Richards injury forces Stones to postpone 15 European dates

The Rolling Stones are postponingthe first 15 dates oftheir European tour, to allow Keith Richards to recover from a head injury.

The European leg of the band's A Bigger Bang tour had been due to begin Saturday in Barcelona.

The tour is now set to begin in July at a venue and city to be announced. Speaking on behalf of the band, publicity firm LD Communications said Wednesdaythat May and June's rescheduled dates would be announced in the next few days.

More than a dozen concerts have been postponed affecting ticketholders in Barcelona; Madrid; Brussels; Paris; Bergen, Norway; Horsens, Denmark; Gothenburg, Sweden; St. Petersburg, Russia; Brno, Czech Republic; Warsaw; Vienna; Milan; Athens; and Zagreb, Croatia.

After Zagreb, the next concert is scheduled for Nuremberg, Germany on July 10.

Richards, the veteran rock band's guitarist, suffered a fall on April 27 while on vacation in Fiji. Media reports claimed variously that he had fallen out of a palm tree or from a jet ski.

Initially flown to a New Zealand hospital for observation, Richards was released butreturned to hospital on May 10to undergo surgery to relieve pressure in his head.

After his surgery, representatives for the Stones postponed the start of the tour until June.

However, speculation arose that Richards would need more time to recover, especially after news came on Tuesday that concert organizers in Paris had postponedthe band's concerts scheduled for June 3 and July 2.

The band released a statement Monday saying that Richards has returned to his home in the U.S. to recuperate.

The European dates are the final leg of the band's world tour, which began in Boston last summer and has seen the veteran rockers travel through Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand.