Gene Simmons was once a desperately poor kid in Israel. His mom made a life-changing decision to move to the USA. As a youth, Gene hustled, doing things like learning to type so he could get paid to type people's term papers and the like. When he learned of the vast fortunes being made by rock bands of his era, he saw his opportunity for success, started buying equipment, learned how to play, bought trucks, started touring, and he put everything into it. I believe Gene Simmons fairly earned every dollar he ever made, and the fact Gene has lived off the fat of the land for 50 years is a testimony to the geniuses that created the Constitution and the economic liberty it created, combined with a lifetime of dedicated diligent and brilliant work paying off. Gene lived the American Dream. I use Gene as an example to my kids. If Gene did it, you can too.
#1 on any such list has to be, tragically, the The Station fire in Warwick RI in 2003, when Great White set the place on fire with their pyrotechnics during the opening number and 100 people died including their guitarist.
This is a list of mishaps that resulted in injury or embarrassed. The Station fire was a horrific tragedy on another level with 100 deaths. The owners of the nightclub shared the blame for that one too with the sound proof panels they had installed that were flammable. It doesn’t belong on a list of Spinal Tap style goofs. You’ll notice The Who is in here too but not for the general admission crowd deaths in Cincinnati.
@@kingofallwhites The venue more than just shared the blame, they were responsible. The sparkler showers the band used were low temperature and could be used on bare human skin without pain or injury, they'd been used in countless other shows without incident.
@@kingofallwhites What racist tirades? clapton disliked immigration policies in the 70's which favored Casparian's ( from the island Caspiar in the Caspian sea) more than others..... and personally i can't stand those people so I agree with him. Costello called James Brown a "Jive ass something ( and brown could really "jive" on stsage so its a truthful comment) and called Ray charles a "blind ass something ( which is also true.... he was blind). Not sure what there is to be angry about................ and please don't get me started on the Besutolandinians...
"The Edge not noticing the edge of the stage during I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". That's gold, Jerry, gold! (G. Costanza) Edit - yep, screwed the pooch on that one. Kenny Bania is indeed the correct character. My bad.
Christopher Cross playing guitar for Deep Purple in 1970 at age 19 when Ritchie had a reaction to some sort of flu shot or something is also a good one, though it is mostly positive, not really any on-stage drama or such. He apparently killed it, literally a 'we need a guitar player' moment, he knew their music, the only time Richie has ever had to have someone stand in for him at a show. That's pretty phenomenal.
There are great quotes from Cross himself about that, I'll reproduce them here: "Deep Purple booked their first show in the U.S. at the JAM Factory," recalls Cross. "But Ritchie Blackmore had a reaction to the flu shot, and he got sick. The show was sold out, and Joe Miller suggested to Jon Lord he use me to sub, and Joe would issue refunds to anyone who wanted. Ian Gillan was not for it, but Jon Lord made the call, and they said okay. "Eric Johnson was opening, so I used his Marshall and amp. I played the Deep Purple tunes I knew and some blues and got through it. I drove them to the airport, and when they left, I met Ritchie. He gave me his pick and was very nice. "It was such a thrill. He was such a great guitarist to me."
I saw The Clash in Philadelphia 1982.Joe Strummer had a mohawk haircut.Someone winged a nice ripe tomato from a good distance nailing Strummer on the side of his face.He never missed a word.
Has to be John Otway. Live on The Old Grey Whistle Test with Wild Willy Barrett. Otway trys to jump from one speaker stack to another & gets it wrong - he lands bollocks first on the speaker yet somehow completes the song only for Wild Willy to try & stangle him at the end. Legendary tv and he sells flick books of the fall as part of his merch. Otway & Barrett still going strong to this day - well ovef 5000 live gigs now for Otway . Great video.
Abbie Hoffman interrupting the Who’s set at Woodstock to complain about John Sinclair being in prison, and Pete immediately braining him with his guitar (which was seriously out of tune for the next five or 10 minutes).
@@bigbadbillb No film of that that I am aware of, but you can hear the audio on the UA-cam video “The Who - Woodstock - full concert” (I’ll double check the title).
Back in the 1970s we saw David Bowie on The retirement of Ziggy stardust tour in Salisbury England. When he played suffragette City he stood on the top of the PA and when he sent wham bam thank you ma'am he jumped and twisted his ankle and finished the rest of the set sitting on the drum podium two or three songs. If you watch the classic show at the Hammersmith odeon he didn't jump off the PA so I'm assuming we were the last to see him do this in the show. Love the shows back in the '70s and early '80s because they were close you could see them not a dot on stage a mile away. Those were the days
I was at the U2 show in Vancouver when the Edge didn't notice the edge. It was very bizarre. He fell about 8 feet to the cement floor, they just tossed him back up on stage and they kept going. I was sort of impressed. As for Zappa, in that fall he also crushed his larynx and it permanently lowered his voice half an octave or something. He was in a wheelchair for months so took the opportunity to produce a shitload of work.
I was at a Washington DC Kinks gig in the mid-seventies when Dave Davies performed a windmill power chord while running towards the audience, dropping to his knees and sliding on what turned out be too short of a runway. No serious injuries that we were aware of, but plenty of embarrassment. The show did go on!
Cheers mate, knew I'd found the right channel instantly. It just wouldn't feel right to have my rock music anecdotes explained by anybody else besides an obvious former roady with a UK accent of some sort, Innit!
Not to mention, the God of Hellfire, Arthur Brown, who wore a metal helmet filled with burning methanol at a 1967 Windsor Festival. During the performance the methanol spilled and caught fire to his cloak and hair. A nearby fan quickly extinguished the flames pouring beer on Brown's head preventing serious injury
I saw a video clip of Nirvana playing a gig in which it's bass player Krist Novoselic threw his bass guitar up in the air. When he tried to catch it, it hit him in the head. Krist took two steps forward and then fell face first on the floor!😅😅
Watched an interesting Stones documentary last year on the BBC and Mick said in the early 70’s he was always expecting the call to say Keith was dead, not from too much socialising, but from Keith’s driving. They said out of his mind he used to drive his family round regularly bumping into things and writing some cars off.
A joke that's been doing the rounds for years is that if the world is ever devastated by a nuclear fallout, the only survivors will be cockroaches and Keith Richards.
Two ones for me. 1 Morrissey in Liverpool. 30 seconds in someone threw some water at him and it hit him. He walked off never to be seen again that night. 2 rod Stewart in Manchester raining he slipped and cut his leg. Next song was first cut is the deepest. He sang while being seen by a nurse.
I saw Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson take a whiskey bottle to the head when Cheap Trick was opening for Kiss at the Pontiac Silverdome back in 1979. He staggered off the stage; the stage crew got him to the paramedics stationed behind the stage, and they stitched him up and let him rest for a few minutes before he and the rest of the band came back out and finished their set.
Two that come to my mind was when Milli Vanilli was exposed as the frauds that they were. Second, there was the time when Jefferson Starship was playing in Germany with a drunk Grace Slick.
I was at an Alice Cooper show in Vancouver in 1975. Cooper got tangled in some stage props and fell into security barriers. He broke several ribs and suffered a concussion. Another Vancouver show, this time in 1994 and on the weird side, Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon stripped off his clothes and urinated on the audience. He spent the night in jail for that one and faced criminal charges.
Col. Bruce Hampton had a massive heart attack on stage during the encore of his 70th birthday show. Everyone thought he was just being theatrical, as was his way. He died later at hospital. The man went out doing what he loved, can't ask for a better exit than that.
Or did he...? Bruce Hampton was a habitual gambler and had an odd ability to 'obscure the truth'. In fact, that was his whole trip, being surreal. So for him to 'die' on stage at 70 years of age made good sense to him, I bet.
Great stuff eloquent and entertaining My mate played in a Who tribute band in Leicester They were appearing at a local working mens' club when during the climax of their act the vocalist went full Daltrey and swung his mic. Said mic. smashed through a tile on the suspended ceiling whereupon bogus Rog. ,tugged at it to retrieve only succeeding in bringing a goodly portion of the remaining ceilingc crashing down on stage, band and audience........don't think the committee were moved to re book them! Of your examples Twisted Sister for utter crasness and their failure to see the pit they were about to fall into takes first prize A slightly different tangent but Clapton's pro Enoch diatribe was astonishing although in thosse less sensitive times did not unduly hinder his career
I like Judas Priest but maybe this was payback for copying Blue Öyster Cult. Eric Bloom used to ride a Harley on stage at the beginning of BÖC’s cover of Born To Be Wild in the 70s and early 80s. Eric also wore leather and studs long before anyone knew who Rob Halford was.
I saw a guy in a band die onstage once. Sad, sad day. It was during soundcheck and he had an asthma attack and died from a resulting heart attack. It was my 21st birthday, actually. RIP, Sean Rowley.
Zappa's neck was also injured in that fall, crushing his larynx and lowering his voice. As he said, "Having a low voice is nice, but I would have preferred another means of acquiring it."
He also names his assailant and that was where I first found out his name as well. Never gives his age though. He was actually 24 and a manual labourer from Walthamstow East London.
You left out a good one: Genesis on tour for their concept album “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway,” in Oslo, Norway, February 19, 1975, at the Ekeberghallen. At the end of the final song “It,” a flashbomb is supposed to go off. As Phil Collins told it, when they played in Oslo (the first date on the European leg of the tour), the roadie guy in charge of making the flashbomb “mixed too much bang and not enough flash,” and so there was a deafening onstage explosion. The band completely stopped playing, with both band and audience in total shock. And then the roadie guy poked his head around the curtain and said, “Sorry!” Phil yelled at him, “You’re fired! Get out of here!” And the concert ended right then and there, with no encore. (And, amazingly, there were no fatalities or injuries in the explosion, thank God.)
I was at a small local bar/club and the drummer got to the end of the song and as the last drumstick hit the drums he fell over drunk and hit the ground sideways! It was perfectly choreographed!10 outta’10!
Nope. 0:56 Dave Grohl _finished_ his set after breaking his leg (accompanied by a Dr. with his leg propped up in a wrapping). Dave went to hospital and FF canceled a leg of the tour _after_ he finished that set. His now famous line, "I think I just broke my leg." was _certainly_ not the last thing the audience heard from Dave at that show. He played for 2 & 1/2 more hours!
When I was 18 a friend got tickets for a band of the minute called Tesla with a hit or 2 at the time. 2 guitars, in the band. The lead guitarist walked off the edge of the Miami Arena stage whilst plugged in so you could hear him hit the concrete . The lights went up and 15 minutes later the other guitarist came out vamped for 5 minutes not saying anything and then the rest of the band came out; including the other guitarist and did the rest of the show. The sound of the guy hitting the concrete plugged in was truly scary and with that kind of time to think , we'd have sworn he was badly hurt. So for a band who got their 15 minutes and faded they certainly had a resilient or very lucky or both guitar player.
@@dogsmusicbookstravelscience Yeah, I played "Love Song" and that cover of "Signs" that they made popular again. So it was the guitarist with the long black hair who took the extra step. The curly haired one did a good job playing and scatting. They _were_ good right. Slightly better than I remembered even and I remembered them pretty well. 3 decades later I still new the lyrics and the overall band. I even scrolled into them live at Abbey Road. Not the best version of "We Can Work it Out" but at least they did their best as an homage I think. The sharing was my pleasure! Thanks for responding Jaco ✌️🎸
@@stanphillips7277 Agreed! Their heyday was a relatively short-lived one but I just checked up and learnt that they'd recorded 7 new albums from 2000 onwards and had done some touring throughout the years as well. They even released a new single in 2022... I was completely unaware of it all though I'm sure their later albums probably dipped somewhat in quality. I'll investigate when I have the time. Anyway, it means their career is now spanning some 40 years already! I've only collected 3 albums from their late 80's early 90's period, "Great Radio Controversy", "Five Man Acoustical Jam" and "Psychotic Supper", so I can hardly call myself an expert, though I certainly still love those albums. So much music, so little time!
@@Hun_Uinaq Just after I told that story I revisited Tesla and played a few songs and, that's one of the things that struck me too. The curly reddish blonde haired guitarist played those great intros but they were both talented players. The lead vocalist had a cool raspy voice. I'd forgotten about their cover of "Signs" but I remembered "Love Song" very well. Still new the lyrics to both . They even played at The Beatles Abbey Road studio. They had to pay homage so they did "We Can Work it Out" and it was relatively good. Not Beatles good but Tesla good. Not the worst version of a song that's more difficult than it sounds so my hats off that they got through it. Imagine the pressure right. Good band! No doubt ✌️
The video of Moon face down in his drum kit is really something to see. After that, the Who insisted on having a drum tech that could play well enough to be a substitute drummer.
Wasn't there was another time Moon knocked himself out and Townshend announced they were "bringing him around with a custard enema and punching him in the stomach" or was that the same incident? if so, two bon mots for Townshend that night!
Although far from Rock 'n Roll, Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack and literally died onstage performing his Magnus Opus. 'Tiptoe Thru the Tulips' in a show hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis in 1996.
I saww one in 1978 at Sheffield City Hall. Sabbath, opening night of Never Say Die tour. Closing main set with Iron Man and they blew the main fuse of the sound system. Off they trooped with an announcement that they would be back as soon as it was fixed. 20 minutes or so later they come back on and launched into Children of the Grave which was belting along nicely when they blew the fuse again. Band all looking at each other bewildered whilst Ozzy blew his own fuse and screamed at the to p of his voice "What the f**k!" Looking back after all these years could there be a better way to end a Sabbath gig?
Another Keith Moon moment apparently was when he allegedly had taken an elephant sedative and stopped when performing. A member of the road crew had to crawl out and inject Moon in his leg with something to keep him drumming!
around 1989-ish in philly at the spectrum I was at a peter gabriel show. peter had a very white super shiny jacket and decided to go crowd surfing during 'lay your hands on me' I believe the crowd decided they wanted that jacket more then he did. tony levin looked like he was going to jump in to save him for about a second he eventually was passed back to the stage, without the jacket, and continued to play but it was a close one
I’ve always thought Iggy Pop confronting a Hell’s Angel in the audience was probably not a good idea. Nor was Alice Cooper stabbing his thigh whilst getting too flashy with his fencing blade.
I was at an Iron Maiden concert in 85 or 86 where Bruce jumped down and broke through the stage floor. The roadies came to pull his leg out. He didn’t miss a beat.
When I was a kid I saw a Twisted Sister live concert on MTV during Headbanger’s Ball. They start to play I Wanna Rock and just after Dee Snyder yells out “ I WANNA ROCK ! “ some random dude jumps onto the stage right in front of him. Without hesitation Dee punches the guy square in the face knocking him back into the crowd 🤣 He then signaled the rest of the guys to stop playing and says casually “let’s try that again” and they went right back into it like nothing happened ! It was amazing 😂
I’m surprised that The Who only had the one entry. There was an incident on their 1989-1990 tour where Pete speared his hand onstage when doing his Windmill move.
@@georgeprice4212 and as a guitarist it pisses me off that people spend their whole life mastering the art of guitar, and Pete townshend (who is mediocre at guitar at best) just flails his arm like a madman and everyone freaks out and acts like it’s the coolest thing ever, real slap in the face to actual good guitarists.
Back in the day Rainbow was doing their sound check, someone hit a wrong button and set of the pyrotechnics that were supposed to end the show. Final result the show had to be canceled because the stage was demolished by the fireworks
I recall a Mpstly Autumn gig I attended in Liverpool many many years ago when the solid based stage curtain came down mid song and landed on Bryan Josh's head. he carried on (with the curtain half way down) but had to be taken to hospital for a check up afterwards.
I saw The Who in Pittsburgh the night before the Cincinnati incident. It was a general admission show and when the doors opened we all raced to the front. Luckily nobody was killed in Pittsburgh and it ended up being a fantastic show.
Some classics there. Great Aerosmith story, although I do prefer the one where, shortly before going on stage, Steven Tyler saw a bag of white powder and proceeded to do with it what he usually would. What he hadn’t realised was that far from being the stimulant he’d hoped, it was in fact a laxative and the ensuing gig was interspersed with regular trips to the khazi!
Kiss, Pittsburgh PA, 1977: Peter Criss passed out halfway through the set and fell backwards off the drum throne. Surely a candidate for any list of onstage cockups. (Fortunately this wasn't the drum solo part of the set where the drumset stage was elevated three meters via a hydraulic mechanism, when such a swoon could prove fatal.) Roadies carried Peter off and someone extemporaneously injected Peter with readily available stimulants, as the string section continued professionally playing through their planned set. (Stanley: "He might let you down, but we won't!) Some 20 minutes later Peter walked back to the stage appearing rather tired and weary, but he got back in the saddle and played his parts and Kiss completed yet another over-the-top concert.
Alice Cooper fell off of the stage 23rd of June 1975 in Vancouver BC during the "Nightmare" tour. He broke 6 ribs and suffered a concussion. He was drinking a lot in those days. A LOT.
1982 David Bowie , Let's Dance tour, Rosemont Illinois, Davis makes his grand entrance, starts to sing, his microphone wasn't turned on, he left the stage, and did the entrance all over again, Todd Rundgren, sometime in the 80s, Chicago Auditorium they blew out the stage left speakers, Frankie Goes To Hollywood again in Chicago, the floor in front of the stage collapsed, just a few that I witnessed
The one I witnessed (on TV) was U2 at Live Aid, when Bono jumped down to hug a fan during "Bad" and the rest of the band keeps playing, going "uh, wtf?" Had to skip their last number because they'd already gone over time.
Atlanta, Ga, circa 1989/90, Mr Big opening for Rush, Paul Gilbert was performing his guitar solo with a drill w/guitar picks attached, Gilbert caught his hair in the spinning drill chuck and the drill slammed into the side of his head! He ran off stage as Billy Sheehan deftly stepped out for an (impromptu?!?) bass solo. Ouch!
I was at the concert where David Bowie suffered a heart attack-it was the only time I had ever seen him live. About 30 minutes into the show, it was over. No rescheduled show, no refunds. But those 30 minutes were incredible indeed. Btw, there were also some strange mishaps elsewhere during that (Reality) tour..
You obviously haven't see the Meat Loaf performance at the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne in 2011. It gives a new definition to the phrase "worst on-stage f##k ups".
Or Knebworth in the rain when he was wearing a fibreglass leg cast after falling off stage in Australia. He went head over anus on the rain sodden stage and laid there like some beached whale. It took three security bods to get him upright and all the while he was an easy target for all the plastic glasses and cans in range. He's never been good live in fact he was embarrassing, always upstaged by the pretty and brilliant young girl singers he duetted with.
Jackie Wilson collapsed on stage with a heart attack during a Dick Clark revue in 1975, and never recovered, dying early in 1984. Curtis Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down when he was hit by a large piece of lighting equipment as a heavy gust of wind hit an outdoor concert in 1990 as he was being introduced. Seven months before his death in 1977, aging rocker Bing Crosby fell off the stage and into the orchestra pit after videotaping a concert special, leading to a month-long hospital stay because of a ruptured disc in his back.
Excellent tales, perfectly regaled. Tenuous link alert: In the 80s Zappa changed the lyrics to the song "Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me" from "She is an office girl, her name is Betty. Her favourite group is Helen Reddy" to "....Twisted Sister". A fact with no relevance to the video subject at all, but it may inspire others to hunt down "Does Humor Belong In Music?", a live video with Zappa interviews spliced in between the songs. Featuring a classic line-up including, Chad Wackerman, Scott Thunes, Bobby Martin, and sadly missed keyboardist, Alan Zavod. Cheers!
Isn't there an infamous ZZ Top Tour from the 70s where they attempted to capture the 'spirit of Texas' on stage complete with cacti, tethered vultures and a buffalo? The vultures broke loose and started cricling the audience and the buufalo was so alarmed by the volume it crapped all over the stage. Think I've heard Billy Gibbons confirm this somewhere. Sounds like a terrific show, I reckon.
Ted Nugget while wearing his black leather loin cloth, proceeds to swing from left side of stage across to the right side and back again… Hilariously whilst yodelling from a rope Tarzan style into a huge cloud ☁️ of pot smoke, lingering just over the drum riser, courtesy of crowd watching opening act Humble Pie… (Amazing Performance) Ted inhaled about a third of that 2nd hand pot smoke 💨 thereby proceeding to fall off the swinging rope right onto the drum kit lol 😂 🥁… with roadies scrambling to reassemble the drums, while Ted now slowly staggers his way from side stage with 🎸 guitar feedback on full distortion sounding horrendously bad … 😂❤
In 1979, Yes were performing ( In the round stage) in Philadelphia I believe, and a stoned out fan climbed onto the stage and attacked Lead singer Jon Anderson, putting him in a headlock or something, and Rick Wakeman ran over and floored the guy! There was another incident that Yes tour, when they were playing a show in Chicago and the motor to the rotating stage blew out! So the roadies got a dozen or more people from the audience to turn the stage by hand! I was at that show when I was 17.
I saw Steven Tyler pass out in the middle of a concert at the Worchester Centrum in the early 80's (I was only 15). The band played for the last hour without him.
An honourable mention for Eddie van Halen and Jump - it seems the guitar tech forgot to reset the pitch shifter, as a result of which Eddie launches into a very loud solo in entirely the wrong key. Mysteriously he kept going, rather than stop and cause the guitar tech to move to the local A&E for the foreseeable future.
There’s also the Tokyo gig in ‘89 where Sammy missed his cue after the guitar solo during “Mine All Mine” and had to sprint all the way back across the stage to get back to the microphone - they lost about half of the third verse. That one’s easy to find on UA-cam. A mild cock-up compared to the entries on the list, but a pretty amusing one.
The support band: A drummer comes onto the stage at Dunstable Queens Hall. He is wearing a pink corduroy bib and brace set and has hair like Harpo Marx. He powers into his snare which releases a cloud of talcum powder and glitter. A lot of talcum powder and glitter. He is clearly struggling and the beat is lost just and the band crunch in. The vocalist is swathed in an oversized flasher mac and wrap-around shades, he sings in two notes. The only cool looking one is the bass player, swarthy features and great curly hair, decked out in a Hussar's coat. On the third song the neck drops out of his bass. The crowd could not be held responsible for their laughter. Fear not though, the headliners were Slade and they were on fire that night.
I'd like to add The Who at the Concert for New York after 9/11. John, during Baba O'Reily, was coming in a little late during his bass riff and you could see Pete give him a look. They fixed it in post production, but if you want a recording of the concert that night you'l hear it.
When you were talking Steven Tyler I was thinking you were going to talk the Sturgis Motercycle rally where Aerosmith were playing and Steven who missed the edge of teh stage and went right over!
On the same page as the 2003 fire at The Station with Great White, mentioned below, and also understandably left off this list as it involved actual death and not just injury or embarrassment, would certainly be the May 3, 1972, on-stage electrocution in Swansea of Stone the Crows guitarist Les Harvey, in which he grabbed an ungrounded mic stand while touching the strings of his guitar, dying before the audience.
I've heard of the Cow Palace incident with The Who. I love Moon's drumming, but I'm surprised he wasn't dismissed from the band after the gig. When a member of the band can't play because of heavy drug and alcohol abuse, it's time to find someone else.
I982-Linda Thompson vs. Richard Thompson during the Shoot Out the Lights Tour-"The Tour From Hell." and Jan. 23, 1977 in Tampa-Florida-Patti Smith breaks her neck when falling off the stage.
Never heard of Andy Partridge? 1982, XTC live TV performance: shrugs guitar strap off shoulder and guitar drops to his feet and promptly exits stage (his) left, mid-song. He's the lead singer. Never performs in concert ever again. Keeps making brilliant albums sporadically for next 20 years. No new albums the next 20 years after that. Surely a career-suicidal act on stage of such proportions would have rated a mention in any definitive list.
I've been to a lot of shows over the past 48 years (my first was in '76) but I've never seen any major screw-ups by bands or band members. I did see an overzealous fan jump on the stage during a Judas Priest show in the mid-'80s and launch himself at Glen Tipton, seizing him in a headlock and nearly tackling him. Security arrived a few seconds later and dragged the fan backstage with an enraged Tipton following behind. The rest of the band didn't miss a beat and continued to play through the entire incident. Tipton returned to the stage a minute later after having presumably exacted some revenge on his attacker.
"Gene probabaly only charged him half price for the t-shirt."
I spat out my drink and laughed heartily 😂
It's probably true.
Guy is so greedy it wouldn't surprise me if it was true.
Gene Simmons was once a desperately poor kid in Israel. His mom made a life-changing decision to move to the USA. As a youth, Gene hustled, doing things like learning to type so he could get paid to type people's term papers and the like. When he learned of the vast fortunes being made by rock bands of his era, he saw his opportunity for success, started buying equipment, learned how to play, bought trucks, started touring, and he put everything into it. I believe Gene Simmons fairly earned every dollar he ever made, and the fact Gene has lived off the fat of the land for 50 years is a testimony to the geniuses that created the Constitution and the economic liberty it created, combined with a lifetime of dedicated diligent and brilliant work paying off. Gene lived the American Dream. I use Gene as an example to my kids. If Gene did it, you can too.
@@physicalchemistry2481 , you're teaching your kids to be money-grubbing, marginally-talented carpetbaggers? That's quite sad.
It was probably a faulty shirt destined for the trash can.
"Gene only charged him half price (for the t-shirt,)." That was priceless and undoubtedly true.
#1 on any such list has to be, tragically, the The Station fire in Warwick RI in 2003, when Great White set the place on fire with their pyrotechnics during the opening number and 100 people died including their guitarist.
Easily the worst of the worst and not even mentioned here
This is a list of mishaps that resulted in injury or embarrassed. The Station fire was a horrific tragedy on another level with 100 deaths. The owners of the nightclub shared the blame for that one too with the sound proof panels they had installed that were flammable. It doesn’t belong on a list of Spinal Tap style goofs. You’ll notice The Who is in here too but not for the general admission crowd deaths in Cincinnati.
Didn’t include Eric Clapton or Elvis Costello and their racist tirades.
@@kingofallwhites The venue more than just shared the blame, they were responsible. The sparkler showers the band used were low temperature and could be used on bare human skin without pain or injury, they'd been used in countless other shows without incident.
@@kingofallwhites What racist tirades? clapton disliked immigration policies in the 70's which favored Casparian's ( from the island Caspiar in the Caspian sea) more than others..... and personally i can't stand those people so I agree with him. Costello called James Brown a "Jive ass something ( and brown could really "jive" on stsage so its a truthful comment) and called Ray charles a "blind ass something ( which is also true.... he was blind).
Not sure what there is to be angry about................ and please don't get me started on the Besutolandinians...
What about Stonehenge? You can't go past a stage prop in danger of being trampled by a dwarf
it may have been a coincidence. i know that guest was influenced by saxon. i have picked up on references to the stones and led zep@@scottflowe2875
I fear getting trod upon.
Or the time Derek couldn’t get out of his pod.
Do you have any artificial plates or limbs? 😂
Know the difference between " and '.
Does Vince Neil being on stage count?
LOL
😅😅
@@classicalbum we have a winner lol
He hasn't counted in years
Good one!
"The Edge not noticing the edge of the stage during I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". That's gold, Jerry, gold! (G. Costanza)
Edit - yep, screwed the pooch on that one. Kenny Bania is indeed the correct character. My bad.
That would be Kenny Bania
I’ve seen Bono fall off twice, on two different tours.
@@davidclaycomb5496Is that why he acts touched?
George didn't say that. The hack comedian banyia said it.
@@zeprls Thank you.
"Gene probably only chsrged the guy half price for the T Shirt!"
NOW THAT WAS FUNNY! 😆👍
Unfortunately it's probably true
That’s awfully generous. I’d have guessed at most Gene would’ve paid the sales tax.
Christopher Cross playing guitar for Deep Purple in 1970 at age 19 when Ritchie had a reaction to some sort of flu shot or something is also a good one, though it is mostly positive, not really any on-stage drama or such. He apparently killed it, literally a 'we need a guitar player' moment, he knew their music, the only time Richie has ever had to have someone stand in for him at a show. That's pretty phenomenal.
There are great quotes from Cross himself about that, I'll reproduce them here:
"Deep Purple booked their first show in the U.S. at the JAM Factory," recalls Cross. "But Ritchie Blackmore had a reaction to the flu shot, and he got sick. The show was sold out, and Joe Miller suggested to Jon Lord he use me to sub, and Joe would issue refunds to anyone who wanted. Ian Gillan was not for it, but Jon Lord made the call, and they said okay.
"Eric Johnson was opening, so I used his Marshall and amp. I played the Deep Purple tunes I knew and some blues and got through it. I drove them to the airport, and when they left, I met Ritchie. He gave me his pick and was very nice.
"It was such a thrill. He was such a great guitarist to me."
@@jimmycampbell78 Who is Joe Miller?
@@joemiller9931 He was the promoter/owner of the JAM Factory venue in San Antonio, Texas where Deep Purple were playing.
Christopher Cross is kind of the 'Forrest Gump' of rock and roll.
I was told he sold Duane Allman his '59 sunburst Les Paul guitar. How about that?
Not many people know that Christopher Cross was a great guitar player akin to Glen Campbell's ability.@@gilldavidmour4199
I saw The Clash in Philadelphia 1982.Joe Strummer had a mohawk haircut.Someone winged a nice ripe tomato from a good distance nailing Strummer on the side of his face.He never missed a word.
Pete Townshend impaling his windmilling hand on the whammy bar in a Who concert here in the States, believe that was 1990 in the Seattle area.
Well deserved, I cannot express just how much I hate the windmill move. It looks so stupid and it doesn’t add anything good
That was 89. I was at the Vancouver concert immediately after that and saw his wrist was bandaged.
It was at the Tacoma Dome, I was there.
89
Dylan at Live Aid:" I'd like to introduce Keith Richards & Ronnie Wood...but I don't know where they are" Maybe they didn't know either!!
Remembering it myself, none of the three seemed to knew what song they played. I think they all played different ones at the same time.
The Edge was probably concentrating so intensely on the two notes he had to play in his solo that he never saw the stage rim.
oooooooooohhhhhh ........ vicious. but funny ( and true) as anything I've read in a while 🤣
Cheap shot! 😂
I suspect you and I could have some good conversations about music. I liked this one!
Excellent
@@classicalbum Hey Barry!
Has to be John Otway. Live on The Old Grey Whistle Test with Wild Willy Barrett. Otway trys to jump from one speaker stack to another & gets it wrong - he lands bollocks first on the speaker yet somehow completes the song only for Wild Willy to try & stangle him at the end. Legendary tv and he sells flick books of the fall as part of his merch. Otway & Barrett still going strong to this day - well ovef 5000 live gigs now for Otway . Great video.
What a trooper.
Abbie Hoffman interrupting the Who’s set at Woodstock to complain about John Sinclair being in prison, and Pete immediately braining him with his guitar (which was seriously out of tune for the next five or 10 minutes).
I just wrote a comment about this. I should have read a bit first.... Hoffman had it coming. Good for Pete.
Is there available footage of this to see?
@@bigbadbillb No film of that that I am aware of, but you can hear the audio on the UA-cam video “The Who - Woodstock - full concert” (I’ll double check the title).
@@bigbadbillb No video, but you can hear it on “The Who - WOODSTOCK 1969 (Full Concert ) 4K - Remastered” on UA-cam.
@@lib556I was just about to do the same thing 😂
Back in the 1970s we saw David Bowie on The retirement of Ziggy stardust tour in Salisbury England. When he played suffragette City he stood on the top of the PA and when he sent wham bam thank you ma'am he jumped and twisted his ankle and finished the rest of the set sitting on the drum podium two or three songs. If you watch the classic show at the Hammersmith odeon he didn't jump off the PA so I'm assuming we were the last to see him do this in the show. Love the shows back in the '70s and early '80s because they were close you could see them not a dot on stage a mile away. Those were the days
I was at the U2 show in Vancouver when the Edge didn't notice the edge. It was very bizarre. He fell about 8 feet to the cement floor, they just tossed him back up on stage and they kept going. I was sort of impressed.
As for Zappa, in that fall he also crushed his larynx and it permanently lowered his voice half an octave or something. He was in a wheelchair for months so took the opportunity to produce a shitload of work.
I was at a Washington DC Kinks gig in the mid-seventies when Dave Davies performed a windmill power chord while running towards the audience, dropping to his knees and sliding on what turned out be too short of a runway. No serious injuries that we were aware of, but plenty of embarrassment. The show did go on!
Zappa's infamous incident was forever immortalized in a live recording of Smoke on the Water when Ian Gillan quipped, "Break a leg, Frank!"
The first thing I thought of. The Who in 1979, Dimebsg Daryl.
I saw Springsteen on NYE 1978. It’s the famous firecracker show.
I thought this would have made the list!
Really?
Some idiot firing a flare gun into the ceiling at the Zappa concert was infamous enough
@@BunnEFartz At least we got a legendary song out of it.
Ace Frehley getting electricuted on stage in 1976 is another.
I love this channel. This guy is my favorite. Hes so knowlegeable abt music. My favorite !
Cheers mate, knew I'd found the right channel instantly. It just wouldn't feel right to have my rock music anecdotes explained by anybody else besides an obvious former roady with a UK accent of some sort, Innit!
Excellent! Your on stage delivery is first class and how you keep a straight face is amazing. Well done!!
Thank you
Not to mention, the God of Hellfire, Arthur Brown, who wore a metal helmet filled with burning methanol at a 1967 Windsor Festival. During the performance the methanol spilled and caught fire to his cloak and hair. A nearby fan quickly extinguished the flames pouring beer on Brown's head preventing serious injury
...and was then quickly beaten into unconsciousness by several Hell's Angels hired for security purposes?
From the bands to the topics
I love this channel.
I saw a video clip of Nirvana playing a gig in which it's bass player Krist Novoselic threw his bass guitar up in the air. When he tried to catch it, it hit him in the head. Krist took two steps forward and then fell face first on the floor!😅😅
Yep, I think that was at some awards show back in the 90's. It looked like that REALLY hurt when it hit him!
That was the MTV music awards. I watched it live. God I'm old...
Just like Kurts entire career!
It's got to be noted though, that Dave Grohl was back on stage in a wheelchair with leg in plaster and finished the set. Trooper.
Watched an interesting Stones documentary last year on the BBC and Mick said in the early 70’s he was always expecting the call to say Keith was dead, not from too much socialising, but from Keith’s driving. They said out of his mind he used to drive his family round regularly bumping into things and writing some cars off.
Keith Richsrds has More lives than a cat, incredible He's still around.
A joke that's been doing the rounds for years is that if the world is ever devastated by a nuclear fallout, the only survivors will be cockroaches and Keith Richards.
@@littleaussierippa 🤣😂😆
@@littleaussierippaDon't laugh. Keith is set to receive some sizable inheritances from his children and grandkids.
Yes, and we should be concerned about what kind of world we will leave him...
@littleaussierippa Right. Actually, it's Keith looking for a corkscrew.
Two ones for me. 1 Morrissey in Liverpool. 30 seconds in someone threw some water at him and it hit him. He walked off never to be seen again that night. 2 rod Stewart in Manchester raining he slipped and cut his leg. Next song was first cut is the deepest. He sang while being seen by a nurse.
I saw Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson take a whiskey bottle to the head when Cheap Trick was opening for Kiss at the Pontiac Silverdome back in 1979. He staggered off the stage; the stage crew got him to the paramedics stationed behind the stage, and they stitched him up and let him rest for a few minutes before he and the rest of the band came back out and finished their set.
Two that come to my mind was when Milli Vanilli was exposed as the frauds that they were. Second, there was the time when Jefferson Starship was playing in Germany with a drunk Grace Slick.
I was at an Alice Cooper show in Vancouver in 1975. Cooper got tangled in some stage props and fell into security barriers. He broke several ribs and suffered a concussion.
Another Vancouver show, this time in 1994 and on the weird side, Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon stripped off his clothes and urinated on the audience. He spent the night in jail for that one and faced criminal charges.
and died soon after RIP
Man, I love this channel. Well presented, well informed. Thanks mate!
Glad you enjoy it!
Well informed? Really? I'm not even a minute in and his accounting of the Gothenburg Foo Fighters concert is just... wrong.
Col. Bruce Hampton had a massive heart attack on stage during the encore of his 70th birthday show. Everyone thought he was just being theatrical, as was his way. He died later at hospital.
The man went out doing what he loved, can't ask for a better exit than that.
Or did he...?
Bruce Hampton was a habitual gambler and had an odd ability to 'obscure the truth'. In fact, that was his whole trip, being surreal. So for him to 'die' on stage at 70 years of age made good sense to him, I bet.
I remember that..I wasn't there but bruce Hampton was a legendary atlanta band
Great stuff eloquent and entertaining
My mate played in a Who tribute band in Leicester
They were appearing at a local working mens' club when during the climax of their act the vocalist went full Daltrey and swung his mic.
Said mic. smashed through a tile on the suspended ceiling whereupon bogus Rog. ,tugged at it to retrieve only succeeding in bringing a goodly portion of the remaining ceilingc crashing down on stage, band and audience........don't think the committee were moved to re book them!
Of your examples Twisted Sister for utter crasness and their failure to see the pit they were about to fall into takes first prize
A slightly different tangent but Clapton's pro Enoch diatribe was astonishing although in thosse less sensitive times did not unduly hinder his career
Thanks Barry another well done video. I think it’s time for a Spinal Tap sequel to incorporate the truth is stranger than fiction moments of shows.
Subscribed,very droll and witty channel but true to the point.Nice one😉
"I still haven't watched where im going to"
August 1991 Judas Priest Painkiller tour in Toronto when Rob Halford rode a motorcycle on stage and collided with a drum riser and broke his nose.
I like Judas Priest but maybe this was payback for copying Blue Öyster Cult. Eric Bloom used to ride a Harley on stage at the beginning of BÖC’s cover of Born To Be Wild in the 70s and early 80s. Eric also wore leather and studs long before anyone knew who Rob Halford was.
I saw a guy in a band die onstage once. Sad, sad day. It was during soundcheck and he had an asthma attack and died from a resulting heart attack. It was my 21st birthday, actually. RIP, Sean Rowley.
Same thing happened to the late, great Nick Menza but it actually happened during the performance.
Our Drummer died onstage, 30 seconds after playing the last beat of a gig. Massive heart attack. RIP Al.
While on stage in Minnesota the one and only Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack midway through his performance of "Tiptoe through the tulips" and died.
@@travisbickle3797Many in the audience that night are reported to have believed it to be part of his act.
Zappa's neck was also injured in that fall, crushing his larynx and lowering his voice. As he said, "Having a low voice is nice, but I would have preferred another means of acquiring it."
He also names his assailant and that was where I first found out his name as well. Never gives his age though. He was actually 24 and a manual labourer from Walthamstow East London.
Oh those poor guitars! Seriously thanks for the work...while not always agreeing I value the takes. Thanks you're appreciated.
You left out a good one: Genesis on tour for their concept album “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway,” in Oslo, Norway, February 19, 1975, at the Ekeberghallen. At the end of the final song “It,” a flashbomb is supposed to go off. As Phil Collins told it, when they played in Oslo (the first date on the European leg of the tour), the roadie guy in charge of making the flashbomb “mixed too much bang and not enough flash,” and so there was a deafening onstage explosion. The band completely stopped playing, with both band and audience in total shock. And then the roadie guy poked his head around the curtain and said, “Sorry!” Phil yelled at him, “You’re fired! Get out of here!” And the concert ended right then and there, with no encore. (And, amazingly, there were no fatalities or injuries in the explosion, thank God.)
I was at a small local bar/club and the drummer got to the end of the song and as the last drumstick hit the drums he fell over drunk and hit the ground sideways! It was perfectly choreographed!10 outta’10!
Nope. 0:56 Dave Grohl _finished_ his set after breaking his leg (accompanied by a Dr. with his leg propped up in a wrapping). Dave went to hospital and FF canceled a leg of the tour _after_ he finished that set. His now famous line, "I think I just broke my leg." was _certainly_ not the last thing the audience heard from Dave at that show. He played for 2 & 1/2 more hours!
My friend was at that U2 show, right up front. The Edge didn't just tumble off the stage - it was more of a delayed fall.
When I was 18 a friend got tickets for a band of the minute called Tesla with a hit or 2 at the time. 2 guitars, in the band. The lead guitarist walked off the edge of the Miami Arena stage whilst plugged in so you could hear him hit the concrete . The lights went up and 15 minutes later the other guitarist came out vamped for 5 minutes not saying anything and then the rest of the band came out; including the other guitarist and did the rest of the show. The sound of the guy hitting the concrete plugged in was truly scary and with that kind of time to think , we'd have sworn he was badly hurt. So for a band who got their 15 minutes and faded they certainly had a resilient or very lucky or both guitar player.
They were truly good during their short career, must be said! Didn't know about that incident, thanks for sharing!
Dude! I used to love Tesla! Still like to listen to their stuff from time to time. Great band. They used to have awesome acoustic guitar intros.
@@dogsmusicbookstravelscience Yeah, I played "Love Song" and that cover of "Signs" that they made popular again. So it was the guitarist with the long black hair who took the extra step. The curly haired one did a good job playing and scatting. They _were_ good right. Slightly better than I remembered even and I remembered them pretty well. 3 decades later I still new the lyrics and the overall band. I even scrolled into them live at Abbey Road. Not the best version of "We Can Work it Out" but at least they did their best as an homage I think.
The sharing was my pleasure! Thanks for responding Jaco ✌️🎸
@@stanphillips7277 Agreed! Their heyday was a relatively short-lived one but I just checked up and learnt that they'd recorded 7 new albums from 2000 onwards and had done some touring throughout the years as well. They even released a new single in 2022... I was completely unaware of it all though I'm sure their later albums probably dipped somewhat in quality. I'll investigate when I have the time. Anyway, it means their career is now spanning some 40 years already!
I've only collected 3 albums from their late 80's early 90's period, "Great Radio Controversy", "Five Man Acoustical Jam" and "Psychotic Supper", so I can hardly call myself an expert, though I certainly still love those albums. So much music, so little time!
@@Hun_Uinaq Just after I told that story I revisited Tesla and played a few songs and, that's one of the things that struck me too. The curly reddish blonde haired guitarist played those great intros but they were both talented players. The lead vocalist had a cool raspy voice. I'd forgotten about their cover of "Signs" but I remembered "Love Song" very well. Still new the lyrics to both .
They even played at The Beatles Abbey Road studio.
They had to pay homage so they did "We Can Work it Out" and it was relatively good. Not Beatles good but Tesla good.
Not the worst version of a song that's more difficult than it sounds so my hats off that they got through it. Imagine the pressure right. Good band! No doubt ✌️
The video of Moon face down in his drum kit is really something to see. After that, the Who insisted on having a drum tech that could play well enough to be a substitute drummer.
But did they get their washing done?
@@Valveus Naah,
Wasn't there was another time Moon knocked himself out and Townshend announced they were "bringing him around with a custard enema and punching him in the stomach" or was that the same incident? if so, two bon mots for Townshend that night!
Although far from Rock 'n Roll, Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack and literally died onstage performing his Magnus Opus. 'Tiptoe Thru the Tulips' in a show hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis in 1996.
I saww one in 1978 at Sheffield City Hall. Sabbath, opening night of Never Say Die tour. Closing main set with Iron Man and they blew the main fuse of the sound system. Off they trooped with an announcement that they would be back as soon as it was fixed. 20 minutes or so later they come back on and launched into Children of the Grave which was belting along nicely when they blew the fuse again. Band all looking at each other bewildered whilst Ozzy blew his own fuse and screamed at the to p of his voice "What the f**k!"
Looking back after all these years could there be a better way to end a Sabbath gig?
First concert I ever went to Family,at the Cecil Cinema ,in Hull, Chappo fell off the stage, huge cheer, assisted back up and carried on !!
There is nothing more Rock n Roll than breaking a leg on stage. 👍
Another Keith Moon moment apparently was when he allegedly had taken an elephant sedative and stopped when performing. A member of the road crew had to crawl out and inject Moon in his leg with something to keep him drumming!
around 1989-ish in philly at the spectrum I was at a peter gabriel show.
peter had a very white super shiny jacket and decided to go crowd surfing during 'lay your hands on me' I believe
the crowd decided they wanted that jacket more then he did.
tony levin looked like he was going to jump in to save him for about a second
he eventually was passed back to the stage, without the jacket, and continued to play but it was a close one
I’ve always thought Iggy Pop confronting a Hell’s Angel in the audience was probably not a good idea. Nor was Alice Cooper stabbing his thigh whilst getting too flashy with his fencing blade.
I’m surprised the infamous Altamont concert in 1969 wasn’t mentioned!
Gene offering a t-shirt at 1/2 price! LOL That’s hilarious!
Absolutely loved this. Thanks so much.
You are so welcome!
May 3, 1972 At a performance at Top Rank Suite in Swansea, Wales, Les Harvey of Stone the Crows was electrocuted onstage in front of a live audience.
I was at an Iron Maiden concert in 85 or 86 where Bruce jumped down and broke through the stage floor. The roadies came to pull his leg out. He didn’t miss a beat.
When I was a kid I saw a Twisted Sister live concert on MTV during Headbanger’s Ball. They start to play I Wanna Rock and just after Dee Snyder yells out “ I WANNA ROCK ! “ some random dude jumps onto the stage right in front of him. Without hesitation Dee punches the guy square in the face knocking him back into the crowd 🤣 He then signaled the rest of the guys to stop playing and says casually “let’s try that again” and they went right back into it like nothing happened ! It was amazing 😂
I’m surprised that The Who only had the one entry. There was an incident on their 1989-1990 tour where Pete speared his hand onstage when doing his Windmill move.
Well deserved, I cannot express just how much I hate the windmill move. It looks so stupid and it doesn’t add anything good
@@sharkmanyt4431 and yet, that’s what people enjoy, probably more than when Townshend went apeshite ballistic on his equipment at the end of concerts.
@@georgeprice4212 and as a guitarist it pisses me off that people spend their whole life mastering the art of guitar, and Pete townshend (who is mediocre at guitar at best) just flails his arm like a madman and everyone freaks out and acts like it’s the coolest thing ever, real slap in the face to actual good guitarists.
@@sharkmanyt4431 Pete would actually agree with you. SO THERE.
@@georgeprice4212 well then at least he’s got SOME sense
Back in the day Rainbow was doing their sound check, someone hit a wrong button and set of the pyrotechnics that were supposed to end the show. Final result the show had to be canceled because the stage was demolished by the fireworks
I recall a Mpstly Autumn gig I attended in Liverpool many many years ago when the solid based stage curtain came down mid song and landed on Bryan Josh's head. he carried on (with the curtain half way down) but had to be taken to hospital for a check up afterwards.
So . . . no short video clips of these 10 concert incidents; just a little chat-up about these failures.
Bogus!
I saw The Who in Pittsburgh the night before the Cincinnati incident. It was a general admission show and when the doors opened we all raced to the front. Luckily nobody was killed in Pittsburgh and it ended up being a fantastic show.
Some classics there. Great Aerosmith story, although I do prefer the one where, shortly before going on stage, Steven Tyler saw a bag of white powder and proceeded to do with it what he usually would. What he hadn’t realised was that far from being the stimulant he’d hoped, it was in fact a laxative and the ensuing gig was interspersed with regular trips to the khazi!
Kiss, Pittsburgh PA, 1977: Peter Criss passed out halfway through the set and fell backwards off the drum throne. Surely a candidate for any list of onstage cockups. (Fortunately this wasn't the drum solo part of the set where the drumset stage was elevated three meters via a hydraulic mechanism, when such a swoon could prove fatal.) Roadies carried Peter off and someone extemporaneously injected Peter with readily available stimulants, as the string section continued professionally playing through their planned set. (Stanley: "He might let you down, but we won't!) Some 20 minutes later Peter walked back to the stage appearing rather tired and weary, but he got back in the saddle and played his parts and Kiss completed yet another over-the-top concert.
"Let It Be Plugged In". Brilliant😅😅😅😅😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Alice Cooper fell off of the stage 23rd of June 1975 in Vancouver BC during the "Nightmare" tour. He broke 6 ribs and suffered a concussion. He was drinking a lot in those days. A LOT.
I keep going back to your shirt. Mint condition for being that old! Lol.
“Gene probably only charged him half the price for a t-shirt that night” 🤣
1982 David Bowie , Let's Dance tour, Rosemont Illinois, Davis makes his grand entrance, starts to sing, his microphone wasn't turned on, he left the stage, and did the entrance all over again, Todd Rundgren, sometime in the 80s, Chicago Auditorium they blew out the stage left speakers, Frankie Goes To Hollywood again in Chicago, the floor in front of the stage collapsed, just a few that I witnessed
The Blackie Lawless backfiring codpiece firework is one of my favourites although im not sure if it really happened or not..
The one I witnessed (on TV) was U2 at Live Aid, when Bono jumped down to hug a fan during "Bad" and the rest of the band keeps playing, going "uh, wtf?" Had to skip their last number because they'd already gone over time.
Kiss were an onstage f*k up.
Atlanta, Ga, circa 1989/90, Mr Big opening for Rush, Paul Gilbert was performing his guitar solo with a drill w/guitar picks attached, Gilbert caught his hair in the spinning drill chuck and the drill slammed into the side of his head!
He ran off stage as Billy Sheehan deftly stepped out for an (impromptu?!?) bass solo.
Ouch!
I was at the concert where David Bowie suffered a heart attack-it was the only time I had ever seen him live. About 30 minutes into the show, it was over. No rescheduled show, no refunds. But those 30 minutes were incredible indeed. Btw, there were also some strange mishaps elsewhere during that (Reality) tour..
You obviously haven't see the Meat Loaf performance at the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne in 2011. It gives a new definition to the phrase "worst on-stage f##k ups".
Or Knebworth in the rain when he was wearing a fibreglass leg cast after falling off stage in Australia. He went head over anus on the rain sodden stage and laid there like some beached whale. It took three security bods to get him upright and all the while he was an easy target for all the plastic glasses and cans in range. He's never been good live in fact he was embarrassing, always upstaged by the pretty and brilliant young girl singers he duetted with.
I thought Frank had his trachea or larynx injured also, causing his voice to lower about an octave. Or was that a different incident?
Yes, and a concussion.
Jackie Wilson collapsed on stage with a heart attack during a Dick Clark revue in 1975, and never recovered, dying early in 1984. Curtis Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down when he was hit by a large piece of lighting equipment as a heavy gust of wind hit an outdoor concert in 1990 as he was being introduced. Seven months before his death in 1977, aging rocker Bing Crosby fell off the stage and into the orchestra pit after videotaping a concert special, leading to a month-long hospital stay because of a ruptured disc in his back.
Love the gentle sarcasm!
Excellent tales, perfectly regaled. Tenuous link alert: In the 80s Zappa changed the lyrics to the song "Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me" from "She is an office girl, her name is Betty. Her favourite group is Helen Reddy" to "....Twisted Sister". A fact with no relevance to the video subject at all, but it may inspire others to hunt down "Does Humor Belong In Music?", a live video with Zappa interviews spliced in between the songs. Featuring a classic line-up including, Chad Wackerman, Scott Thunes, Bobby Martin, and sadly missed keyboardist, Alan Zavod. Cheers!
FZ testified before Congress with Dee Snider about censoring music.
Apparently, there is an 8 mm video of the Stones electrocution. The video went up for auction on eBay.
Isn't there an infamous ZZ Top Tour from the 70s where they attempted to capture the 'spirit of Texas' on stage complete with cacti, tethered vultures and a buffalo? The vultures broke loose and started cricling the audience and the buufalo was so alarmed by the volume it crapped all over the stage. Think I've heard Billy Gibbons confirm this somewhere. Sounds like a terrific show, I reckon.
I liked your list. A good addition would have been Robbin Crosby from RATT playing an out-of-tune guitar onstage for 2 songs in 1991.
I am subscribing solely because of your vernacular and the gumption to use it
Ted Nugget while wearing his black leather loin cloth, proceeds to swing from left side of stage across to the right side and back again… Hilariously whilst yodelling from a rope Tarzan style into a huge cloud ☁️ of pot smoke, lingering just over the drum riser, courtesy of crowd watching opening act Humble Pie… (Amazing Performance)
Ted inhaled about a third of that 2nd hand pot smoke 💨 thereby proceeding to fall off the swinging rope right onto the drum kit lol 😂 🥁… with roadies scrambling to reassemble the drums, while Ted now slowly staggers his way from side stage with 🎸 guitar feedback on full distortion sounding horrendously bad … 😂❤
In 1979, Yes were performing ( In the round stage) in Philadelphia I believe, and a stoned out fan climbed onto the stage and attacked Lead singer Jon Anderson, putting him in a headlock or something, and Rick Wakeman ran over and floored the guy! There was another incident that Yes tour, when they were playing a show in Chicago and the motor to the rotating stage blew out! So the roadies got a dozen or more people from the audience to turn the stage by hand! I was at that show when I was 17.
I saw Steven Tyler pass out in the middle of a concert at the Worchester Centrum in the early 80's (I was only 15). The band played for the last hour without him.
An honourable mention for Eddie van Halen and Jump - it seems the guitar tech forgot to reset the pitch shifter, as a result of which Eddie launches into a very loud solo in entirely the wrong key. Mysteriously he kept going, rather than stop and cause the guitar tech to move to the local A&E for the foreseeable future.
There’s also the Tokyo gig in ‘89 where Sammy missed his cue after the guitar solo during “Mine All Mine” and had to sprint all the way back across the stage to get back to the microphone - they lost about half of the third verse. That one’s easy to find on UA-cam. A mild cock-up compared to the entries on the list, but a pretty amusing one.
I remember David Lee Roth being too blitzed to remember the lyrics at the US Festival in '83.
I think that happened more than once.
or cutting himself requiring stitches in both 2003 and 2015
The support band: A drummer comes onto the stage at Dunstable Queens Hall. He is wearing a pink corduroy bib and brace set and has hair like Harpo Marx. He powers into his snare which releases a cloud of talcum powder and glitter. A lot of talcum powder and glitter. He is clearly struggling and the beat is lost just and the band crunch in. The vocalist is swathed in an oversized flasher mac and wrap-around shades, he sings in two notes. The only cool looking one is the bass player, swarthy features and great curly hair, decked out in a Hussar's coat. On the third song the neck drops out of his bass. The crowd could not be held responsible for their laughter.
Fear not though, the headliners were Slade and they were on fire that night.
I'd like to add The Who at the Concert for New York after 9/11. John, during Baba O'Reily, was coming in a little late during his bass riff and you could see Pete give him a look. They fixed it in post production, but if you want a recording of the concert that night you'l hear it.
When you were talking Steven Tyler I was thinking you were going to talk the Sturgis Motercycle rally where Aerosmith were playing and Steven who missed the edge of teh stage and went right over!
I was surprised that one wasn't mentioned
On the same page as the 2003 fire at The Station with Great White, mentioned below, and also understandably left off this list as it involved actual death and not just injury or embarrassment, would certainly be the May 3, 1972, on-stage electrocution in Swansea of Stone the Crows guitarist Les Harvey, in which he grabbed an ungrounded mic stand while touching the strings of his guitar, dying before the audience.
Dave Grohl finished that FF show with a doctor holding his femur in place.
I've heard of the Cow Palace incident with The Who. I love Moon's drumming, but I'm surprised he wasn't dismissed from the band after the gig. When a member of the band can't play because of heavy drug and alcohol abuse, it's time to find someone else.
Dave lee Roth cutting his nose live at start of show on jimmy kimmel
I982-Linda Thompson vs. Richard Thompson during the Shoot Out the Lights Tour-"The Tour From Hell." and Jan. 23, 1977 in Tampa-Florida-Patti Smith breaks her neck when falling off the stage.
Never heard of Andy Partridge? 1982, XTC live TV performance: shrugs guitar strap off shoulder and guitar drops to his feet and promptly exits stage (his) left, mid-song. He's the lead singer. Never performs in concert ever again. Keeps making brilliant albums sporadically for next 20 years. No new albums the next 20 years after that.
Surely a career-suicidal act on stage of such proportions would have rated a mention in any definitive list.
Great stuff! I’m wondering if our gracious host has a bad case of sleep apnea: Snore City!
I've been to a lot of shows over the past 48 years (my first was in '76) but I've never seen any major screw-ups by bands or band members. I did see an overzealous fan jump on the stage during a Judas Priest show in the mid-'80s and launch himself at Glen Tipton, seizing him in a headlock and nearly tackling him. Security arrived a few seconds later and dragged the fan backstage with an enraged Tipton following behind. The rest of the band didn't miss a beat and continued to play through the entire incident. Tipton returned to the stage a minute later after having presumably exacted some revenge on his attacker.