Propellerheads' multi-instrumentalist Will White, who has been in and out of the hospital 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 his hometown of Bath, England, last Monday. |

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

While the exact diagnosis of the illness is still undetermined, according to publicity and management, Propellerheads manager Michael Thomas says that White is out of danger.

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

While White's illness forced the Propellerheads to cancel their summer tour plans, Gifford has picked up the slack by DJ-ing at the recent Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington, D.C., and at various gigs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. Gifford also took the time to re-vamp the much-revered theme song for BBC Radio One's weekly chart rundown. The song, "At the Sign of the Swinging Cymbals," has been the theme music for the show since the '60s.

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 just getting really bad cramps, feeling dizzy, all that shit -- just feeling bad basically. 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 months or so."

Future plans for the duo include possibly producing the next Jungle Brothers album and the release of a disco-fried version of their next single, "Velvet Pants."

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