Up-and-coming British alt-rockers The Subways [ tickets ], who were due to mount a North American tour next month, have canceled the outing due to illness.

"[Singer/guitarist] Billy [Lunn] has been diagnosed with nodules on his vocal cords, and has been advised to take at least 6 weeks complete rest from touring, which will include the [North] American tour," bassist Charlotte Cooper wrote in a message posted Saturday (4/22) at the group's MySpace.com website. "We're all really disappointed by this, as we had been looking forward to the coming dates."

The group was scheduled to kick off its headlining club tour May 1 in Las Vegas, and stops were planned in 21 cities. Those shows have been scrapped, as has a planned April 30 appearance at the Coachella festival in California.

The band plans to make the best of the downtime, according to Cooper's note.

"We're going to use the time as positively as we can, working on new songs instrumentally. We'll keep you updated on how Billy's doing. We can't wait to get back to America later this summer and continue with European festival dates."

The Subways--Cooper, Lunn and Lunn's younger brother, Josh Morgan--formed in 2002. "Young for Eternity," the group's debut set, was released in England last year, and hit US stores in February of this year.