But there are times when rock isn't that much fun at all....
..it can be dangerous
..sometimes life threatening
...both to the artists
..and spectators alike.
Here are some of rock music's not so finest moments,in which several people including the rock stars themselves got in the line of danger.
1.THE BEATLES IN MANILA
July 4,1966 Rizal Memorial Football Stadium, Manila,Philippines
The Beatles had their biggest and yet most dangerous concert tour ever in 1966 as they flew, almost circling the entire globe.Earlier in the year John Lennon made a remark "We're more popular than Jesus" that had spark an anger between Christian sects around the world.But none could be frightening than their concert in Manila in the summer of the same year.The Beatles unintentionally snub a dinner party made for them by the First Lady Imelda Marcos in which unknown to the band Brian Epstein their manager had already declined.
The concert itself wasn't disastrous but what would come after it.The following day,the Beatles and their entourage were harassed and beaten on the airport as they were trying to get on the plane to go home.Neil Aspinall-the band's road manager was badly hit as the mob supporters of Marcos continue to attack them without any police protection from the presidential palace.Brian Epstein was called back and all the money the Beatles earned during their concert there was taken from him.
When the band arrived in England they got their revenge by calling the Filipino presidential palace a "nut house" and vowed never to return to the Philippines.As a consequence,the Philippines was left with a bad mark which continues to linger up to this day.
Find out more about the Beatles' disastrous Manila concert
Rock Music's Worst Nightmare:The Beatles In Manila
2.THE DOORS
September 12,1967 New Haven,Connecticut
Wherever the Doors went there tends to be a lot of police-riots were common on every Doors concert. As Jim Morrison changed the course of rock music forever-the way it is presented onstage.During the New Haven concert-Jim Morrison was sprayed in the face with a can of mace in which the police didn't keen on him after he was caught making out with a groupie backstage prior to the concert.
Onstage,Morrison resorted to profanity and even belittling the New Haven cops in retaliation of what happened backstage.Morrison was dragged by cops and was the first rock star to be arrested onstage.
March 1,1969 Miami,Florida
At a 1969 concert in Miami it was said that Jim Morrison was drunk and fueled with heroin.He resorted as usual to what he does best -verbal abuse: "You are all a bunch of fucking idiots and your faces are pressed into the shit of the world! Take your fucking friend and love him..do you want to see my cock?" And it was allegedly said that he exposed his penis onstage shaking it doing the simulation of masturbation.
He was arrested the next day and was found guilty-to nobodys surprise-of profanity and indecent exposure.
3.THE ROLLING STONES IN ALTAMONT
December 6,1969 Altamont Speedway,Alameda County,California
This was considered a heavy blow to the peace and love generation of the sixties and was the bloodiest free fest concert ever to be written in the history of rock music.The Rolling Stones free fest in the winter of 1969,dubbed by many as Woodstock West ended in catastrophe when a man was killed near the stage by a member of the notorious Hell's Angels.
The concert was disastrous right from the start,as Jagger was attacked by a hippie and the bands who became the opener for the Stones were beaten up by these drug laden concert spectators.But the worse is yet to happen when Meredith Hunter,18,was stabbed to death by a member of the Hell's Angels Meredith brandished a gun in the air and was stabbed several times in the neck and at the back of the ear.
It was a night of destruction and fear,as the Hell's Angels lose their tempers over the freaks who kept on knocking their motorcycles off.As a consequence-kids exit the concert venue bleeding as others were beaten mercilessly behind them.
Mick Jagger,unaware of Hunter's injuries went on with the show...and was lambasted by the music press for not checking things out.
More of the Rolling Stones concert in Altamont Satanic Travesty
4.BON JOVI LIVE IN MANILA
September 30,1993 Rizal Memorial Stadium Manila,Philippines
Ironically,when Bon Jovi first came to the Philippines in 1993,they held their concert at the very same venue where the Beatles held theirs 27 years earlier.An omen? Well,the difference about the Bon Jovi riot however, is that no Filipino politician was involved.
It was said that the concert grounds got so crowded that other spectators wasn't able to get in.During the main event as the band was playing,a group of spectators was said to be climbing on the structures where the spotlights were,to have a more clearer view of the band playing as the concert venue got so hot and overcrowded.Jon Bon Jovi was said to be pissed and irritated over these people climbing aboard the spotlights that after five songs he put the show to a stop and left the stage with the rest of the band behind him.The result was a pitch battle between the crowd and the police and the concert venue guards.Several chairs and the concert gates were destroyed by other spectators who couldn't get in.An unknown amount of equipment was destroyed and about a hundred people were injured and several were arrested.
Bon Jovi went back to the Philippines the following year in 1994,and held their concert at the Araneta Coliseum,this time everything went fine.
5.THE WHO
November 20,1973 Cow Palace Arena,Daly City,California
The Who is the very first rock band ever to destroy their own gear after each performances.Founded in the early sixties,and a contemporary of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones,the Who resorted to brute force and started the trend of smashing guitars and blowing up fireworks onstage.It happened accidentally when guitarist Pete Townshend banged his guitar on a low ceiling,in which their manager Kit Lambert proudly praised.From then on,the Who released their anger onstage with rebellious themes and comes the destruction of guitars and drum kits afterwards.
Composed of Roger Daltrey on vocals,Pete Townshend on guitar,John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums.Keith Moon is known to be one of the greatest drummers in the world and was also known for his eccentricity and wild behaviour.I guess drugs could attribute to all that.One night at a concert in Daly City,CA Moon was noticed playing half heartedly and apathetically ignoring the rhythm and timing of each song.Keith eventually collapsed and the Who sheepishly carried him offstage.This is not the first time Keith ever got himself into trouble,the legendary drummer was also notorious in blowing up hotel lavatories with cherry bombs whenever he gets pissed or simply having some fun.Hotels around New York City were reluctant on having the Who as their guests,and those who do demanded a hefty sum up front.
Backstage at Cow Palace,Moon was given oxygen and was showing signs of recovery.Meanwhile,people in the concert hall started rioting and was only averted when the Who retook the stage.The band played and one more song and Moon was once again down on his drum kit,this time the show seems to be over and Keith Moon was taken to the hospital.Pete,pitiful of leaving his audience behind asked "Is there anyone who can play drums here?-I mean somebody good?",a concert spectator by the name of Scott Halpin filled in for Moon and the show went on.
Back in the hospital,it was discovered when Keith Moon's stomach was pumped that he actually took tranquilizers in which the dosage could only fit for gorillas.
Actual video of Keith Moon collapsing at Cow Palace
6.GUNS N' ROSES
July 2,1991 Riverport Amphitheater[renamed Verizon Wireless Ampthitheater St Louis] St Louis,Missouri
Guns N' Roses were the biggest band of the late eighties and early nineties,influenced by the hard rock of the late sixties and early seventies,they drove the late eighties and early nineties into a frenzy with number one albums everywhere and getting more and more kids to pick up the guitar.It was like Beatlemania all over again with these fellows.
At a concert in St Louis,Missouri,while performing "Rocket Queen" Axl jumped into the audience and tackled a spectator for unofficially taking still pictures of the band onstage.Axl felt threatened and he kept on telling the guards to confiscate the camera but was continously ignored.After a while,Axl became upset and fed up with the security that he banged the mic onstage and said "Thanks for the lame ass security,Im going home!" With the mic sounding like a gunshot Slash said "He just slammed his mic on the floor we're outta here."The crowd began rioting afterwards and hundreds of people were injured plus the band's equipment destroyed by angry fans.
Axl was charged for instigating the riot but wasn't arrested until a year later,during the trial the judge found him not guilty for being fully responsible of the famous St Louis rioting.
Actual video of the St Louis riot
7.PAUL McCARTNEY AND WINGS
The Japanese fiasco
January 16,1980 Tokyo,Japan
Lets face it,every musician smokes grass and once in their life had in one time or another experienced taking drugs.Both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had problems with the authorities in the late sixties regarding dope, a sign that the seventies and beyond will be more less lenient to them.
Paul McCartney is no exception,he had problems with drugs and authorities himself.The Beatles were already taking amphetamines and other uppers during their Hamburg and Liverpool days to stay awake at their night performances in clubs and bars.The hard stuff came later,as the Beatles were introduced to cannabis by Bob Dylan during the first American tour in 1964.Then the Beatles went on to experiment with other things while writing music and recording in the studio,hard drugs came and LSD which was popular in the mid sixties.Paul himself tried those things but soon saw the danger and just stucked to smoking cannabis ever since.
The Beatles broke up in 1970,and after two solo albums, Paul formed his own band Wings in 1971 and his problems with drugs and authorities continued as Wings achieved worldwide fame and more number one albums and singles on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Japanese incident wasn't the first the time Paul got himself into trouble because of drugs just like other rock stars do.In 1971,his farm in Scotland was raided by police and found two cannabis plants on his lawn.Another bust in London and Sweden followed,in which in 1975 made Wings difficult to enter Japan and prompted them to make a video saying sorry to their Japanese fans even singing "Bluebird" to them[with Denny Laine looking pissed in the video] and before saying goodbye made a promise that they will be seeing each other soon.
Five years later,Paul was cleared to go to Japan,where 11 big concerts were booked for January 1980.Paul eventually ruined it by bringing 8 bags of pot in his briefcase on top of his clothes.McCartney was immediately arrested and was in detention for nine days for questioning.Other members of Wings were also questioned but not detained.Linda McCartney told a horrible story about her and the kids in a Japanese hotel worrying what was happening to Paul and was thinking of him being tortured and all that.People with drug problems in Japan spent years in prison and Linda made sure she doesn't hear the word years.She even told the music press that she and Paul were never apart since they married.
After nine days in jail,Paul was finally released and was told to leave the country.The scheduled Wings concert in Japan was cancelled and his deportation ignited the band's demise.The release of a solo album McCartney II confirmed Wings' dissolution,and Paul didn't tour again until 9 years later in 1989.
Japanese newsfeed of Paul's arrest in Japan
8.LED ZEPPELIN
European Tour April 1973
The European tour of 1973 by Led Zeppelin were by the most violent and riotous so far in the band's career with two shows in France being cancelled because of riots by fans.At one part of the European tour Jimmy Page was said to have been hit by a bottle thrown by a fan in which the performance was immediately stopped by the band.
I was at the Bon Jovi concert at Rizal Memorial Stadium back in '93. It's true there were unruly spectators that kept climbing the light posts. Bon Jovi was not pissed off. In fact, he calmly asked those guys to come down or the police would come to take them. But that was not the reason why the group didn't finish the concert. It was raining so hard with lighting and thunders. It was dangerous to continue the concert for feat of electrical shocks so it was decided to stop the show. I was 23 then..now I'm 44.
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