Completely blowing it during a TV performance

I/we think the Replacements on SNL were great. But it did them no favors with their label or in getting any other such opportunities. Not that they cared or that it should have ever panned out that way. But in the eyes of the mainstream, they pooped the bed.

 

I guess calling that a "performance" was a bit of a stretch.

 

That whole lip-syncing thing by Ashlee pretty much killed her music career, didn't it?

 

I have the full set on tape (along with Sam Kinison's appearance) and IMHO they did anything but blow it. I don't get why so many people think their appearance was a disaster, unless what was broadcast in the west was taken from the dress rehearsal or something. They rocked with energy to spare, there weren't any major botches, Tommy played particularly well, and both songs totally destroyed the album versions.

This was the first time I'd actually heard the Mats - went out and bought Tim a couple of days later, and was disappointed by how restrained the studio versions of the songs sounded in comparison.

 

I can't remember one worse than this one ...

sinead o'connor ripping up the photo of the Pope on SNL

 

John Sebastian performing with the Lovin Spoonful at the Rock-n-Roll HOF later televised. Never got an explanation on WTF was wrong with his voice. Zal had to help out on vocals.

 

Forgot about this one...This might be the winner.

 

In two pay-for-view events, she screwed up "Mother" on the Roger Waters Wall performance in Berlin and was booed off the stage at the Dylan concert (mostly because of the SNL incident).

In one of SNL's finer moments, the Spanic Boys replaced "Sinbad" on SNL when she boycotted because it was being hosted by Andrew Dice Clay. I'm not being sarcastic- the father-son rockabilly band was fantastic.

 

I see what you did there!

 

Was that a deliberate 'screw you' to the producers for being forced to mime a performance or was there a technical goof where they couldn't hear the track? Love that song, BTW. Written by Marshall Crenshaw. His demo of that song is totally brilliant.

dan c

 

Laura Branigan on SNL doing "Gloria". She overexerted herself during the dress rehearsal, causing her voice to crack on the live show.

 

It was a technical error, I heard.

 

Audio Bullys had all the bad luck in the world during their Dutch television debut back in 2003.

The television crew failed to give the front rapper a wireless mic with a fresh set of batteries, so of course there was nothing but silence when the raps were supposed to kick in. Even worse, the act stayed a day extra in The Netherlands solely for this big break, and the television makers strangely enough insisted that this act would perform this non-single instrumental, so the rapper wrote 3 new verses solely for this purpose. Nothing but an instrumental beat on air, while the rapper is backstage trying to get a new mic from the crew. Then, when the DJ at least tries to improvise a bit while the instrumental backing is running, the camera man bumps the DJ table, and with a skip in the music, the mess is complete.

The guys were gutted, and within a few weeks they were back at the same spot and nailed it. But if you want to see the cringefest of the first performance... http://barendenvandorp.nl/uitzendingen/uitzending-10-10-2003 from 34:15 on.

 

Going by Wikipedia it was apparently a technical goof. I'd like to think it was a solid dose of passive aggressive snottiness though.

For an instance where not bothering to mime properly was anything but accidental - and a performance which overall probably did them some damage among the music biz suits at the time - I give you Public Image Ltd's infamous 1980 appearance on American Bandstand. It's still hard to believe this actually happened, not least because they were cavorting around to perhaps the least danceable, most abrasive song on the album.

 

Marianne Faithful's performance of "Broken English" on SNL is pretty legendary--apparently she was sold some sort of ersatz cocaine that causes people to lose their voice, which proceeded to happen on air when she opened her mouth to sing and out came a barely audible whisper. I can't find vifeo of the performance alone, but the entire episode is available on Youtube.

 

Wasn't the Milli Vanilli lip-sync skipping CD disaster on TV as well?

 

The Beach Boys flub the beginning of "When I Grow Up"...

 

That's awesome. I wonder who Dick Clark punched on his crew after this happened.

dan c

 

I thought it was being shot by a news crew during a concert, but I don't know...

dan c

 

U2 at Glastonbury. Rattle & Hum it certainly wasn't.

 

Apparently, the suits were NOT pleased with Pete Thomas's head drumming.

 

The Replacements on SNL? That should top the list of BEST EVER live TV performances. The fact that they blew their entire career has nothing to do with it!

 

This!