Thor’s gig tonight (April 19) at The Gaff in London has been cancelled.

This is due to the ongoing problems caused by volcanic ash in British airspace, meaning even the Mighty One was unable to get a flight out of Canada. It’s a hammer-blow to all who were ready to witness the man’s first London gig in a quarter-of-a-century.

The Gaff show was going to serve as the European CD release party for the 25th anniversary of Thor’s Only The Strong album, out now via Ektro Records. Thor had also arranged a press conference for the day after the gig where (and we quote) ‘a major and shocking Thor announcement would be made’.

Says Thor himself:

“This is emotionally a tough one for myself and the band as we looked so forward to meeting you and to perform in London once again. I am deeply saddened by being unable to travel, because of a force beyond my control. It’s very frustrating. I still would like to do something in the future, but I will need to recover from this devastating incident.”

Thor spokesman Frederick Thunder added:

“Thor went to the airport to catch his flight to make sure that there was absolutely nothing else he could do to get here but sadly there are zero flights going to Europe from Canada at this point. The show at The Gaff will go on with [support band] Neonfly though.”

Thunder, who plays guitar in Neonfly, continued:

“I know we cannot replace Thor who you’ve been waiting for 25 years to see in the UK again, but I hope some of you will still want to make it down. We might throw in a couple of Thor numbers in our set, and they have authorised me to sell their merchandise and CDs at the show.

“Once again I’m really sorry about this, we all worked very hard to make this happen and it’s very disappointing for all of us.”

We at Classic Rock blame Ymir (frost giant of Norse legend) and Surtur (Norse fire demon) for all this volcanic nonsense – Thunder On The Tundra indeed! We have no doubt that Thor will eventually defeat his nefarious foes – and clear the air of deadly ash so planes can fly again. So be it!

Thor did try to appeal for help to the Norse god of volcanoes – only to find none exists. Now, if he’d been Greek or Roman…

Just in case you want to know what you’re missing, this is Thor at The Marquee in 1984. Sigh!

Find out more at www.thorcentral.com