If you've got tickets to see the rock band U2 on their upcoming world tour, expect the singer Bono to be a little less energetic than usual. That's if the shows happen at all. The latest leg of the band's 360° tour - extended after the tour's huge success last year - is hanging in the balance after their 50-year-old vocalist suffered a back injury while preparing for the shows. He is currently recuperating in Ireland after receiving emergency spinal surgery - though mystery still surrounds how the singer came to suffer the injury.
But it's not just fans who will be disappointed. With the first leg of the 360° tour earning U2 around $109 million (Dh 400.4m) in 2009 (making it the year's most profitable tour), the Dublin band's other three members will probably be getting in line to throttle their frontman if he isn't ready to perform on June 3 in Salt Lake City, the tour's opening night. But personal injury is just part of the rock star's job description. In 2008, the Manchester band Oasis were famously forced to cancel a series of gigs when the guitarist Noel Gallagher suffered three cracked ribs after being pushed off stage by a crowd member. The classic rockers Aerosmith were also forced to cancel live appearances last year after their singer Steven Tyler fell from a stage in South Dakota - fortunately he had recuperated in time to play Abu Dhabi in November.
But all these accidents pale into insignificance when compared to the injury the Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee sustained in 2005. The infamous rocker was hit in the face with a firework from the pyrotechnics display that was accompanying his mid-air drum solo.