There are band breakups that are announced long in advance, only to be postponed again and again. Then there are the opposite cases, where a short announcement is followed by a farewell concert, and that's it. As Hiroshima Mon Amour is now proving, it seems to happen even faster. Singer and guitarist Uwe Umruch and bassist Arnoldo Benzini wrote in a statement how they were caught off guard on their way to their gig in Peiting by Stevo and Aram's announcement that they would not be there that evening. There were reportedly no prior indications of a rift, and the reasons for this decision by half of the band are inexplicable to them. It's not hard to guess that the future of Hiroshima Mon Amour is now uncertain. Perhaps they will talk things over, perhaps they will find adequate replacements, or perhaps they will just throw in the towel. The already scheduled concerts for 2008 can no longer take place.
borr, this is uncomfortable... but we - uwe umbruch and arnoldo benzini - can’t change it now, so we say how it is:
STEVO and ARAM left the band about 2 hours ago. We found out on the highway, on our way to Peiting, where we were supposed to play tonight. Yesterday, at our last rehearsal, everything seemed to be okay, at least there was no word of it at that time. Stevo told me - uwe umbruch - just a few days ago during a phone call how much he enjoyed this tour, and Aram mentioned no word of resentment yesterday late at Arnold's. We were all the more surprised today at the rest area when the two informed us that they were out. We currently do not know how things will proceed, whether they will proceed, whether there will be anything new, no idea, at the moment we are in shock. It may sound theatrical, but it is meant just as it is. A lot of crap has happened to us on this tour so far, illnesses prevented 2 concerts, our broken bus another, and two more concerts were canceled by the local promoters. All of this usually brings a band closer together, but apparently that was not the case here. Unfortunately, one of the two was not seriously willing to have a conversation, so no common ground could be found. We would like to apologize to everyone who has suffered losses due to our upcoming concert cancellations and will do everything possible to compensate for the damage.
UWE UMBRUCH
ARNOLDO BENZINI
29.01.08
