The lead singer of Glasvegas, the Mercury Prize nominees, has gone missing on the eve of band’s American tour.
James Allan did not attend Tuesday night’s Mercury Prize ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel in Central London, where his band had been due to perform, and was last seen by his fellow musicians on Friday at Glasgow airport.
Glasvegas are due to fly to Boston today to support the Kings of Leon on a US tour that opens at Uncasville, Connecticut tomorrow. Rab Allan, the band’s lead guitarist and the singer’s cousin said: “James, please get in touch.”
Mr Allan added: “He had been saying for ages that he needed a break. Everyone is panicking. We’re not supposed to talk about it. He has been working really, really hard and probably needs a break. If he doesn’t turn up for Kings of Leon, we will be really worried.” The Mercury Prize celebrations were set to cap an astonishing year for the band. Glasvegas, from Glasgow, went straight to the top of the album charts when their self-titled debut was released last autumn. Last month they opened for U2 when they played to a sell-out crowd at Hampden Park in Glasgow.
Jools Holland, who hosted the Mercury event, said that the band had cancelled because James Allan was unwell. Paul Donaghue, the band’s bass guitarist, said that the singer had not been seen since Glasvegas returned from a trip to Italy.
“James is missing in action. The last time we saw him was at \ airport. The rest of us got in one taxi and that was the last we saw of him. He has gone missing before when he was on the dole. We think he is ill,” Mr Donaghue told the Daily Record.
“I hope James will get in touch soon because now we are flying to America. I’m hoping that if we don’t see him at the airport, we will see him in Boston,” Mr Donaghue added.
James Allan, 29, was formerly a footballer for Falkirk and Queen’s Park, in the Scottish league, before he helped found the band in 2006. His distinctive hairstyle, a rock’n’roller’s quiff, has brought comparisons to performers as diverse as Elvis Presley and Morrissey.
He wrote all the songs on Glasvegas’s album, which was widely praised for its kitchen-sink dramas about death, violence and social workers.
The album achieved one of the 12 Mercury nominations, impressing the judges with its “bittersweet sounds of classic rock’n’roll”, and “gloriously elegiac anthems of contemporary life”.
Colombia, Glasvegas’s record company, insisted the band’s tour schedule was not in doubt.
“James is not missing and he’s very much looking forward to the Kings of Leon tour dates which start on the 11th September in Bristol Massachusetts in the USA,” the company said in statement.
EDIT: James has been found in New York and is completely safe.
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