Concerts You Attended Where a Primary Band Member Was Not on the Stage due to Illness or Anger

Oh, and then of course there was the time seeing UFO around 1979 but Michael Schenker had done one of his awols. Myself and many others were yelling "WHERE'S SCHENKER?" numerous times during the show.

On the bright side AC/DC opened up and blew UFO away. A lot of cool (also bizarre) stuff happened that night making it just about my most memorable show ever (EG: got to talk to Angus & Bon during Angus' solo during Bad Boy Boogie, while Angus was sitting on Bon's shoulders blazing away, they had come into the crowd and at one pointed stopped on the steps right next to my seat!!).

 

Two of them were dead by 2012. Two of them were also dead by 2001. Most of them will be dead by 2112.

 

Cornershop at the Metro in Chicago. Tjinder Singh had a meltdown during the first song when there was a problem with his monitor. He threw a fit and stormed off the stage. The rest of the band kept playing for the duration of the song, then sheepishly walked off. I was never much of a fan after that.

 

Saw The Who on their 1989 tour and Daltrey didn't make it to the encore - Pete stepped up to smash a mike stand with his guitar, make a statement about the expanded band being "the f**king Who" and then had John Entwistle lead the band in a version of "Twist and Shout".

 

I saw Public Enemy without Flavor Flav, who was in jail at the time. Chuck D led the crowd in a rousing singalong of “F the Police”.

 

People were sooo pissed but I couldn’t have been happier.

 

In between Saratoga Springs and your show w/Grissom, it appears that the ABB found time to hire and fire Zakk Wylde www.jambase.com/article/night-zakk-wylde-filled-dickey-betts-allman-brothers-band

 

I was referring to this guy’s time frame. I’m well aware of other decades and the timeline of John and George’s deaths.

 

Went to Des Moines winter of 75 to visit school friends at Drake to see the Doobie Bros. Inside the front doors but not in the arena, they announce the show is cancelled. Tom Johnston was “ill”.
Cut to summer of 76 and visiting same batch of friends in Iowa, we go to the Doobie Bros at the state fair. No Tom been replaced by a piano player. I was not aware of the change. Don’t get to see Tom til the reunion tour in the 90s.

 

Gregg Allman missed March 2 2014 ABB @ Beacon with bronchitis

 

I remember seeing The Band on that same tour (no CSNY) in the summer of 1974 at Nassau Coliseum with The Electric Flag. Rick Danko and Levon Helm were covering Richard's vocals - at first we just thought that there was a problem with his mic but it continued for most of the evening. They did the encore - "Don't Do It" IIRC - as a four piece.

 

I saw Dino Jr. without Murph in Toronto on the “Farm” tour.

I can’t remember the official reason for his absence for this particular show... but the border always raises suspicion...

 

I had the opposite experience. Public Enemy opened for U2 in Vancouver on the Achtung Baby tour, but Flavor Flav got held up at the border crossing and didn't make the show. Chuck D still put on a great show but their wasn't a lot of humor to say the least.

 

My only Grateful Dead concert, here in October 1972, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan was not with the band due to ongoing ill-health. He died the following April and at the time of his death was still considered a band member. I would love to have seen him & heard the numbers they didn't play because of his absence.

 

The Beach Boys would easily top any comprehensive list of 'Missing Primary Members at Live Shows' if someone had the gumption to compile one. And that's BEFORE Dennis and Carl passed

 

Reminds me of the time a friend of mine told he he'd seen The Orioles at Constitution Hall in DC.

This was in the mid-90s. He undoubtedly had really seen a group that had the legal rights to the group name at that point in time, but all but one of the real Orioles were dead by then (and the one survivor had retired years before). Fortunately, I was able to curb my know-it-all instinct and explain this to my friend.

 

A colleague gave some passes to see one the late 2016 Summer tour stops of Duran Duran and until showtime didn't hear Founder-keyboardist Nick Rhodes had to split from Tour for family obligations, still a pretty amazing show/light show too! Apparently this was for a month so the band found to fill in musician/keyboardist MNDR.

 

Are they Grateful dead?!

 

Not illness or anger but I went to see Poco on their reunion tour and Richie had left the tour, not being able to reconcile his religion with being in a rock band. During the show one of the guys, in his best Church Lady voice, commented about rock & roll maybe being the DEVIL?

 

It was sarcasm/tongue in cheek.

 

The one that comes immediately to mind is Level 42 at Maple Leaf Gardens, autumn 1987. Guitarist Boon Gould did not make the trip across the Atlantic (little did we know that he’d be leaving the band for good). The show was further marred by a long delay before the band hit the stage, after a terribly mismatched opening act (Love/Hate, a hair-metal band opening for a sophisto-pop band?).

Turns out Level 42’s gear had been stolen and there was a scramble to replace it at a local music store.

 

A unique Tindersticks gig I saw was when Stuart Staples wasn't absent, but was struck down with laryngitis, which meant they had to perform every song as an instrumental. Since they were doing their soundtracks tour, it wasn't too much of a wrench, and it was fun to hear some of those vocal songs ('Tiny Tears', 'The Other Side Of The World') without vocals.

 

Wow I actually found a clip from the same tour. You can see and hear how sick Anthony was.

 

In the late 90s, on some dodgy reunion tour, I had the amusing experience of seeing him go AWOL during the show! Towards the end of the main set, things appeared to be getting rather fractious, which was confirmed when he refused to come back onstage for the encores! Crazy, crazy fracker...

 

It was a particularly Weak attempt at humor and sarcasm. I am well aware of it!