NEWS
Refused have cancelled their final festival performance in Sweden due to frontman Dennis Lyxzén suffering from “a massive heart attack”.
The Swedish punk band originally announced the news in March, stating they would be playing at Stockholm’s Rosendal Garden Party on Friday, June 14 alongside Turnstile, M.I.A and others.
However, Lyxzén took to social media to announce their festival appearance was cancelled. On Instagram, Lyxzén took a photo of himself in a hospital bed, explaining he had “a massive heart attack at my hotel room” that morning, calling it “extremely painful and wildly scary.”
“Thanks [to] the wonderful doctors and nurses at the Uppsala hospital I’m still around to fight another day,” he added. “Under the circumstances I feel ok. Sore and tired and really shook up. I [sic] real really hate cancelling show but the doctor said no rock for a couple of weeks.”
Lyxzén then wrote that due to his heart attack, the Refused show was cancelled, adding that it was “a complete bummer as I was really looking forward to it. But hopefully I/we will be able to make up to you soon.”
He concluded his post: “The good news is that with medication I can get back to my rocking self hopefully sooner than later. Life is weird and precious. Take care of each and tell your loved ones that you love them.”
The band’s last release was their 2020 EP ‘The Malignant Fire‘. It was their fourth release since reuniting in 2014, following the albums ‘Freedom’ and ‘War Music’, and the EP ‘Servants Of Death’.
Speaking to NME in 2019, Refused’s frontman discussed how the band’s politics had changed over the years.
“I think if you’re static in your political ideas, that’s not a good thing,” he said. “I think the foundation, with me, is more-or-less the same though. We’re still very anti-capitalist, pro-feminist and the like. Sadly, I think the ideas we were talking about in 1995 are still pretty relevant today. I think what’s changed for me is that I don’t take every fight anymore.
“When I was younger I was, ‘fuck this, fuck that, fuck everything’ and now I’m older, I just can’t do that. I’m more focused in my politics now. Oh, and I dunno, when we were younger, being straightedge was very important to us because drinking was such an integral part of the culture we found ourselves opposed to. Now we’re older it’s not as important to us anymore.”NME reviewed their album ‘War Music’ back in 2019, giving the record five stars and calling it “a perfect microcosm of everything brilliant punk ever was – and what it can continue to be.”
In other news, Refused were one of the many Swedish artists who have called for Israel to be banned from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Just days after landing her fourth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Drop Dead,” Olivia Rodrigo is now getting major recognition from Niall Horan.
In a recent conversation with Rolling Stone published April 30, the former One Direction member shared insight into how he approaches songwriting, highlighting the comeback of bridges in pop and pointing to Rodrigo as a key influence behind it.
“It’s great to hear [bridges]. I feel like Olivia Rodrigo has been a big influence on that for pop writers,” the Irish artist said, before singing part of the “Drivers License” bridge. “What I like about Olivia’s music is [that] you feel like you’re getting one song and then you get a completely different song. It completely flips on its head musically, goes somewhere different, brings you to a bridge, brings you to some weird musical breakdown thing. Whatever [she] and Dan Nigro are up to is a good little team they’ve got going there. It’s definitely influencing people, including myself.”
Horan also spoke at length about his upcoming project Dinner Party, set to arrive June 5 through Capitol Records. He has already released two tracks from the record, including the title cut and “Little More Time,” both produced alongside Afterhrs, John Ryan and Julian Bunetta. The album rollout will be paired with an extensive 22-date tour across Europe, Ireland and the U.K. The Irish singer’s new release follows 2023’s The Show, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. During the interview, Horan also mentioned that his next era leans more into rock elements, something he connects back to his long-standing love for bands like Blink-182.
“That drum sound is something that we were trying to chase, and that comes from that late-’90s, early-2000s punk-rock era,” he said. “Rock’s been a big influence in my life since I was a child. I write pop songs, but dressing them up in a different way sometimes is quite cool. And now, the way my career is going, I’m completely thinking about live shows all the time. I learned so much from being on the road and being out there every night. There’s only so much sitting on Spotify you can do and reading comments before you actually get an idea of what people actually think. You can see it in the room. The rockier stuff really goes off at the shows.”
The “Slow Hands” hitmaker also has two U.S. stadium dates lined up for this year. Joining longtime friend and Grammy-nominated country artist Thomas Rhett, Horan is set to perform at GEODIS Park in Nashville on July 9 and Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania on July 19, with Live Nation handling promotion for both shows. Kashus Culpepper and Emily Ann Roberts will open the concerts. With such a packed touring schedule, all four remaining members of One Direction are expected to be on the road with new music this year. When asked about attending his former bandmates’ shows, Horan gave praise to Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.
“I went to Harry’s show a couple of years ago, and that was just wild. Madness going on there,” he said. “It reminded me of the 1D stadium shows where it was just seas of people jumping up and down. Watching the things going on on the floor, all the fans dancing around, I love that. You feel a sense of pride watching the boys doing what they love to do, and the communities that they’re able to create. I’m going to try and get to a Louis show of some capacity in the next few weeks.”
Horan is now the fourth One Direction member to drop a new album this year. Tomlinson released How Did I Get Here? in January, Styles hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally in March, and ZAYN followed with Konnakol earlier this month on April 17.
