April 14, 2000 10:07

BJORK SCRAPS FESTIVAL IN FAVOUR OF NEW ALBUM

The Icelandic songstress pulls out of the [a]Scott Walker[/a] curated event to concentrate on new album...

Bjork has had to pull out of a planned appearance at this year's Meltdown Festival, nme.com can confirm.

The Icelandic singer had been tipped to join Radiohead, Blur, Orbital, Jarvis Cocker, Smog and Jim O'Rourke at the Royal Festival Hall event on London's Southbank from June 17 to July 2.

But a statement from her management company this morning said that although she had been asked to appear at the event on behalf of event curator Scott Walker, work commitments proved too big an obstacle and she had to turn down the offer.

The statement said: "It proved to be very bad timing as it fell in the middle of recording her new studio album and would have taken too much time to both find and rehearse a band for a one off show. The album recording is a priority at the moment."

More acts for this year's Meltdown Festival will be announced in the coming weeks.