I saw the clips from tokyo last night and they do seem horrible. The biggest thing for me is the lack of energy. Some substandard vocals can partly be made up for by an energetic performance.

Watching the clip of Richie singin these days, it seems pretty likely that he does have a sore throat/some sort of illness as some parts are shaky, he salvages the performance by puttin his heart and soul into it (something Jon doesnt do in Prayer)

In regards to Prayer, it seems that Jon has been quite motionless singing it for a couple of years now. I remember at MK 2006 he hardly moved either side of the mic during the song. Maybe he's getting bored of it and cant be arsed that much?!

Jon didnt sound as if he was ill in Tokyo (though he may have been), it just sounded like a lazy vocal. However other clips from the tour have sounded better and Prayer (and part of sleep when i'm dead) are the only clips we've seen from the Tokyo shows so far.