Propellerheads' multi-instrumentalist Will White, who has been in and out ofhospital care since mid-May with what was originally diagnosed as a"debilitating digestive disorder," actually had to undergo surgery when hisillness took a turn for the worse. White was released from a hospital in hishometown of Bath, England, last Monday.

"It got really serious because he put off dealing with it for awhile," saysProps' producer and programmer Alex Gifford. "He ended up going under theknife."

While the exact diagnosis of the illness is still undetermined according topublicity and management, Propellerheads manager Michael Thomas says thatWhite is out of danger.

"After a two-week period in hospital following surgery, Will is now out andrecuperating," says Thomas. "In terms of exactly what the problem was, thetruth is that we have not been told at this time."

While White's illness forced the Propellerheads to cancel their summer tourplans, Gifford has picked up the slack by DJ-ing at the recent TibetanFreedomConcert in Washington, D.C., and at various gigs in Los Angeles, SanFranciscoand Boston. Gifford also took the time to re-vamp the much-revered themesongfor BBC Radio One's weekly chart rundown. The song, "At the Sign of theSwinging Cymbals," has been the theme music for the show since theSixties.

But the main concern right now, according to Gifford, is White's recovery."He's been suffering from it for about a year on and off, and he was justgetting really bad cramps, feeling dizzy, all that shit - just feeling badbasically. But he just always thought it was something that would go away.He's all right now, but he's gotta get fit and that's gonna take six monthsorso."

Future plans for the duo include possibly producing the next Jungle Brothersalbum and the release of a disco-fried version of their next single, "VelvetPants."

"I was in the studio in New York for two days and "Velvet Pants" startedturning into this disco kind of thing, and I realized I was actually in theStudio 54 building," says Gifford. "It was as if this force had come out ofthe building and permeated our track, turning it into a disco tune."

KEVIN RAUB
(July 20, 1998)