Concerts Where The Artist Walked Off Stage

I was there-she did come back.

I saw Nico in a small club in 1980 and when she asked for requests everyone(including me)requested covers.She was offended "None of those are my songs!".She refused to come out for an encore.

 

I remember reading about the Wings '76 tour in LA. Ringo came out with Paul for the first encore but didn't play, just waved and walked off. Crowd booed.

No second encore that night (Soliy).

 

As I related in the thread Weird Things Experienced At A Concert:

There was a Van Halen show at the Hartford (CT) Civic Center in late June/early July of 1980 (81?). Late June is a totally stupid time to schedule a rock concert in a huge arena. The fireworks were blowing up all over the place. M80's would explode mid-air as well as on the ground. I saw a couple of people get seriously damaged by the things.

Van Halen comes on. They kick off and the place goes wild. Fireworks booming, guitars screaming, lighters lit everywhere. Suddenly, in the middle of the 2nd tune, David Lee Roth starts screaming something and the band lurched to a halt. He then starts out on this diatribe against "the ****er" who's "throwing money at the stage". He demands the house lights. We were all blinded when they came on. Next he says, "Allright you mother****er... now we got the lights on! Throw the money now and when you people see who it is, throw him up on stage and we're gonna beat the **** out of him!"

What do you think the crowd did? Well, they started heaving handfuls of change at the stage. It was raining money. There were dimes, nickels, quarters and pennies bouncing off the drums, the players' heads... everywhere! It was pretty funny at the time. I figured Roth would just give up. Instead, he says, "Awww, **** you all," and the whole band stormed off the stage.

House lights were still on. The crowd clapped and clapped. Maybe 20 minutes go by like this and the crowd is getting unruly. Finally, the lights go off. Out comes the band, they play one song and the house lights come back up. I bet they played a total of 15 minutes.

The crowd went nuts! Nobody would leave. The place was about to riot. They sent in the police. An announcement was made that there would be no refunds.

Kevin

 

The lead singer of Filter walked offstage during a concert at Saltair Pavillion in Salt lake City (about 1999 or early 2000). Someone from the audience was throwing pennies or quarters and one hit him in the head. He got so pissed and went on a huge rant and challenged the offender to a fight (offender never revealed himself). Then when he was done, he stormed off in a dramatic fashion. He came back out about 15 min later! While I don't blame him for being upset about being hit with a coin, at the time all I could think of was how much it made him look like a crybaby.

 

Lots of bands had/have it written into their contracts that they're only obligated to play a certain number of songs (let's say three), and if they choose to stop the show after that point, the venue still has to pay them. VH probably fulfilled their contractual obligation, and split.

 

I saw Jim Morrison pass out on stage, and just lay there through the whole set, while Ray sang all the songs. When it was over, they helped him off stage and that was it.

 

I'm not Blair, but that be Shania Twain.

 

No, I don't remember. I think they opened with "Dr.Tarr...", and that the lead singer, a guy wearing a rainbow bandana (Chris Rainbow?) had quite a task covering songs that were sung by many different vocalists on the studio albums. Alan Parsons strummed an acoustic guitar and sang backup for most of the performance.

I remember better the specifics of the Yes performance: they played the entirety of the "Close To The Edge" album (though spread out during the show); Steve Howe had an acoustic solo performance; "The Rhythm of Love" was an encore (or one of the last songs of the main performance).

 

I seriously doubt that..

 

I'm not Blair either, but you would be mistaken. I wrote him about this months ago, and he said that not only is he having a tough time keeping up with the PM's on it he was recieving, but the lady in question is local TV personality Dagmar Midcap: an angel living in "Bad-Name Purgatory"!

...just to stay on-thread, she can walk off my stage anytime she wants!

 

Don't know if this exactly counts, but here goes:

1979, The Who at Madison Square Garden.

In the middle of "Who Are You," Pete jumps, windmills, and moments later, his white jumpsuit was covered in blood. As he has so many times, he'd shredded his hand on the strings.

PT gamely tries to continue but it's NG. He disgustedly flings his Les Paul at a tech and retreats backstage, leaving Roger Daltrey to handle the dismayed crowd. After a few moments of patter, the crowd is getting restless. So Daltrey straps on an acoustic and leads the crowd through a singalong version of "My Generation." This seems to mollify everyone, at least temporarily

Eventually, Townshend wanders back onstage, right hand conspicuously bandaged up. Does a big mock double-take upon seeing Daltrey with his acoustic. Crowd goes nuts. He apologizes and the band restarts "Who Are You." Pete plays gingerly through the first verses and chorus. But when they get to the part where Roger sings, "Whoooo.... are you?" followed by the massive power chords, Pete swings into action. He lets out *all* the stops, windmilling furiously and leaping. I don't know if I've ever heard MSG louder.

It was one of the most thrilling moments I've ever witnessed at a concert. It was a little like Willis Reed coming back for Game 7.

 

That is awesome. Great post

 

Hm, and one time Trent Reznor got so aggrivated with his guitar during 'Head Like a Hole' Live that he smashed it, and walked off stage...then, the crowed was singing the song long enough for Trent to come back onto the stage. Like a bit of encouragement.

 

That reminds me of the August 1989 Tacoma, Washington show where Pete didn't notice that his whammy bar was sticking out, and he impaled his hand during one of those windmills. He had to leave the stage and go to the hospital to have the guitar removed, and the rest of the band (this was "The Who On Ice"-era) finished the show without him.

 

I was there. We had driven down from Jacksonville and didn't have a hotel, so we went in the stadium at noon for an 8 PM show. The ticket said 'rain or shine". At 8, the band took the stage, but there was a huge black cloud heading toward the stadium. During the 2nd song, the sky opened up with torrential rain. It was coming down in buckets. Somebody threw up a huge sheet of thick plastic over our whole section to keep us dry, but the band was still playing and I couldn't SEE - so I tore a hole in the plastic. The band left the stage, the helicopter took off, and water poured through the hole in the plastic for an hour as everybody cursed me.

When the rain stopped, it was clear that the band wasn't coming back. Somebody threw a whiskey bottle at the drum set, a small riot started, and then about 200 cops in riot gear surged into the crowd and started clubbing people. 60,000 fans ran for the exits all at once. It was a madhouse. We finally made it to the parking lot, but our car was blocked in. It took 2 hours to get out of the immediate area. There was an address where you could mail your ticket stub to get a refund, and several of us mailed them in, but never got anything back.

*******

I think it was the same year, summer 1977, when I went to a Skynyrd show in Jacksonville - a triumphant hometown concert at the peak of their stardom. Charlie Daniels Band was the opener, but after their set, nothing. An hour passed, and the crowd was getting antsy. Finally Gary Rossington came out and said Ronnie Van Zant was puking up blood and couldn't perform. Charlie Daniels ended up doing the vocals during an abbreviated set, and the crowd was treated to an eerily prophetic version of "Free Bird" with no vocals. A few months later, Van Zant and 5 others were killed, and the rest of the band severely injured in a plane crash.

 

I love it when someone calls me a liar over the internet. Shows a lot of class, and even more impressive, a lot of courage. Why would I make that up? You weren't even born yet, (the 60's), but you know what happened at the concerts. If you are as important as you think you are, ask John Densmore, their drummer, how many times they had to play while Jim M. rolled around or passed out at a show.

 

Yup, that's her.

www.dagmarmidcap.com

Rumour has it 'round these parts that she's leaving the car show she currently co-hosts and heading to LA to work for Fox Sports in a similar capacity.

It really is difficult to concentrate on the cars when watching the show....

And....she's also been known to do motorcycle test drives too

sorry, totally off subject aren't I

 

Link not working...

 

Ok here's mine. A few years back there was a little blues society thing going on here in my dusty west texas town. Had some pretty cool blues stars come around to the local bar. Little Milton , Jimmie Rodgers ( got him to sign my guitar ) and a few other great musicians through the 4 or 5 yrs the society existed. However, it all turned sour one night .

Back in I think 2002 it was James Cotton came to town! I was totally stoked to see a blues legend like this. For those who dont know, James Cotton is a harmonica player extraordinaire that played in none other than Muddy Waters band back in the day.I think he took Little Walters place? At any rate he played with Muddy so I was excited.

Well, to make a long and painful story short the "soundman" didnt have a clue how to mic a harmonica player that blows like Mr Cotton does. It was terrible.
Reverb everywhere. He would start to play a few bars after singing and WEEEEeeeeeeeEEEE rrrrrrrEEE. Finally James got so disgusted with this he started throwing his harmonicas down. BOOM! he would throw the harmonica at the stage . This went on it seemed like for about two songs. He must have tossed 5 or six harmonicas across the stage. He was so PISSED. you could tell he really liked the crowd and wanted to give us a great concert but it was impossible. He finally just gave up and walked off.

I was so embarrassed for our town and everything involved. Some of the guys from the band were standing around in the front of the theatre so I went up and apologized. They were nice. I asked how Mr Cotton was. They of course said he was upset. But that he would try again when he calmed down and they fixed the sound.He did.. and it wasnt fixed . Same scene. He threw harmonicas left and right at the stage. I couldnt take it. I left.

The only good thing that came out of this was on my way out I talked one of the guys into getting me an autograph from him on my poster. I would have rather had a great memory though

 

Aragon Ballroom. Chicago,IL.'70's Peter Frampton was pelted with fruit from the audience. Tomato's and everything else splattering all over his guitar. He said f you to everyone and came back later. A bit tense.

John

 

Not calling you a liar.....but would appreciate getting more info....like a year and city (maybe a venue?).

The closest thing to what you describe is the story that we all know about that took place in Amsterdam in 1968, when Jim was passed out, and Ray sang all the songs.

But this is reportedly the only time that Ray ever "replaced" Jim onstage; although Ray usually did get to sing an old blues song or two at certain points in their shows (much to the crowd's chagrin)

The big difference in the known story and your story is that Jim actually passed out onstage during the Jefferson Airplane's opening set in Amsterdam (when he came onstage during their set, danced around, fell down and passed out).

This was all PRIOR to when the Doors even went onstage. Jim was taken to the hospital; not left onstage.

When it was time for the Doors to go on, the crowd was told they could have their money back or stay and watch the other three Doors perform. That's when Ray sang the entire set.

Sounds a bit different from what you describe, so would love to hear the specifics of what you witnessed. With a new documentary and other projects in the works, this type of story is worth researching.

What else can you tell us (without ripping my head off, that is)?

 

I just remembered one. I saw Wilco at a Summer outdoor show. In the middle of "Casino Queen", Jay Bennett (when he was still in the band) took his guitar off and left the stage.

Jay was responsible for many of the great guitar licks (as well as great piano and keyboard support) during that time, including "Casino Queen". So his absence was noticeable, but the band played on.

Towards the end of the stretched out version of the song, Jay came back, put his guitar back on to hit the final notes of the song. Before they started the next song, Jeff Tweedy informed the audience that Jay had left to go to the bathroom.

 

I never said you were a liar or that you made it up but there is absolutley NO WAY what you described happened. You said "Morrison passed out on stage, and just lay there through the whole set". Please, you really think that the lead singer of one of the biggest acts of the 60's passed out on-stage and the rest of the band, the roadies, and their manager let him lie there on the stage in from of 10,000 people passed out? Please

 

Well let's not forget that Brian's not exactly comfortable on stage and he's also on a steady combo of various prescribed medication.

When I saw him in Austin, Tx 2004
He coughed directly into the mic during "Drive-In". Of course, the band covered for him nicely. At the songs conclusion, Scott began mock-coughing into the mic and the rest of the group joined in.

Scott: "We all have colds!"