Swedish musician stung by scorpion

The Swedish guitarist Ulf “Bitte” Appelqvist, playing with soul singer Adées band, has been stung in the throat by a scorpion in Texas. He has been forced to cancel the tour to travel home to Sweden.

“He got really bad and it was all blue. It looked pretty scary”, says Adee.

Artist of the Year nominee Adee – 27-year-old Ida Olsson from Kalmar – has been with her band at the big festival South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, since last week. The band planned to play their ninth and final gig on Sunday evening. However without “Bitte” the event had to be cancelled.

“We have all been living together in a house at Airport Boulevard in Austin. I was not there at the time but it happened sometime during Friday night, he was stung on the right side of the neck just below the chin”, says Adee.

“He swelled up so much that it looked like a huge double chin. We had two gigs the day after and yet he still wanted to perform. “Bitte” is the most positive person, even in this situation. But he had a very painful expression on his face.”

Neither “Bitte” or anyone else has seen the scorpion which stung him. The insect had gone when he lit the lamp. But there is no doubt about what happened – Texas is well known for Scorpion bites and looking at his symptoms they were able to assure him the sting was not fatal.

Ulf “Bitte” Appelqvist needed for other reasons had to go to the emergency dentist in Austin on Saturday, and then felt it best to go home to Torsås and take it easy. So he sat on a plane home on Sunday evening.

Adée said that because there only remained a single gig with the guitarist the band didn’t bother to look for a replacement.

“No, we’ll make the best of it. It’s the last show and we’ve had time to present us properly during the week (anyway). We’ll go to Los Angeles for a week to write songs there, then we’ll also go home to Sweden”, says Adee.

source: http://www.expressen.se