Welcome to the Week in Rock, where we round up all of the headlines posted on this site over the past week. This week featured posts about The Mission, Morrissey, OMD, Pixies, The Psychedelic Furs, The Dream Syndicate, Big Country, Simple Minds, Adam Ant, David Bowie, Johnny Marr and more.
Morrissey’s on-again, off-again South American tour is now, once and for all, canceled, according to a morose note from the singer in which he seems to be threatening retirement, writing, “Cancellations and illness have sucked the life out of all of us, and the only sensible solution seems to be the art of doing nothing.”
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark announced it will cancel the remainder of its North American tour — concerts that had been planned for Detroit, Minneapolis and Chicago — after drummer Malcolm Holmes suffered a medical emergency that forced the band to cut short tonight’s show in Toronto.
The Pixies are now set to debut their new Kim Deal-less lineup at Chicago’s Riot Fest this September, joining a bill that includes The Replacements, Blondie, Violent Femmes, Mission of Burma, X, Dinosaur Jr and Peter Hook, among many others. The Pixies were added today alongside Joan Jett, TSOL and Suicidal Tendencies.
For this week’s “120 Minutes” Rewind, we present a “120 X-Ray” segment on The Psychedelic Furs in which Richard Butler and his bandmates discuss the making of their then-new album Book of Days, and their shift back to touring smaller venues. Check out the 3-minute clip, which also features some live footage.
The Dream Syndicate has been taking this reunion thing a little slowly, only having played one U.S. date since getting back together last fall — an appearance last month at Wilco’s Solid Sound festival in North Adams, Mass. That’s going to change this fall, though, at least for fans in Chicago.
The reconfigured Big Country — with The Alarm’s Mike Peters filling in for late frontman Stuart Adamson — already has been on tour in the U.S. and Canada since early June, and has now extended that summer-long North American trek with dates that run through the month of August.
Q&A: Daniel Ash on Love and Rockets’ reunion, his new band — and figuring out how to play “So Alive” 
Q&A: Chris Frantz talks Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and new book ‘Remain in Love’ 
Q&A: Steve Wynn on The Dream Syndicate’s first new album in nearly 30 years 
Q&A: Bauhaus’ David J on his ‘accidental’ concept album ‘Not Long For This World’ 
Q&A: Peter Murphy on ‘Ninth,’ Bauhaus’ break-up, reuniting Dalis Car 
Q&A: Joey Santiago on Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ tour, possible ‘Surfer Rosa’ shows, new album talk 
Q&A: Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon on new album, changing the world with music 
Q&A: Peter Hook talks ‘Unknown Pleasures’ tour, re-recording Joy Division 