The band also scheduled to preform a series of show's in the US, Canada and Europe including several major festival apperances over the coming months. All of these dates, without exception, have now been cancelled until Daniel has fully recovered.
"I am truly sorry that I am not able to do the following touring we had planned for so long," said Daniel Johns, "I apologize for the inconvience these cancillation's will cause. I am doing everthing humanly pssible to try and get well, but latly things have just kept getting worse."
"These cancellations are a major dissapointment to the band." said the group's manager, John Watson. "The guys were really looking foward to finally getting out there and playing show's. However, the rapid decline in Daniel's health over the last two weeks in particular has simply made this physically impossible for him."
Silverchair know that their fans and some other people will feel very disappointed that the band is unable to tour for thr foreseeable future but those feelings are nothing compared to the deep disapointment and frusttration which Daniel is feeling right now. Daniel has spent the better part of 3 years creating the songs for this new album. These cancelations will clearly mean that less people will get to hear the new music in which he has invested so much time and effort. Its really upsetting for him and everyone involved."
As previously announced Daniel Johns is suffering from a servere case of reactive arthritis.
The condition's primary symptoms are chronic swelling of the joints resulting in inpaired movement and extrem pain. These symptons are caused by the body's reaction to an underlying virus-hence the name 'reactive arthritis'. About 6% of males have a genetic predispoition to suffer from this condition once in a lifetime and DNA tests have confirmed that daniel is part of that 6%.
In the majority of cases, reactive arthritis lasts around three months. Johns originally contracted the condition in December 2001 but in January 2002 he managed to fulfill his obligations on Australia's Big Day Out Tour. After that his symptons got worse leading the band to postpone a mid-March concert. During April he improved singnificantly, allowing the band to tour New Zealand and do variouse premotional activites for their album in Australia. At this point it seemed that he was on the road to the full recoverey that his doctors had predicted would probably occur after about three months.
However in recent weeks his symptoms have not only returned, but they have spread into other parts of his body. While prevously the swelling was mainly confined to his legs, it is now present in most of his other joints, including his left hand. This is causing him extreme pain and is severely limiting his movement. As a result he is unable to play guitar on most days and on some days he has difficulty walking for more than a very short distance.
Unfortunatley, in spite of his best efforts Daniel has not responed to numerous treatments that have proved successful for other people. These have included a recent hospitalisation and a wide variety of conventional and hoeopathic medications.
Futhermore, new medical test results yeaterday revealed a number of other complications relating to Daniel's condition. These complications involve some glandular and lymphatic disfunctions, both of which require futher intensive treatment. It seems that these other problems are preventing Daniel form fighting off the underlying virus that is triggering his arthritis. This may explain why he has not responed to all the various treatments he has received.
As a result of these new test results Daniel's Doctors have changed their longstanding prognosis of a short term recovery.
Their prognosis now is that it may be a year before Daniel has recovered sufficiently to allow him to undertake a normal touring workload. They remain certain that the condition is not life threatening and that he will eventually make a complet recovery. Howerver, they have imposed a strict treatment regimen and categorically ruled out any possibility of touring for the time being.
The band's acclaimed new album "Diorama" is slated for global release in July and those plans remain unchanged. Daniel is expected to be able to preform some limited promotion duties for the album but for the time being all travel has been specifically ruled out by his Doctors.
"I hope that in spite of our current inability to tour, people will still get to hear the new album.
I'm proud of it and I really wish I could do more to support its release," said Daniel
Diorama was a #1, platinum selling hit in Australia and is still in the top 10 two months after its release. The disc has received the best reviews of the band's career and music industry bible, Billboard, has called it "a remarkably innovative and gratifying outing whose depth and colour seem to grow with every successive spin."