Simple Minds this week announced its first North American tour in 11 years, a surprisingly short 7-date trek that has left fans who don’t live in Los Angeles or the Northeast severely disappointed. Frontman Jim Kerr, though, says the band is testing the waters for a larger tour.

Simple Minds’ first North American tour in more than a decade will feature just seven dates this October, with new concerts announced today in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston, Montreal and Toronto joining previously revealed shows in New York City and Red Bank, N.J.

Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr will follow up his lengthy spring U.S. tour with a second round of American dates late this fall in support of his new solo album The Messenger, playing 18 shows this October and November — including a slot at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas.

Three days after he was supposed to launch a South American tour in Peru, Morrissey late Friday finally addressed the “corrosively toxic food poisoning” that put the whole tour in jeopardy, issuing a statement in which he apologized to fans and announced he will be ready to perform later this month.

Simple Minds today officially announced their first U.S. concerts in more than a decade — the New York City show we reported earlier this week, plus a second concert in Red Bank, N.J., that will feature the band’s “Greatest Hits+” show — while also hinting that Canadian dates are to be announced soon as well.

The Chilean concert promoter that originally announced Morrissey had postponed his entire South American tour after he and part of his team suffered “severe food poisoning” now says the ex-Smiths singer is rescheduling his concerts in Chile, but that the shows planned in Peru are “canceled definitively.”

Book of Love — best-remembered for their ’80s singles such as “Boy,” “I Touch Roses” and “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls” — have reunited to work on new music that’s expected out later this year and are following up a one-off reunion show this past spring in Texas with a short run of California dates this fall.

The Waterboys continue to add dates to the band’s first full North American tour since 2007 — which bandlander Mike Scott has promised will be “the longest Waterboys American tour ever” — with five more concerts, including one at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, being added this week, with more still to come.

A day after organizers of Morrissey’s planned concerts in Peru and Chile announced the ex-Smiths frontman had postponed his entire South American tour after he suffered “severe food poisoning,” the promoter of dates in Argentina and Brazil insisted that those shows will go on as scheduled.

For the past few months, Simple Minds have been dropping hints that the band will return to the U.S. and Canada this year for the first time in more than a decade — and we’ve finally got our first confirmation of what presumably will be a lengthier tour. According to Live Nation, Simple Minds will play New York City on Oct. 24.

Press and promoters in Peru and Chile this evening reveal Morrissey has postponed his entire South American tour after he and members of his team suffered “severe food poisoning” just hours before the ex-Smiths singer was due to return to the stage for the first time since canceling his North American tour.

The Pixies today followed up last week’s free release of a surprise new track with more revelations, namely that the band is about to embark on a “massive global tour” to debut material off its follow-up to 1991’s Trompe le Monde with The Muffs frontwoman Kim Shattuck replacing the departed Kim Deal.

The Violent Femmes are taking a somewhat low-key approach to their recent reunion, having followed up their appearance at Coachella this past April with only a few more scheduled, mostly festival-type shows. But the band has just announced a concert in New York’s Central Park.