UK prog rockers IQ have been force to postpone next February's proposed 40th anniversary shows in Aschaffenburg and Bury and due to the ongoing pandemic disruption. At the same time, they've announced that this year's annual Christmas show will go online.
The band had been booked to appear at London's 229 venue in December as well as the Colos Saal, Aschaffenburg on February 12 and 13 and Bury's The Met venue on February 19 and 20. Also postponed are the band's Sacandinavian dates for April 2021. These dates will now takes place in 2022 on February 4 and 5 (the Colos Saal, Aschaffenburg) and February 11 and 12 (Bury, The Met).
"We’re really sorry that we’ve had to take these steps – we were desperately hoping that things would have changed enough for the shows to take place, but as we all know it’s just not safe enough at the moment," the band say in a statement. "Of course all existing tickets will be valid for the new dates.
"Unfortunately it’s the same story for our Scandinavian trip in April next year – we’ve agreed with the promoters that the three gigs (Amager Bio in Copenhagen on the 15th, Fryshuset Klubben, Stockholm on the 16th and the Cosmopolite, Oslo on the 17th) will be postponed and we’re looking at options for replacement dates, most probably in 2022."
IQ plan to take this year's Christmas shows online, with a screening of a 2011 Subterranea concert. Details will be on the band's website.
'In place of the postponed Christmas gigs this year IQ will be hosting an online Christmas Bash where we’ll be ‘live’ streaming another previously unseen show on 12th December (the planned night of the Dutch Christmas Bash)," they add. "This time we’ll be showing the entire Subterranea concert from the IQ30 weekend in 2011, and the idea is to create, as much as possible, a live gig atmosphere.
"To this end the doors will open at 19:30 and we’ll have half an hour of ‘walk-in’ music before the gig where the band will be around to talk to everyone in the chat room. Showtime at 20:00, then after the show we’ll have a ’See you in the bar’ event to chat further, groove mildly with DJ Large Marge and sink a few G&Ts… Get those glow sticks ready and hope to see you all there!"
All other dates planned for next year are going ahead (lets hope!) - those are:
Sep 4: UK London Islington Assembly Hall, London (the official IQ40 celebration show)
Oct 15: Barcelona Bikini
Oct 16: Madrid Nazca
Nov 12: Rome Largo
Nov 13: MIlan Legend
Dec 10: London 229 Club (The London Christmas Bash)
Dec 11: Zoetermeer De Boerderij(The Dutch Christmas Bash)
IQ have previously streamed shows from their Resistance tour and a 2018 Ever show to compensate for cancelled shows.
