Two Gallants. October 2006 @ Walter's on Washington, Houston - After a local made a noise complaint, police arrived on the scene to 'sort' things out. Somehow Two Gallants frontman Adam Stephens together the band's manager and two audience members were tazered by police. Police alleged that Stephens had pushed an attending officer and used a “sexual obscenity” - the singer strenuously denied this.
Fuji Rock Festival. July 1997 – The inaugural Japanese Festival was struck by a typhoon on the opening day. Amazingly Red Hot Chili Peppers honoured their set and performed through the violent storm - frontman Anthony Keidis had a broken arm too. However, due to being somewhat under-prepared for the disastrous weather, the event was called off before the second day. The festival is now held in Naeba, Niigata Prefecture but has retained the 'Fuji' name.
Woodstock '99. July 23-35, 1999 in Rome, New York – Organisers hoped to recreate the peace and love of the original event 30 years earlier, but sadly Woodstock '99 is now remembered for its incidents of rape, violence, arson and its ultimate early abandonment. 200,000 people turned up, but in the scorching temperatures the facilities were not enough. Anger eventually boiled with people starting fires and violence erupting. Police reported four incidents of rape, while numerous people were taken in for looting and arson.
Igor Talkov @ Yubileiny Concert Hall, Leningrad, October 6 1991 – The immensely popular Russian pop star sold millions of records in his homeland. He gained popularity for his well crafted songs and politically charged lyrics. His life ended in tragedy when he was shot backstage at a concert. The murder was declared a national tragedy in the former Soviet Union , while the funeral was a huge televised event. He has been honoured with his own stamp and there is a Moscow museum named after him.
Frank Zappa @ The Rainbow Theatre, London, 1971 – Just a week after having his equipment stolen at show in Switzerland, worse things were around the corner. During the encore of the triumphant London show, a deranged fan pushed Zappa into the concrete-floored orchestra pit. His band immediately thought he was dead, but ultimately he was left with hideous injuries including a crushed larynx, head trauma, serious fractures and injuries to his back, leg and neck. He was wheelchair bound for a year-and-a-half.
Pink Floyd @ Earls Court, London, October 1994 – It was the opening night of a landmark 14 night stint at the London venue. One minute into opening song 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' a scaffolding stand holding 1200 fans collapsed, with some falling over 20 feet to the ground. 96 people were injured, with 36 needing hospital treatment. The show was promptly cancelled. At the rearranged show the next week, Dave Gilmour joked: “If I were you, I’d sue somebody. Er, not me, though...”
Curtis Mayfield. August 13, 1990 @ Wingate Field, New York. The soul, funk and R & B legend was electrocuted and paralysed from the neck downwards when lighting equipment fell on him at the outdoor gig. Despite being debilitated and unable to play any instruments, Mayfield battled on, writing and overseeing his final album New World Order released in 1997. He recorded the majority of the album vocals while lying on his back.
Michael Jackson in Los Angeles, January 1984 - While shooting a lucrative Pepsi commercial in front of thousands of fans in Los Angeles, Wacko Jacko was hit by a freak accident. His hair, which was doused in hair spray, accidentally caught fire from pyrotechnics on stage leaving Michael with second degree burns. PepsiCo settled the ensuing court case with a $1.5million payout to the charity the 'Michael Jackson Burns Center'.
My Chemical Romance @ Download Festival, June 2007 – A year after they were bottled at Reading, MCR suffered the same fate at Download Festival. This time, however, it was much worse. Some bottles were full of urine, while golf balls were added to the onslaught. The band carried on, although an angry Gerard Way blasted: “This song is called 'thanks for all the bottles, thanks for all the piss, thanks for all the golf balls, thanks for all the apples and thanks for all the sticky shit'”.
The Smiths @ Preston Guildhall / Newport Leisure Centre 1986 – The same autumn tour and two disastrous gigs. First up in Preston, an audience member threw a coin straight at Morrissey which hit him on the head. Mozza left the stage after just 2 minutes and never returned to the Guildhall for a further 14 years. A week later an over zealous fan in Newport pulled Morrissey aggressively into the crowd. Not one for being manhandled, Mozza cancelled the rest of the show and stormed off.
Bright Eyes @ Glastonbury, June 25, 2005 – It should have been a magical moment for Conor Oberst, headlining the inaugural John Peel tent on the closing night of Glastonbury. However, clearly intoxicated, his songs were limited to incoherent drawls. Worse still, he slammed the late John Peel himself. Afterwards he was forced to make a public apology, saying: “I never had the pleasure of meeting (John Peel) but by all accounts he was an outstanding man and deserves much more respect then I showed. I am very sorry.”
The Flaming Lips @ Brighton Centre, November 4, 2006 – Wayne Coyne arrived onstage distressed after his laptop and camera were stolen from his dressing room. He began the set with an appeal and description of the robber, as seen on CCTV. Later when the show began, a girl in the front of the crowd had an epileptic fit in the middle of a strobe lighting blast during 'The W.A.N.D'. The show was stopped for 15 minutes as the girl was taken away for medical treatment.
The Stone Roses @ Reading Festival, August 1996 – Just six years after the glory of Spike Island, The Roses limped towards their demise pathetically at Reading Festival. Reni and John Squire had already jumped ship, leaving Ian Brown and Mani to whimper on. Sadly, Ian Brown delivered one of the most atrocious vocal performances of all time, while the rest of the band were just as disinterested. Cue a torrent of objects stage-bound from the baying crowd. The band split shortly afterwards.
Metallica / Guns N Roses. August 8, 1992 at Montreal's Olympic Stadium – The eighth night of the joint tour hit disaster when Metallica frontman James Hetfield stepped too close to a pyrotechnics blast during their opening song 'Fade To Black'. Metallica abandoned the show, only for Guns N Roses to frustrate fans further when they left stage early after Axl Rose complained of a sore throat. Hetfield suffered second and third degree burns and was forced to sit out of playing guitar for much of the remaining tour.
Any GG Allin show – It's hard to single out one GG Allin gig for being disastrous as they all were. His shows resulted in venues and equipment being trashed and were regularly abandoned when police were called. He self-mutilated on stage and tours left him sporting numerous broken bones. Allin was also charged with assault and battery several times and even threw excrement into the crowd. After a string of threats that he would commit suicide onstage, the mentally ill Allin eventually died of a heroin overdose in 1993.
Guns n Roses @ Monsters of Rock, Donington, August 1988 – Playing alongside KISS and Iron Maiden at the British festival, tragedy struck during Guns N Roses' set. The 100,000 capacity crowd began to push forward, causing Axl Rose to plead with them to stop. Unfortunately it was to no avail and two audience members were trampled to death. Despite the band's efforts, certain sections of the media partially blamed them for the deaths as they continued to play when the crowd first surged forward.
Damageplan. December 8, 2004 in Alrosa Villa, Ohio. During the show a paranoid schizophrenic former Marine called Nathan Gale silently drew out a gun and fired fifteen shots. Three of them hit legendary former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell in the face and he died instantly. Three others were killed in the carnage; 23-year-old concert goer Nathan Bray, roadie Erin Halk and Damageplan security chief Jeff 'Mayhem' Thompson who unsuccessfully tried to wrestle Gale away. Police killed the gunman with a single shot to his skull.
Morphine @ Giardini del Principe, Italy, July 3 1999 – The jazz rock outfit were onstage in Italy as part of their European tour when slide guitarist Mark Sandman suddenly collapsed. Medics pronounced him dead and discovered that he had had a massive heart attack at the age of 46. Unlike many other bands, Morphine decided to disband saying that they couldn't carry on without their core member.
Roisin Murphy @ The Ikra Club, Moscow, October 2007 – While in the middle of her performance, Roisin got a tad excited and began head-banging violently. Thrusting her head forwards the former Moloko singer accidentally smashed her eye socket on the top corner of a chair. She immediately began losing a lot of blood and was taken to hospital, before she was forced to fly back to the UK for further treatment. Fortunately, despite the horrific nature of her injury, no sight was lost.
Akon @ K Fest, New York, June 3, 2007 – The hip-hop star was performing at the New York festival when a missile hit him from the crowd. Spotting the perpetrator, Akon ordered security to bring him to the front of the stage. Once there, Akon manhandled the teenager and threw him directly onto the crowd. A woman in crowd later took Akon to court, alleging she suffered from concussion after the fan landed on her. Akon said he “deeply regretted” the incident.
Lauryn Hill @ London Hammersmith Apollo, July 8, 2007 – The once great Fugees singer proved that she had lost her talent and integrity during her 2007 UK tour. She turned up two hours late, mumbled through her tunes, read awful poetry and was roundly booed by the vexed crowd. One told Gigwise: “No warmth, no soul.... with her crazy hair and raincoat she reminded me of a bag lady you’d avoid if you saw her in the street, or at best, Whitney Houston in her crack days.”
The Kinks @ The Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, 1965 – Since joining a year earlier, drummer Mick Avory's relationship with his best friend Ray Davies' younger brother Dave was fraught with tension. They fought on stage a number of times, but perhaps the most infamous was in Cardiff when Avory violently hit his nemesis over the head with a drum peddle. 20 years later Avory eventually left the band citing his poor relationship with Dave Davies. Ray was left devastated by the decision.
50 Cent @ Reading Festival, August 2004 – Performing the second to headline slot, 50 Cent and his G-Unit were pelted with literally hundreds of plastic bottles and toilet roll. Luckily for Fiddy he managed to weather the storm for 15 minutes and 1 second; the minimum time an artist needs to perform to still get paid! Earlier in the day, the same aggressive crowd pelted The Rasmus off stage.
David Bowie in Oslo, June 2004 – Bottles are the usual missile of choice on this list of disastrous gigs, but in Norway a few years back David Bowie was nearly blinded by a lollipop stick. The stick amazingly got lodged in the music legend's eye socket but somehow serious damage was avoided. He continued with the gig, despite his bloodshot eye and posted the message on his website afterwards saying: "Please think carefully before you lob anything stageward in future, people."
Kevin Rowland @ Reading Festival, August 1999 – You've got to hand it to Kevin Rowland. He'd just released a turgid solo album called 'My Beauty', an album with a front cover depicting Rowland dressed in female attire, and he still had the guts to perform to the hostile Reading crowd. Arriving onstage in suspenders and a white dress, he immediately got booed and berated fervently. So much so, you couldn't even hear him singing Whitney Houston covers. What a crying shame.
Panic At The Disco @ Reading Festival, August 25, 2006 – Playing an afternoon slot, the band were in the middle of opening song 'The Only Difference Between Suicide...' when frontman Brandon Urie was struck on the head by a bottle. He immediately fell to the ground unconscious and his band stopped performing. Clearly shaken, after a few minutes Urie got back on his feet and they continued. Suckers for punishment, they were bottled once again at Reading in 2007.
Akon in Trinidad & Tobago, April 2007 – At a club with a supposed over 18's policy, Akon picked a girl out of the crowd and performed simulated sex acts on her. The raunchy episode was duly posted on YouTube. Sadly for Akon, it emerged that the girl was in fact 15-years-old and the daughter of a preacher. Parenting groups and political figures slammed Akon who was forced to apologise. In August 2007, he wrote a song about the incident called 'Sorry, Blame It One Me'.
Bay City Rollers @ Futurama Festival, Dublin 1983 – For some reason a budding comedian of a tour promoter booked the tartan clad pop band as headliners for this punk event. Earlier in the day Killing Joke and The Smiths had performed, but the atmosphere turned sour as soon as the BCR's took to the stage. They were promptly bottled, before singer Les McKeown hurtled one back into the crowd and injured a reveller. He then spent the night in a police cell for his efforts. Clown.
Guns n Roses @ Riverport Amphitheatre, Missouri, July 2, 1991 – The ever pedantic Axl Rose jumped into the audience to approach a fan who had apparently been videoing the concert. After security failed to take action, Rose declared: "Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!" and he slammed his microphone to the ground before storming off. When Slash and co. followed, the crowd began to riot resulting in dozens of injuries. Charges were filed against Rose for inciting the riot.
Iggy and the Stooges @ Detroit Michigan Palace October 1973 / February 1974 – Iggy has never been a stranger to a chaotic show, but these two are most infamous due to the live album 'Metallic K.O'. The audience of bikers were hostile and Iggy brazenly fed this; 'Louie, Louie' had the improvised line "You biker faggot sissies." He duly got pelted with glass bottles. Journalist Lester Bangs said of the album "It's a documentation of the Iggy holocaust at its most nihilistically out of control."
The Rolling Stones in Sacramento, California 1965 - Keith Richards has defied doctors for all his life; considering the fact he's still alive after ingesting drugs for decades is truly a miracle of science. In 1965 in Sacramento, Keef's guitar strings hit an unearthed microphone resulting in him receiving a mammoth electric shock. Doctors gave him a 50/50 chance of coming round, but an hour later Keef duly recovered consciousness. It's said his spongy shoes may have saved his life.
David Cassidy @ London White City Stadium, May 1974 - The American singer and actor played the huge stadium in what was billed as 'his final performance'. Thousands of teenage girls surged forward to get nearer the stage when Cassidy immediately spotted the danger and shouted "get back, get back!". Sadly, after two days in a coma, a 14-year-old girl died of asphyxia. Dozens more were hospitalised with injuries.
Altamont Free Festival. December 6, 1969 in California - Headlined by The Rolling Stones, the infamous Hell's Angels were hired as security for the event after organisers mistakenly took them for 'noble savages'. Allegedly the Hell's Angels were paid in beer and became increasingly agitated and violent as they tried to manage the massive crowd. In the ensuing carnage many were injured and four people lost their lives, including the most famous victim 18-year-old black man Meredith Hunter.
Carl Cox @ La Rinconada Terrace, Venezuela, November 2007 – The heavyweight DJ was making a rare appearance in the country, when a few tracks into his set a gunman entered and began shooting into the crowd. Four people were killed and a further nine injured in the gang related attack. Cox released a statement saying he was “sickened” by the “mindless act”.
Bonnie Tyler / Meat Loaf @ Reading Festival, August 1988 – On the same weekend at the same festival the two musical heavyweights were bottled with urine by the traditional aggressive Reading crowd. An irate Meat bottled it and stormed off after two songs, but Bonnie Tyler proved that she's made of sterner stuff, battling through and completing her set.
Nickelback in Portugal, 2002 – The soft-rock outfit may make turgid music of the worst kind, but they didn't quite deserve the maltreatment they got at an infamous Portugal show six years back. They were showered with hundreds of piss-filled bottles of water, leading Chad Kroeger and co. to storm offstage in disgust. Unlike Daphne & Celeste, Nickelback didn't have the balls to ride the storm. The Youtube video has since got hundreds of thousands of page reads.
Muse @ The Cotton Club, Atlanta, April 9, 2004 – The trio had just launched into their Origin of Symmetry track 'Citizen Erased' when singer Matthew Bellamy accidentally hit himself in the mouth with the neck of his Seven String Manson guitar. Blood immediately started pouring from the wound and Bellamy was unable to continue much to the dissatisfaction of the audience. He was treated in hospital and fortunately the rest of their US jaunt was able to continue.
Daphne & Celeste @ Reading Festival, August 2000 – A pop act performing at a rock festival with a chequered history of heckling artists was never going to get away without a severe bottling. Thousands turned out just to throw urine-doused missiles at the novelty act, who braved the onslaught for a few minutes before retiring. They apparently only signed up for the festival so they could meet Eminem, but sadly the rapper pulled out a few weeks beforehand.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre @ The Viper Room, California, 1996 – When Anton Newcombe is your band frontman, then chaos naturally ensues. This show was heavily attended by major label execs who were looking to sign BJM, but within minutes the band had erupted into a full scale fist fight between themselves. At another show later in the decade, Newcombe kicked a heckler in the head resulting in him being arrested for assault. What a guy.
Morrissey @ Madstock, August 1992 – The former Smiths man was invited by Madness to support them at their one day festival in Finsbury Park. Morrissey arrived onstage draped in a Union Jack and in front of banners featuring female skin-heads, both of which were believed to be symbols of the far right. The NME got on their high horse and openly slammed Mozza for 'toying with far-right, fascist imagery', something Mozza denied strenuously.
Uriah Heep in Dallas, 1974 – The band's bassist Gary Thain was accidentally electrocuted by his guitar while performing. He collapsed to the ground gasping for air. When paramedics stretched him away, he had regained consciousness but was in a dazed state. Some fans have since speculated that this incident, which left Thain in agonising pain, contributed to his death of a heroin overdose at the age 27 a year later.
Pearl Jam @ Roskilde Festival. June 2000 – During the headline set on the Friday, due to sound problems audience members pushed forward to get nearer to the stage. Unfortunately the ground was muddy and many of the crowd fell to the ground causing them to be trampled upon. Nine people died of suffocation while scores more were injured. In 2002, Pearl Jam wrote a song 'Love Boat Captain' which poignantly addressed the tragedy: "Lost 9 friends we'll never know... 2 years ago today."
Tiny Tim @ The Woman's Club of Minneapolis, November 30, 1996 – The avant-garde singer and ukele player first suffered a heart attack onstage in September 1996 Massachusetts but survived. After three weeks in hospital, he was ordered by doctors never to perform live again due to his heart condition and diabetes. He ignored the advice and once again had a heart attack during a gig a month later.
Stone the Crows @ Swansea Top Rank, May 1972 – Midway through the show, the Scottish group's guitarist Les Harvey – the younger brother of Alex Harvey of Sensational Alex Harvey Band fame – touched a live, unearthed microphone with damp hands. He was electrocuted and killed instantly. Having died at 27-years-old, he's one of the members of the infamous Club 27 alongside such greats as Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin.
Beside in Bandung, Indonesia, February 2008 – After the show celebrating the release of the punk-rock band's latest album, the crowd were trying to leave the venue while at the same time hundreds who were locked outside tried to force their way in. On top of this, it was claimed that the venue was already twice its capacity, resulting in a monumental crush. Ten people were killed and dozens more injured.
Steel Pulse @ Reading Festival, 1983 – One of the most ferocious bottlings in Reading's history was also one of the earliest. Reggae act Steel Pulse were hit by a torrent of bottles and other flying objects so intense that they couldn't even begin their set. The brain dead audience members were impatiently waiting for The Stranglers to appear.
Motley Crue. October 12, 2005 in Casper, Wyoming – The band's drummer Tommy Lee suffered burns to his arms and his face when an elaborate pyrotechnics show went badly wrong. A Roman candle style firework hurtled towards Lee as he was suspended 30 feet above the stage in a stunt. Fortunately the injuries only proved to be minor and he was able to resume normal service shortly after the show.
Leeds Festival. August 26, 2002 – In the early hours of Monday morning, several hundred festival goers went on the rampage setting fire to toilet blocks, skips and throwing missiles at riot police. , it was the second year in a row that there had been violence at the Temple Newsham site, but in 2002 it escalated. Thankfully no-one was killed in the mayhem. The following year, Leeds Festival changed sites to Bramham Park.
Great White @ The Station Concert Club, Rhode Island, February 2003 – The American hard rock outfit had recently (but only partially) reformed when a huge tragedy hit. Sparks from their pyrotechnics display ignited the highly flammable foam sound-proofing behind the stage causing a massive blaze. Over a hundred people died, including the band's guitarist Ty Longley. Two years later, Great White took to the stage once again on a benefit tour raising money for the victims' families and survivors.