Bad day at the office, Dear?
Posted by Gatz on 18 May 2008 - 6:17pm.
If you're dreading the return to work on Monday morning you can at least console yourself with the thought that you are unlikely to be greeted by thousands of idiots throwing bottles of piss at you. I had heard about this before but never looked it up:
They take it in remarkably good spirit.
Web rumours, possibly apocryphal, report that people were queuing up at a noodle stall to the side of the stage just to buy something to throw at them, and that others, lacking foodstuffs or bodily fluids, hurled a man in a wheelchair instead.
So over to you - what are the all time worst receptions you've ever seen an act receive?
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I'd rather listen to Daphne and Celeste...
than most of the indie twaddle that makes up the bill at Reading. And I hate Daphne and Celeste. Not personally of course, it's just their music is bollocks.
I liked their response
I've never witnessed anything like that apart from seeing this on TV, which was pretty mean. Bob Dylan fans show their warm appreciation of another political singer singing a protest song:
I was there!
We watched them come out and then wandered off to the comedy tent to see Charlie Chuck, he's even funnier than two pointless pop trolls getting piss thrown at them.
Now I'm only falling apart
Bonnie Tyler and flying plastic cup (left), Reading Festival, 1988.
To be fair, by all accounts Tyler did not fall apart, but gamely carried on, pausing only for a quick swear word every time something actually hit her. No doubt at least one Word blogger was there and will fill in the details.
"Hard man of rock" Liam Gallagher flounces offstage with the grumps if anyone throws so much as a sweetie wrapper.
We've spoken before of Iggy Pop's willingness to face down missiles... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_K.O.
...and also of Joe Jackson's encounter with a dead swan.
Meat Loaf - Knebworth 1985
I had the great misfortune to watch Meat Loaf support Deep Purple at Knebworth in 1985. Meat himself was supported by a wheelchair, as he had broken his leg some time before. Watching him trying to cop off with a backing singer during 'Dead Ringer For Love' was beyond comical. It was pathetic. The audience showed their appreciation with a barrage of bottles of piss. Meat was not amused, and started berating the corwd from the stage. The hail of missiles increased in intensity. Meat finished singing for us soon after.
I heard about this
I saw him at the Monsters of Rock festival at Donnington racetrack a few weeks earlier. He was baiting the crowd there as well, inviting them to throw stuff at him, 'Give me a fuckin' beer bottle!' (bottle whistles past head) 'That was a coke bottle! I said give me a fuckin' beer bottle!' Cue hail of missiles.
At the time he was as fully mobile as a man of his bulk can get, but I did hear about him breaking his leg shortly after, meaning that he was a (literally) sitting duck for future attacks.
At that gig
My elder brother attended that Knebworth gig and he tells the story that in the midst of said piss bottle throwing Meatloaf asked the crowd "Do you wanna rock n roll or throw bottles of piss"?
The crowd responded by resuming the throwing of bottles of piss....not the response that Mr. Loaf expected methinks.
Seems to be a Reading specialty
As 50 Cent will tell you:
and Panic! at the disco
not that I approve.
At all.
Oh no.
Discuss
Rock and roll audiences are actually the rudest, least tolerant and most violently inclined you might have the misfortune to perform in front of.
Never been...
...to La Scala myself, but I hear that their paying customers are no shrinking violets when it comes to giving the turn the old heave-ho. Much like those at The Glasgow Empire, as Winters x2 and Squires would no doubt attest.
Been
to a grime rave recently?
AC/DC had a good approach.
They offered the object-lobbers out for a fist-fight backstage at the end of the gig:
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/stage-banter#comment-30480
Reading a few years ago
Good Charlotte got a right pasting of bottles or pee and sauce bottles nicked from the burger vans!
I was stood at the side of the main stage and from the second they started to the second they finished the bottles flew. The crowd decided that they had "sold out", "rubbish" and "plastic punks" to quote a few.
Didn't help that the band retaliated and pushed the crowd which just resulted in more bottles.
I was also in Manchester last year at a Jet gig and people were throwing cans of beer at Jet (why I have no idea)
Personal I think it's stupid - and having been hit a few times it can really hurt as well!
But the funniest I saw - Marylin Manson in Manchester last year - Mason throws out a full bottle of water into the audience, not a friendly toss like you see a lot a proper hold it by the neck, this will hurt if it hits, throw. A few mins later the bottle comes back at the stage, hits his guitarist and the gig is stopped while he is patched up. Manson comes back on shouting at the audience for being...well you know and trying to find out who threw it, how stupid it was and offering to kick thier ass! Hang on Mr Manson who chucked it first ? If it had hit me or my Mrs I'd have chucked it back as well!