Oscar winner Randy Newman cancels Vicar Street dates to recover from neck surgery

Randy Newman is postponing a European tour to recover from neck surgery, he announced on his website today.

The shows were set to begin this month, with new tour dates set to be announced soon according to the announcement. The Oscar-winning singer-songwriter was slated to bring his 'An Evening with Randy Newman' show to Dublin's Vicar Street on March 15th.

“Recently, I noticed I was shrinking. People over whom I had towered now towered over me. Could this be payback for having written ‘Short People’?” Newman pondered in a statement. “Turns out, my neck was broken. They operated on me successfully, I think. For even now, I look less like an anteater and more like a folk rock artist from the early ’60s. But the doctor said I’m not quite ready to tour. I was really looking forward to coming to Europe to perform. I miss performing a great deal and I look forward to a time when I can come. I’m sorry I won’t see you this time but I will see you soon.”

The announcement added that ticket holders would “be contacted by their point of purchase with further information and news of their rescheduled date soon.”

Newman announced the UK and European leg of his tour back in summer 2019. The shows were scheduled to take place in 2020 but were pushed to 2022 due to the pandemic.

Newman is also set to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 1, and so far, that date remains on his calendar. Since his last non-soundtrack album, Dark Matter came out in 2018, Newman had been focusing on film work.

"Amini-opera of several movements, documenting the debate between science and religion, examining dark matter, and disproving the theory of evolution using a giraffe, before it goes all At Swim-Two-Birds as a character turns on the songwriter – that’s how you open an album," Hot Press' Pat Carty said of Dark Matter.

"You then follow it up with the Kennedy brothers planning the Bay of Pigs invasion until Jack ruins it all, revealing his love for none other than Celia Cruz. Just as the late Warren Zevon could write a song about anything, Newman’s master craftsmanship needs no introduction."