Live Performances Gone Awry

Notice that none of these disasters involve a classical musician or performance?

Entrope, classical music concerts have had their share of such incidences too. Stravinsky's premiere of: "The Rite Of Spring" is perhaps the most notable. More recently, Steve Reich's performance of "Four Organs" had one woman banging her head on the stage, yelling; "Stop, stop, I confess".

I saw Bowie's 1975 "Young Americans" tour.

He seemed just about as interested as the audience.

And that white suit.....LOL

I attended a performance by musical genius Hermeto Pascoal at NYC's Town Hall back in the late '80's. A couple of minutes into the third tune, he abruptly cut the band off and walked off stage; end of show. I spoke to one of his saxophonists later that night, and he told me that Hermeto was pissed-off that the audience was not being more attentive.

I was playing in the pit of the Broadway show "Showgun" during one of the preview performances. As the actor Phillip Casnoff was about to sing a number titled "Death Walk", a large screen which was part of the scenery fell and hit him on the head. The performance was, of course, stopped and Casnoff was rushed to the hospital.

During a performance of Janacek's "The Makropulos Case" at the Met Opera the tenor Richard Versalle was singing the role of Vitek. In the opening scene he climbs a ladder to retrieve a book off a shelf. As he sang the words "too bad you can only live so long", he suffered a fatal heart attack and fell to the floor on his back.

Nothing too memorable concerning a performance other than a crowd of non ticket holders trying to rush the door at the Spectrum during a Yes/Emerson Lake and Palmer concert in the early 70's. Philly's finest with the irrepressible Frank Rizzo at the helm were in full force knowing well that there was a demand for tickets that far exceeded supply. Clubs were weilded and the uprising was abruptly stopped in its tracks.

In the mid 70's at Tampa Stadium I was at a Fleetwood Mac concert when someone close to us on the ground got the idea to attach firecrackers on a supply of frizbees he had brought and light them prior to tossing them into the crowd. My girlfriend a nurse, became distressed watching this continue and went up to the guy, who was stone drunk, grabbed the frizbees and proceeded to distribute them to surrounding folks to throw to keep the guy from continuing. She then angrily lectured him about his irresponsible behavior, to little avail. She then tried to take the firecrackers when he pushed her down to the ground at which point several men restrained him and took the firecrackers. He was eventually removed by Security personnel.