14.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Adele flew back to London. She went into seclusion, resting her voice and contemplating what would happen next. But with little information on the state of her voice forthcoming, the tabloids picked up the story and ran with it as only they could.

The Star ran wild with the story, offering that the US tour had been canceled because a US record company executive had made a derogatory comment about Adele’s weight at the start of the American leg of the tour. The tabloid also floated the theory that when Adele gets nervous on stage, her throat closes up. Most people laughed off the tabloid reports as rubbish, but Adele did not see her predicament as a laughing matter.

In an emotion-filled blog picked up by OK magazine and others, Adele said, “Singing is literally my life, my hobby, my love, my freedom, my job. You know how much this upsets me, how seriously I take it, and how truly devastated and annoyed I am by this.”

Her concern was not helped by her doctor’s speculation that Adele had not had a simple attack of laryngitis but rather a potentially more serious malady, a burst blood vessel on her vocal cords.

Adele continued to follow her doctor’s orders of no singing and a strict adherence to limiting how much she spoke. Within weeks of returning to London, doctors were convinced that Adele’s vocal cord issue was healing. With that news and her doctor’s guarded optimism, Adele was anxious to get back and test her voice in a live setting.

That opportunity presented itself on July 7 when Adele took to the stage, for the first time since the aborted US tour, at the prestigious iTunes Festival in London. Word spread like wildfire that Adele was returning to the concert stage. And Adele was more than happy to let her legions of fans know what had transpired over the past month.

“It’s basically a hole in your cord,” she explained to Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles two days before her iTunes appearance. “I sang through it and that’s why it (the blood vessel) popped. “I’m better now. It’s fine. I got the all clear.”

The iTunes Festival was most likely thick with tension and emotion moments before Adele was scheduled to take the stage. A lot of questions would be answered, not the least of which was, could Adele once again sing at the level she had previously?… If at all?…

Over the course of a set that included “Rolling In The Deep,” “Someone Like You,” “Chasing Pavements,” and “Turning Tables,” Adele performed an emotionally charged set that had both the audience and, at one point, Adele in tears. As she walked off the stage to thunderous applause, Adele must have known in her heart and soul that she was back.

“It’s like 99.9 percent better so I’m really, really happy,” she told TV interviewers Dave Berry and Alexa Chung in a post-concert interview that was picked up by Oneindia. “I thought a month ago that I would never be able to sing again. So I’m really relieved. It went great and my voice isn’t hurting.”

Adele was brimming over with newfound excitement. She immediately went to her team and insisted that she was ready to return to America for a series of makeup shows. There were also talks of adding additional shows as a way of paying back America for the disruption of the tour. Plans were put into motion. But first there would be cautious first steps.

A truncated North American tour was pieced together for August, encompassing shows in British Columbia, Oregon, Seattle, Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and St. Paul. If those shows went well and Adele’s health remained strong, tentative steps were already being taken for more shows in October.

Adele was thrilled to be heading back to America and excitedly blogged, “I was having the best time on the US tour. I met some amazing people, did some fantastic shows, and played with some amazing performers. I will be happy to get back.”

The best-case scenario for Adele’s return to America played out on a nightly basis during those August dates. Adele sounded as good as ever, and the result was memorable shows in which there seemed a renewed power and emotion in the singer’s voice. Because of the problems with the previous US visit, Adele seemed driven to get it right this time and, by the end of August, the consensus was that the bump in the road that was Adele’s last visit to America had all but been forgotten.

But while her voice remained strong, a series of colds and chest infections toward the end of August were beginning to take their toll.

Adele could not believe her bad luck and expressed her growing frustrations in a Daily Mail story. “I can’t believe it. I follow all the advice I’m given and stick to regimes, rules, and practices to the best of my ability. But it seems to not be enough.”

Again, on the advice of doctors, Adele postponed a series of UK shows slated for early September as well as an appearance at the prestigious UK institution, the Mercury Prize awards ceremony. Adele would recover sufficiently by mid-September to make up the missed UK shows.

And one of those would be an appearance at the legendary Royal Albert Hall. There was some concern that Adele should continue to baby her voice, but the fact that the singer’s voice had improved significantly, plus the fact that the stately Royal Albert Hall had become a must-play gig for some of the biggest names in music, ultimately dictated that she would do the show.

Adele was in fine form the night of the show, trotting out the best of her 19 and 21 albums in a powerful manner, engaging in delightful between-song patter with the audience, and to the delight and amazement of the audience, dropping a few F-bombs that seemed to echo through the prestigious venue.

The show was a rousing success and, in a purely business sense, a good move. Management and record company saw fit to do both a live CD and DVD taping of the show, with an eye toward releasing both in a timely manner to keep Adele’s name and music in the public eye.

During this period, Adele finally had to come to grips with the reality that she had quickly outgrown the small clubs and halls that she had long preferred. And as the Adele Live tour entered its final dates, she would announce to audiences that her days in intimate venues were numbered.

“Too many people want to see my shows,” she told a London audience, as reported by The Guardian. “This is the last time you will see me in a venue like this. These will be my last theater dates, as I am moving on to arenas.”

But while Adele’s music continued its march (with 21 having already sold 10 million albums worldwide, and the single “Rolling In the Deep” spending nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts), there were those who had taken notice of Adele’s occasional physical lapses and were up front in saying that the singer might be due a prolonged hiatus from performing.

For her part, Adele was feeling like she had turned the corner on any physical ailments and was all ready to return to performing in October. But first there was a bit of personal business to deal with. A friend was getting married on October 1, and Adele had promised to serenade the happy couple. On that day, Adele got up to sing …

And then it happened.