Franz Ferdinand's bassist Bob Hardy is in hospital in Japan after being taken ill while travelling to a concert in the Japanese city of Osaka. Despite feeling ill Hardy went ahead with Saturday's gig, but did so in considerable pain and had to spend a portion of the gig sitting down. After the concert he was taken to a hospital in Osaka where he was diagnosed with a severe case of gastro-enteritis. He was later transferred to a hospital in Tokyo.
The band have continued with their Japanese tour, performing acoustic versions of tracks where possible, and helped out by Dino, bassist with their support band The Beat Up, on other tracks. Bob was expected to play last night's gig in Tokyo, but then planned to return to hospital where he will stay until the end of the week - meaning he will miss the band's first US dates on 1 and 2 Dec - Fiery Furnaces bassist Toshi Yano is due to fill in on those dates.