people worrying about being sick and having to stay home or feeling well enough to go out.

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel.