Foo Fighters front man and the all-around Mr. Nice Guy of Rock — Dave Grohl — has been injured after falling from the stage during a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33115570]
In the long history of rock ‘n’ roll, there have been many stage accidents worth mentioning.
Here Are Seven More Stage Accidents That Rocked the World
Frank Zappa was almost killed in the fire at the Montreux Casino during the 1971 Mothers of Invention tour.
The freak accident (caused by a flare gun having been fired by a member of the public into a highly flammable ceiling) was commemorated by the Deep Purple song “Smoke on the Water”.
Leslie Harvey (brother of Alex Harvey) and the guitarist / co-founder of the Stone the Crows was killed by an electric shock after touching a microphone that was not properly earthed / ground in Swansea in 1972.
New Orleans blues-stars Dr. John witnessed the incident.
“Les” Harvey had earlier survived a fatal road accident in 1965, when the tour van carrying his (then) band The Blues Council crashed, killing both the lead singer and bassist.
Krist Novoselic bass guitar accident
It’s not the first time that Grohl has been involved in a stage-incident.
At the 1992 Video Music Awards the Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic threw his bass-guitar high into the air, intent on capturing it.
It was a stunt he had regularly practiced, but on this occasion (in front of the TV cameras) things went awry and Novoselic’s bass landed (with some precision) violently onto his head.
He had to be carried off and taken to hospital. The incident did not prevent comrades Cobain & Grohl destroying all their equipment though — much to the alarm and consternation of the horrified MTV executives.
Moon – fascinated by blowing things up…
Who drummer Keith Moon blew up his kit and permanently disabled band-mate Townsend.
Not unknown for his reckless acts involving pyrotechnics (Keith was fascinated by blowing things up and setting things alight) Moon decided to fill his drums with explosives before a TV show in 1967.
The pyro was supposed to go off at the end of “My Generation” but the explosion was far bigger than Moon had anticipated.
It deafened Pete Townshend. Pete still claims that his life-long hearing problems were caused by that explosion.
Hetfield – Standing in the wrong place…
Metallica is another rock act that is obsessed with fire.
James Hetfield was badly burned in 1992 in Montreal, when some stage pyrotechnics that he was standing over (he was certainly in the wrong place) went off during “Fade to Black” inflicting terrible burns to his neck, arms and face.
Patti Smith – Things went badly wrong…
We all enjoy the spectacle when a star falls from grace.
And it’s particularly gratifying when the star is pompous & arrogant and the wounds aren’t that bad. (For example, Bono’s stage fall in Miami in 2001.)
But we all start praying when things go badly wrong.
And they did go badly wrong in 1977 when the American singer-songwriter Patti Smith accidentally danced off a high stage in Tampa, Florida and fell 15 feet into a concrete orchestra pit. She broke her neck.
Fortunately for us, she made a full recovery after a long period of rest.
Tyler – His most unlucky number…
“Love in an Elevator” is dangerous, apparently.
Aerosmith’s front-man Steven Tyler was injured twice during the course of performing his most unlucky number “Love in an Elevator.”
In 2009, while on the Guitar Hero Tour, he fell from a stage in South Dakota and hurt his head and neck and broke his shoulder. Tyler was out of action so long that fans thought that he had left the band.
But after several months of rehab for ‘pain management’ he managed to get back on stage, only to fall again (face first) into the crowd (on a video you can see that he was ‘jokingly’ pushed by Joe Perry) during the performance of which song? Yes, you guessed it, “Love in an Elevator.”
Words: @neilmach 2015 ©
All images provided by artist or representative.
