The Cure’s Roger O’Donnell to sit out upcoming Latin America tour dates

The Cure‘s keyboardist Roger O’Donnell will sit out the band’s upcoming shows in Latin America, it has been announced.

The Robert Smith-fronted group are due to begin a final run of concerts for 2023 later this week, having wrapped up their North American ‘Shows of A Lost World’ tour back in July.

They’ll perform in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and Colombia, with the latter date set to take place on December 10.

Ahead of the tour kicking off, The Cure took to social media to confirm that O’Donnell will be absent from the forthcoming gigs due to unspecified “health reasons”.  The message added: “We are sure you will join with us in wishing him the speediest of recoveries.”

The band went on to reveal that Mike Lord will be stepping in to play keyboards on the impacted dates. Check out the post below.

FOR HEALTH REASONS ROGER WILL NOT BE WITH US ON THE LATAM LEG OF OUR SHOWS OF A LOST WORLD TOUR – WE ARE SURE YOU WILL JOIN WITH US IN WISHING HIM THE SPEEDIEST OF RECOVERIES – MIKE LORD WILL BE STEPPING IN TO PLAY KEYBOARDS 📷 @gaelleberi 2022 pic.twitter.com/eA3Xt7ViXW

— The Cure (@thecure) November 14, 2023

O’Donnell joined The Cure in 1987 but has left the group on two occasions previously, in 1990 and 2005. He rejoined the line-up in 2011.

This summer saw The Cure break touring records in the US and Canada, despite frontman Smith’s fight to lower the price of tickets.

Meanwhile, fans continue to await news on the band’s long-awaited 14th album. Speaking to NME in March 2022, Smith exclusively revealed that the follow-up to 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’ will be called ‘Songs Of A Lost World’.

“It’s got artwork, it’s got a running order, it’s almost done!” he explained at the time.

Smith told NME: “I’ve been working on two Cure albums, and one of them is finished. Unfortunately, it’s the second one that’s finished. [On the other] I’ve got to do four vocals, and there are 10 songs on each album. We’re mixing next month on April 1, so I’ve got three weeks left.”

Asked about the sound of the pair of records, Smith said: “Well the first Cure album is relentless doom and gloom. It’s the doomiest thing that we’ve ever done. The second one is upbeat, and my [solo] one won’t be out until next year.”

The Cure have since showcased a range of new as-yet-unreleased tracks on tour, including ‘And Nothing Is Forever’, ‘Alone’, ‘Endsong’, ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ and ‘A Fragile Thing’.