The Thrills are one of the bands who've unexpectedly got the last half of July and August off following the cancellation of the traveling Lollapalooza festival.

Confirming poor ticket sales as the reason for him pulling the 31-date US tour, organiser Perry Farrell says: "My heart aches along with the bands and all of our employees whose hard work developed one of the most exciting and important tours that this nation was to see."

Those sentiments are echoed by Lollapalooza co-founder Marc Geiger who professes to being "in utter disbelief that a concert of this stature, with the most exciting line-up I've seen in years did not galvanise sales."

One theory that's being put forward is that the festival has suffered as a result of the backlash against its co-headliner, Morrissey.

"Morrissey announcing that 'Bush should have died, not Reagan' at his Dublin Castle show hasn't gone down well with the media here," proffers an American music industry source.

"You can get away with a lot of things in the States, but wishing the President dead isn't one of them. It's hard enough selling concert tickets without magazines and radio stations refusing to give your star turn coverage."

Other Lollapalooza acts who've now got an unexpectedly long summer holiday are Sonic Youth, Pixies, PJ Harvey, The Flaming Lips, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Gomez, Von Bondies, Basement Jaxx, Wilco and Polyphonic Spree.