Bradford's best-known rock band are pressing ahead with a major tour despite two members being struck down by tumours.

New Model Army frontman Justin Sullivan and drummer Robert Heaton were both admitted to hospital for major operations.

Robert, who has been with the group since they formed in 1980, has been forced to quit following surgery to remove a large benign tumour from his brain.

His place in the band has been taken by Queensbury-based drummer Michael Dean, who has worked as Robert's drum technician for the past five years.

And by strange coincidence, Justin also had to undergo an operation to remove a tumour on this throat but has fully recovered.

New Model Army are about to release their new album Strange Brotherhood, their first for five years, and will definitely go ahead with their UK tour next month despite the health scares.

"We've been calling it the album that nearly killed us," said singer and guitarist Justin, who is now the only remaining founder member of New Model Army in the band.

"The surgeon knew I was a singer and did tell me there was a certain amount of risk involved.

"If my vocal cords were damaged then it would obviously affect my voice. I knew I wouldn't be able to sing for three months after the operation so it really forced us to finish recording the album before I had it done."

Robert's emergency operation was even more serious. The rest of the band were told there was a five per cent he might not survive the surgery.

"I've seen him quite recently and he's making a good recovery but he still doesn't really want to talk about it," said Justin. It was only thanks to the eagle eyes of someone at BRI who spotted something on a scan that they realised something needed to be done quickly."

Robert's replacement Michael, who was formerly in Kill II This, Homesick and Bomb Circle, was recruited only two weeks before New Model Army were due to play a comeback gig in Leeds.

"It was fairly intensive rehearsing but fortunately, because I had worked with Robert for so long, I already knew the set pretty well," said Michael. After he decided that he couldn't carry on any more he said he thought I was the ideal candidate to take over. Then Justin rang me and asked if I wanted to be in the band and do the touring with them.''

The illnesses suffered by New Model Army are not the only crises they have faced in recent years. They were ditched by their record label Epic after their last album The Love Of Hopeless Causes in 1993 and split up briefly in 1996 during the recording of Strange Brotherhood before getting back together again.

"It's been the worst two years of my life. The lessons learnt in that time will never be forgotten," said Justin.

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