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Rock band The Vines have cancelled their coming shows after the deterioration of singer Craig Nicholls' mental condition.Nicholls suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, which causes him to behave erratically.
The band has cancelled appearances at the Homebake, Pyramid Rock and Big Day Out festivals, as well as their Japanese tour.
“It is with a great deal of regret that The Vines today announced that they have cancelled all of their Australian festival appearances,” the band said in a statement. “Craig Nicholls' mental condition has deteriorated extremely rapidly over the past month to the point where he requires immediate help over an extended period of time.”
The Sydney four-piece formed in the late 1990s and found international success with their 2001 debut album Highly Evolved, which went top 10 in Australia and the UK.
The Vines fell from grace after their second album, Winning Days, failed to match expectations in 2004, and Nicholls' erratic behaviour turned violent.
After abusing fans and assaulting a Sydney photographer, Nicholls was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. A two-year hiatus followed, before The Vines released their third album Vision Valley in 2006, and resumed touring. Nicholls' bandmates Hamish Rosser, Ryan Griffiths and Brad Heald sent their thanks to fans, friends and family who had supported them since their 2006 return.
“On behalf of The Vines we would like to extend our sincerest apologies to those of you who won't be able to see us perform,” Rosser said. “We are all absolutely devastated that we've been forced to cancel all upcoming shows as there's nothing we love more than playing on stage before an enthusiastic audience.”
“The band and Craig's family would like to ask that sensitivity be shown at a difficult time and ask that this statement be taken as their only comment on this matter,” The Vines said.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From The Australian Nov. 17:
