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Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Glass Animals postpone tour after drummer seriously injured in traffic accident
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 13 July 2018
Indie band Glass Animals have revealed that their drummer Joe Seaward was involved in a serious traffic accident last week in Dublin resulting in multiple injuries, including head injuries. The incident was why the band cancelled a number of gigs last week. They are now cancelling all upcoming dates to give Seaward time to recover from his injuries.
Frontman Dave Bayley wrote on Facebook yesterday: “Last Monday my best friend, and our drummer, Joe was hit by a truck while on his bike here in Dublin. His leg was broken on impact and he became tangled in the truck’s trailer where his skull suffered a complex fracture. Miraculously, and thankfully, he is alive. After a couple of long operations he is now on the road to recovery”.
Giving a little more detail about his bandmate’s treatment, Bayley goes on to explain that Seaward received neurosurgery to “reshape part of his skull that had collapsed and been compressed into the brain by the weight of the truck’s trailer. The operation was successful, but the collapsed skull had bruised and damaged the area of the brain responsible for speech. Initially Joe was only able to get out one word – ‘I’ – but each day he is finding more”.
Bayley continues: “As far as we know, no other areas of his brain are severely damaged like this. He can still wiggle his fingers and twinkle his toes, and he still laughs at all my shit jokes, and demands we wake him up so he can watch the World Cup while we feed him ice cream and grapes. It wasn’t safe for him to go directly into his leg surgery after his brain op, but a couple days ago he was given the go-ahead by the consultants. He now has a titanium pin holding two halves of his femur together – basically he is now Wolverine”.
Confirming that this means the band will have to put touring commitments on hold, the frontman explains: “I wish more than anything that this accident hadn’t happened and that Joe was OK and that we would still be coming to hang with you all, but life has thrown something horribly sad and unexpected at us, and we need to do everything in our power to conquer it and get Joe back on his feet. I sincerely hope you understand. We will be back as soon as we can, and stronger than ever”.
