Tonight's headline band at the annual Rockit Festival, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, has dropped out after its lead singer was admitted to hospital with mild pneumonia.
The band told festival organisers early yesterday that singer Anton Newcombe had been diagnosed with 'walking pneumonia', an inflammation of the lungs, in a New York Hospital.
Rockit organiser Justin Sweeting said yesterday: 'Anton's in hospital and is on an intravenous drug and cannot get on a plane. We're obviously very disappointed, but we wish him a speedy recovery.
'We were up all night and found a good replacement.'
The news was broken in the Rockit online forum, where fans lamented that it sounded like a scene from Dig!. The acclaimed documentary featured an unreliable Newcombe, whose behaviour often put the band at odds with commercial success. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival last year.
The band has been replaced by platinum blonde New York rapper and club diva Princess Superstar, aka Concetta Kirschner. Band members were flying in from Britain and the US last night to headline at tonight's concert, the third Rockit Festival in Victoria Park.