Music legend Paul McCartney has recovered from a virus that forced the cancellation of his Asian tour and has left Japan, the concert organiser said Tuesday.
McCartney “has recovered well enough to travel on an airplane,” said an official from Kyodo Tokyo, the organiser of the Japanese leg of the “Out There” global tour.
“According to the information that we have, he left Japan yesterday” for an undisclosed destination, he said.
The former Beatle arrived in Japan on May 15 and was due to play four sold-out dates in Tokyo and Osaka.
But the 71-year-old pop veteran cancelled all his gigs as well as the South Korean leg of the tour, saying he had been taken sick with an undisclosed virus.
The called-off concerts included one at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan Hall that would have marked his first return to the venue since appearing there with The Beatles in 1966.
The cancellations generated an outpouring of good wishes from fans of the Liverpool-born musician — one of two living members of The Beatles.
A combined 170,000 people had been due to see his shows in Japan, according to local media, some paying as much as 100,000 yen ($1,000) for a ticket.
A statement from New York-based public relations company Nasty Little Man said last week that McCartney had “received successful medical treatment at a hospital in Tokyo.”
“He will make a complete recovery and has been ordered to take a few days rest” before leaving the country, the agency said at the time.
In a tour of Japan in November last year, McCartney belted out 39 songs non-stop without retreating backstage. -AFP