Aussie Indie rock duo Royel Otis have been forced to cancel an upcoming festival appearance after guitarist Royel Maddell collapsed on stage.
Maddell and bandmate Otis Pavlovic were mid-way through performing their hit Till The Morning at Dockville Festival in Germany when Maddell began to stumble backward before falling to the ground with his guitar still strapped to him.
It was reportedly only their third song in the set, with Maddell initially leaving the stage after the second song while Pavlovic explained he had been unwell.
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Several crew members then accompanied the guitarist back to the stage before he collapsed part-way into the next song.
The duo cut their performance short, the next day taking to Instagram to announce that they were cancelling an upcoming performance at Lowlands + Pukkelpop as Maddell was “sick with a virus”.
“We were really looking forward to playing for you and hope we can see you at one of our other shows soon,” the band added.
“Thank you for all your support always.”
Maddell’s illness comes off the back of a massive tour for the two young Sydneysiders, having seemingly played every music festival under the sun over the North American and European summer.
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Growing up, the pair ran in similar circles in the Sydney music scene, but they didn’t become close until 2019 when Pavlovic played one of his demos for Maddell.
“I knew he played guitar,” the singer told The Big Takeover.
“He listened to that. And then maybe two months later, we started recording stuff together.”
They quickly found out that by combining both of their sounds they were able to make something pretty special, but everything was put on pause when the pandemic hit in 2020.
The forced pause gave them a moment to really figure out their sound, releasing their first EP Campus in 2021, followed by Bar & Grill featuring their breakthrough hit Oysters In My Pocket in 2022.
Their third EP, Sofa Kings, came out in 2023 featuring hits Kool Aid and Going Kokomo, but they’d still only found success in the indie music scene.
That was until two earth-shattering covers saw the boys skyrocket to success.
In January, 2024, they covered Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s revived classic Murder on the Dancefloor for Triple J’s Like a Version, currently sitting at more than 70 million streams on Spotify.
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“It’s funny too, because we’ve never wanted to do any covers at all, just because we didn’t feel confident in doing any cover. I think the artist usually nails it, so why try to fix something that ain’t broken?” Maddell told The Harvard Crimson.
“But it’s bittersweet in a way. Why wasn’t it one of our songs?”
A few months later, the pair found international success with the release of their SiriusXM cover of The Cranberries’ Linger, now sitting at more than 180 million streams.
The viral hit came at just the right time for the pair, with their first full-length album Pratts & Pain having been released in February the same year, now with an entire legion of new fans ready to hit play.
Pavlovic and Maddell returned to Australia at the end of 2024, high up on the bill of several summer festivals including Wildlands, Lost Paradise and Beyond the Valley.
The band were named as one of the artists to watch by the Grammys in 2024, and managed to sweep the 2024 Aria Awards, taking home the win for Best Group, Best Rock Album, Best Engineered Release and Best Produced Release.
Despite their accolades, Maddell and Pavlovic are just getting warmed up, now being dubbed Australia’s next big thing.
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As they wrap up their international tour and festival circuit including sets at Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, Fuji Rock and Governor’s Ball, Pavlovic and Maddell are set to return back home to play a slew of Aussie shows in October.
With seven shows across five states, the duo are playing their biggest venues yet with several dates already sold out.
And with their sophomore album Hickey set for release on Friday August 22, it seems this success is just the start for Royel Otis.
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