UPDATE Bono Back Surgery; U2 Tour Delay

Back injury during rehearsals forces the singer into the hospital. Dates not rescheduled as of yet.

By Fred Mills

UPDATE: A message on the U2 website added this information this afternoon: "Following Bono's unexpected back surgery earlier today, Live Nation confirmed that the U2 U2360° tour launch previously scheduled for June 3rd in Salt Lake City has been postponed. U2 fans with tickets to the June 3rd event are encouraged to retain tickets until updated show information can be provided."
     The message also included a link to an audio interview with U2 manager Paul McGuinness in which he talked about the situation.

They may have forged one of those 360 deals, and they may have been planning to kick off their American "360 Degrees" tour on June 3 in Salt Lake City, but it looks like U2 frontman Bono is going to be 180 degrees flat on his back, delaying the opening of the tour for an unspecified period of time.

From the U2 website, the following terse message, posted this morning:

Bono has today undergone emergency back surgery for an injury sustained during tour preparation training. He was admitted to a specialist neuro surgery unit in a Munich hospital, and is under the care of neuro surgeon Prof. Dr. Jorg Tonn and Dr Muller Wohlfahrt. Bono will spend the next few days there, before returning home to recuperate.

Once his condition has been assessed further, a statement will be made regarding the impact on forthcoming tour dates.

Hold onto your tickets, folks. They'll still be good, of course. But better check with your airlines about the status of flight fare refunds in case you were planning on jetting in to one of the dates, listed below. Intriguingly, only a few of the shows have already sold out...

3 June, 2010    Salt Lake City UT       US       Rice-Eccles Stadium  

6 June, 2010    Anaheim          CA      US       Angel Stadium           

7 June, 2010    Anaheim          CA      US       Angel Stadium           

12 June, 2010  Denver            CO      US       Invesco Field 

16 June, 2010  Oakland                      US       Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum 

20 June, 2010  Seattle WA     US       Qwest Field   

23 June, 2010  Edmonton                   CA      Commonwealth Stadium       

27 June, 2010  Minneapolis     MN      US       TCF Bank Stadium     I

30 June, 2010  East Lansing   MI       US       Spartan Stadium        

3 July, 2010     Toronto           ON      CA      Rogers Centre

6 July, 2010     Chicago           IL        US       Soldier Field  

9 July, 2010     Miami  FL       US       Sun Life Stadium       

12 July, 2010   Philadelphia    PA       US       Lincoln Financial Field          

16 July, 2010   Montreal                      CA      Montreal Hippodrome           

17 July, 2010   Montreal                      CA      Montreal Hippodrome