The stupidest thing done by a musician onstage.

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(Sorry if there is a similar thread, couldn't find it.)

What do you think are the stupidest things musicians have done onstage, intentionally or unintentionally? Of course it's hard to beat the "Ozzy eating the head of a live bat" episode, but I'm looking for some less known anecdotes.

My favourite story must the one about a Finnish black metal band, whose name I can't recall. They were playing a gig in Helsinki, and the singer decided to cut his wrists for dramatic effect. The problem was, he cut too deep, and began to bleed all over the stage. At first the audience thought this was part of the show, but then someone realized it was serious, and an ambulance had to be called to rush the singer to a hospital. He survived.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 29 January 2004 09:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Does the famous James Brown, Michael Jackson, & Prince incident count - as that was hardly deliberate stupidity, more accidental drunk unconess.

― Jedmond, Thursday, 29 January 2004 09:54 (twenty-two years ago)

The first thing that came to mind, rather gruesomely, is Mark Sandman dying. I think that's the only thing I wish a musician really hadn't done onstage. Everything else is entertainment.

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 January 2004 09:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Who's Mark Sandman?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 29 January 2004 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

morphine

― the surface noise (electricsound), Thursday, 29 January 2004 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I once saw Bobby Gillespie walk into a speaker stack onstage at the Hammersmith Palais and bang his head against it.
NB: This was a particularly visible hazard, and the dismal inevitability of this incident taking place can be attributed solely to the use of performance-reducing substances.

― M Carty (mj_c), Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

performance-reducing substances = the rest of the band?

― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I hardly call dying on stage from heart attack stupid. The musician has to share the blame for the incident, so jumping from the stage 3 metres down on to empty chairs counts - thank Dave Gahan.

PS I didn't tell the MJ JB & Prince anecdote because I don't want to give the story away - you can download the video of it at any good Peer 2 Peer. - I forgot to add this in my earlier post.

― Jedmond, Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I think he smoked/drank a fair bit, didn't he?

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Patti Smith getting a bit worked up and dancing her way offstage and breaking her neck'd prob be mine

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I once saw Neal Halstead play a solo gig, then walk offstage carrying his guitar, forgetting it was still plugged in. He got halfway off, and then bang! he fell arse over tit.

― Kate Jane Connolly (fixitgirl), Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Apparently Nik Turner (I think) from Hawkwind hid his drugs in the bell of his saxophone once, forgot, and tried VERY hard to play it onstage

― Silly Sailor (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 29 January 2004 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

GG Allin not sticking dynamite up his arse onstage as he promised, and instead carrying on his pointless existence

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Then there's Ryan Adams in the NME this week - "I was almost paralysed"... keep trying, there's a love

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I was at a concert once and I saw a bloke climb up a stack of speakers, assess the jump, and climb down one quad-level before jumping.

― Jole, Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

That has just made me laugh out loud, thank you

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I heard that when Fred Durst gets on stage he starts rapping.

― Stupid (Stupid), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Once saw Tad threaten to stagedive, entire front row had life-flashing experience.

― mzui, Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

He normally did didn't he? And I never heard of anyone pegging it. Ditto Pig Champion

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)

New Order in Cork, late eighties
Some of the crowd were shouting for them to do Joy Division songs, to which Peter Hook wittily replied
'Shut up, you thick fucking Irish bastards'

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Ian Brown wearing a Cardiff City shirt onstage in Newport. How he escaped a shoeing I have no idea.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 11:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I once saw Bobby Gillespie walk into a speaker stack onstage at the Hammersmith Palais and bang his head against it.

I hope no permanent damage ensued.... to the speaker stack I mean

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 29 January 2004 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, there's Alice Cooper eating Gene Simmons's poo. Or Rod Stewart passing out from swallowing too much gism.

But for real things that happened .. Iggy Pop - dove into a crowd of 13 year old girls, who parted like (hmmm, Red Sea analogy or slutty 13 year old girl's legs analogy ?) .. anyway, he landed in the seats and dislocated his arm... But that's not the comedy. He got back on stage to try to finish the song, arm hanging about 5 inches lower than is natural - a roadie came out to try to jam his arm back in the socket - not gently, but repeated slams. When he was unsuccessful, he taped Iggy's arm to his body so it wouldn't flop around. By this time, Iggy was white as Kenny G's soul .. he had to be carried off stage. The rest of the band played about 8 more measures and just dropped their instruments and walked away. Fifth song. Down on the street.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 29 January 2004 13:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Tsk EVERYONE knows it's Marc Almond, not Rod Stewart

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

when krist novoselic or whatever that guy from nirvana's name was, threw his bass 15 feet up in the air at the mtv awards and was too stoned to catch it so it hit him in the head and knocked him out.

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Thursday, 29 January 2004 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Does it actually have to go wrong to be stupid?

I once saw Andy Ellison of the Radio Stars at Reading Festival stick his microphone in his trouser pocket then climb up the speaker stacks and the scaffolding at the side of the stage until he ended up swinging from the lighting gantry a good 50 feet above the stage, at which point he retrieved the mic. from his pocket and carried on singing whilst hanging on with his legs and free hand.

I also once saw Frank Tovey of Fad Gadget circumnavigate the entire Lyceum Ballroom whilst remaining at all times at least 20 feet off the ground, starting off by climbing one of the speaker stacks; then making his way across to the box nearest the stage like Tarzan only using the lighting cables to swing on instead of creepers; then leaping from there to the next box and so on until he got to the balcony, which he proceded to cross by tight-rope walking along the security hand-rail; then back from box to box along the other side wall back to the stage.

It beats me how either of managed to avoid falling and breaking their stupid necks.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

David Yow to threAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Sinead ripping up that picture of the Pope. She should've seen the shitstorm coming.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw the guitarist out of the Parkinsons climbing onto the speaker stack at King Tut's - no mean feat considering the gap between the top of the speakers and the ceiling is about 8 inches. He had to put his gutar down and it took him about 5 minutes to crawl into the gap. He then had his guitar passed up to him and played about 6 bars before chucking it, probably because of cramp and claustrophobia.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 29 January 2004 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Nick, Ckin...Mark Sandman was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread.

― Huck Me Gently (Horace Mann), Thursday, 29 January 2004 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex wins.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Sinead knew what kinda shit-storm she was rousing though, for sure.

Huck & Nick OTM so much that I'm on the verge of tears (the fact that Morphine's "Take Me With You" is playing on my WinAMP right now might be playing in my verge-of-teary-eyed-ness as well).

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, so as not to leave this thread on such a downer:

The famed & well-documented Jimi Hendrix/Jim Morrison session wherein Jim Morrison can be caught yelling "FUCK HER IN THE ASS!".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Mike Patton laying dog eggs in the rest of FNM's shoes.

― Shooz (shooz), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

i dunno Mark spent half his life onstage. its sort of fitting that he spent his final moments onstage.

xpost

― kephm, Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, but the fact that he died at all sucks the big eggs. The Night is such a beautiful album. I should listen to it soon.

― Huck Me Gently (Horace Mann), Thursday, 29 January 2004 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Sinead knew what kinda shit-storm she was rousing though, for sure.

I dunno, man. She seemed pretty shocked about the fallout. Moreover, her career never really fully recovered over here.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Incidentally, lest I be misunderstood, I have absolutely NO problem with anyone ripping up the Pope's picture. Hell, I'm all for it. It's just that if one's going to do that, one should probably expect a bit of a strident backlash.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

And acres of free publicity.

*lightbulb moment*

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know if getting booed offstage at Madison Square Garden and having Frank Sinatra threaten to kick her ass was quite was she had in mind, though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

...actually the latter was for refusing to go on after the National Anthem.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

The guitarist from the Farm offering the whole of Glastonbury backstage for a fight after getting boo-ed. Cue a rather scuffly session at the autograph tent later in the day.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

henry rollins knocking himself outcold via accidentally kneeing himself in the head within the 1st 5 seconds of a show somewhere in brazil.

+ dave's iggy story is the funniest fucking thing.

― dyson (dyson), Thursday, 29 January 2004 17:34 (twenty-two years ago)

greendale

― rbl, Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Bob Pollard owns this thread for a number of sloppy drunken reasons, pissing his pants being the penultimate.

― BrianB (BrianB), Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

(the late) Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon was arrested once for getting naked and pissing off of the front of the stage.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 29 January 2004 18:42 (twenty-two years ago)

This may be just a myth, but I heard about a show Yes once played, during which they smoked too much & inadvertently played the same song twice in a row. (Hope it was "Tales of Topographic Oceans")

― Scott, Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

How about Ozzie Osbourne eating a bat?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I have no peer2peer connection. What is this fabled meeting of JB, Michael Jackson, and Prince...?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 29 January 2004 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

The famed & well-documented Jimi Hendrix/Jim Morrison session wherein Jim Morrison can be caught yelling "FUCK HER IN THE ASS!".

I own this. On picture disc. 1997 Nate was capable of buying very stupid things and not caring about it.

What can I expect will be thrown at me if I bring up Great White?

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 30 January 2004 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

How about Ozzie Osbourne eating a bat?

Yes, that's pretty hard to beat

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 30 January 2004 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

The incident involving Mayhem lobbing a sheep's head in the audience, also comes to mind.

― Siegbran (eofor), Friday, 30 January 2004 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh and the memorable scene a friend of mine witnessed when the singer of an Italian metal band decided to raise his prop sword dramatically, got it stuck in the (unexpectedly low) ceiling and made various hilarious attempts to get it out, taking down a lighting rig in the process.

― Siegbran (eofor), Friday, 30 January 2004 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Blur "Starshaped" vid - Damon Albarn pulling a speaker down and having it land on his foot. (finishes the song tho, the leaping around on one foot screaming thing being indistinguishable from his usual m.o., wotta trooper.) He's surely done stupider, though?

also: John Cale decapitating a chicken, throwing the pieces into the crowd, and having his (vegetarian) band immediately walk off in protest.

― Pious Twin (abennett), Friday, 30 January 2004 11:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I saw G. Love about 7 years ago at Wheaton College spring weekend. He drank some of my beer "let me get some of that brew yo." Then he proceeded to drink a lot of beer and smoke some too. About a half way through his set he sang "Baby Got Sauce" for the third time. Although he made up a rap about Wheaton and getting laid by wheaton girls.

― Chris V (Chris V), Friday, 30 January 2004 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

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