Ten Rock'N'Roll Meltdowns You Want To Remember

New MTC production Birdland — penned by Olivier Award-winning author Simon Stephens — looks at the trapping of fame and fortune for one unfortunate musician as he struggles with the vicissitudes of success (and excess) and the pressure that comes with fame and infamy. Obviously there have been plenty of musicians in real life who have suffered spectacular meltdowns over the years, and we have a look at just a handful of the prime offenders:

10. WAAVES – Primavera, 2009

It’s gotta suck trying to soundcheck at 2.30am, but San Diegan garage duo Waaves let the pressure turn to petulance and turned in an absolute trainwreck of a performance, a half-assed set rife with crowd abuse which led to a shower of bottles and shoes and eventually an inter-band fight with beer and drumsticks flying everywhere. If you’re keen to un-hype your over-hyped band this is the way to go.

9. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – Norwegian Wood Festival, 2008 

A sick Josh Homme gets hit by something tossed from the crowd and the shit hits the fan (figuratively and perhaps literally). Homme pegs a bottle back and unleashes a vicious diatribe including the phrase, “I may have a fucking 102 temperature and I’ve been puking for two days, but I’ll still butt-fuck you in front of your friends”. He then continued to berate his attacker as he was dragged off by security. 

8. KINGS OF LEON – Texas, 2011

A result of hitting the bottle rather than being hit by a bottle, a clearly messy Caleb Followill told his Dallas fans mid-set, “I’m gonna go backstage and I’m gonna vomit, I’m gonna drink a beer and I’m gonna come back out and play three more songs.” No one knows whether he held up the spewing/drinking end of the bargain, but he certainly disappeared and never came back, leaving his poor bandmates onstage holding the can.

7. ELVIS PRESLEY – Las Vegas Hilton, 1974

We all know Elvis liked to party, but occasionally it got the better of him. On the final night of a lengthy Vegas stint in 1974 the great man lost the plot on stage, railing against apparent insinuations that he was on heroin in a profanity-laden diatribe against invisible attackers amidst a performance of his hits best described as sullenly morbid. Available on bootleg Elvis: Strung Out In Las Vegas.

6. AMY WINEHOUSE – Belgrade, 2011

This one didn’t end well for poor Winehouse who passed away in July of 2011, but the writing was certainly on the wall a few months earlier at her disastrous show in the Serbian capital where she came on stage an hour late clearly inebriated and rambling. Her fans started off on her side but upon realising the magnitude of the horror unfurling before them were soon booing and jeering the doomed singer.

5. GREEN DAY – Las Vegas, 2012

The iHeartRadio Festival in Vegas found punk icons Green Day sandwiched between Rihanna and Usher, with frontman Billy Joe Armstrong becoming unhappy with apparent crowd disconnect and deciding that berating them endlessly and furiously would be the best course of action. He finished his brazen display by randomly abusing Justin Bieber and then smashing his guitar, and was checked into rehab a couple of days later for “substance abuse”.

4. HOLE – Brazil, 2011

Who woulda thunk Courtney Love would pop up on such a list? In Brazil fronting her reformed band Hole, Love spotted someone toting a photo (or perhaps sporting a t-shirt) of her late hubby Kurt Cobain and officially lost the plot, storming offstage and not returning until a band member made the crowd chant “Foo Fighters are gay” and then proceeding to launch a feral attack on Dave Grohl for no discernable reason. Issues much?

3. GUNS ‘N ROSES – Missouri, 1991

A pissed off Axl Rose sees a biker with a camera at his Maryland Heights and jumps offstage to attack him – what could go wrong? The band left the building early and the place went ballistic and smashed sound, video and film equipment and then the venue, and when security guards tried to turn hoses on them the mob grabbed the hoses and continued the rampage. Dozens were injured (including many police and security guards).

2. THE DOORS – Miami, 1969

Did The Doors frontman get Lil’ Jim out or not? We’ll probably never know, but the charge levelled at Jim Morrison was that he exposed himself amidst (yet another) tirade of obscenities and simulated pleasuring himself on stage in front of thousands of impressionable fans. Morrison was arrested and sentenced to jail, but was out on appeal when he too met his untimely demise in 1971 (he was pardoned by Florida’s Governor nearly four decades later).

1. THE WHO – California, 1973

They say that horse tranquilisers and brandy can be a messy combination, as The Who’s notoriously hedonistic drummer Keith Moon found out at Cow Palace in 1973. Passing out in a stoned fugue during Won’t Get Fooled Again, he was revived and returned briefly 30 minutes later only to be dragged off again by roadies with the set being completed with help from a 19-year-old fan in the crowd.