Riot On The Radio: Gigs that ended up in a massive punch-up Part 3

The final part of Craig Stephen’s look back at gigs that didn’t turn out so great, including a couple of infamous local riots ...

DD Smash, Queen Street, Auckland, 1984

It was called the ‘Thank God it’s over’ concert to celebrate the end of the university year, but shortly after headliners DD Smash took to the stage at Auckland’s Aotea Centre, the power went off.

As the 10,000-strong audience waited impatiently, a drunken man urinated on the crowd from above; when police tried to arrest him, they were obstructed and bottles were thrown. Arrests followed and then riot police arrived. Dave Dobbyn, DD Smash’s lead singer, apparently told the crowd, “I wish those riot squad guys would stop wanking and put their little batons away.”

Concert promoter Hugh Lynn said a group with a gang connection had kicked the switch for the sound system power supply.

"When the inspector came up on stage and said 'stop the show' I said to him 'that's the worst thing you can do.' If the music had kept going it would have kept the attention of the people but when it stopped they turned to another show - the riot that was building."

When the promoters announced they were pulling the plug, the audience rioted. They poured onto Queen St, Auckland's shopping central, smashed shop windows and left behind broken bottles, rubbish and upturned cars. Dobbyn was later charged with inciting violence, but was cleared of all charges but not without a severe ticking off from the judge.

Suicide, Brussels, 1978 (and everywhere else)

Even punks couldn’t deal with the abrasive New Yorkers. Alan Vega and Martin Rev made Sid Vicious look like a pre-schooler.

They started intimidating their audience early on. Vega: “At one of our first shows, there was a guy who’d brought this trombone. I jumped into the audience, fell over and knocked the slide out of his trombone. The crowd took real offence to that, so they attacked us with chairs, tables, anything they could get their hands on. That became the norm. I started carrying a bicycle chain on stage, figuring, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

At Suicide’s European gigs the booing began shortly after they took the stage. Full beer bottles began to be thrown. In England a skinhead jumped up on to the stage and thumped Vega, breaking his nose. In Scotland an axe was thrown at them.

"In the seventies I was afraid for my life every night but that didn’t matter, it energised me,” Vega later said.

In Brussels in 1978, opening for Elvis Costello the audience booed, heckled, and eventually stole Vega’s microphone. Costello was so disgusted that he delivered a shortened set, then walked off stage. The crowd erupted in a riot and police arrived with tear gas.

The Rolling Stones, Blackpool, 1964

As with Altamont, we can’t blame the band. After 44 years had lapsed, Blackpool finally lifted its ban on the Stones and apologised.

During the gig on 24 July 1964, some in the crowd started to spit at the band. Keith Richards took umbrage at one particular troublemaker and stood on his hands and kicked him in the face.

The place erupted and angry fans smashed crystal chandeliers, tore seats up and smashed a grand piano. About 50 people were treated in hospital. Eventually, police officers with dogs calmed the situation.

The town council then imposed an indefinite ban on the Stones.

Four decades later, the leader of Blackpool Council exonerated the Londoners. "Some sections of the crowd were outraged at the performance – they found it suggestive. Nowadays it would probably seem very normal, but back then the Rolling Stones were very new to the scene and it wasn't something the fans were used to. A lot of people got very wound up. The crowd were hysterical and they went wild and trashed the ballroom.”

Guns N'Roses, St Louis, 1992

Who’d have thought a drug-addled prima donna rock star would instigate a riot?

The trouble kicked off when Axl Rose became frustrated with an unauthorised photographer taking pics, and after security failed to retrieve the camera, Mr Dickhead launched himself into the crowd and snatched it himself, hitting security and fans in the process. He returned to the stage, slammed his microphone down, and stormed off.

A local journalist who hung around like a good hack should do while others fled like cowards, recounted his experience in an open letter to Rose.

“I can still remember certain details vividly: rioters swinging from cables under the light and speaker rigging on the stage, the sound engineer warning me there would be “massive death” if it fell down; police trying to hold the stage by shooting a fire hose at the crowd, though it lacked sufficient water pressure; a man jumping into the stream, then pulling down his pants and waving his penis at the cops.

“There were other things, too: a man with a gash on his shoulder and blood on his face running madly up the aisle; another, his head strapped down, being carried out on a stretcher; Crone (Thomas, a fellow journo) being viciously jabbed in the kidneys by police trying to clear the lower bowl as I shouted that we were members of the press.

“The cops’ response was a string of vulgarities unfit for publication. ‘We’re reporters’, I pleaded. ‘That’s nice,’ another said, as they dumped us down a steep staircase.”

Rose was charged and convicted with four counts of assault and one of property damage, and fined US$50,000.

Bill Haley, Hamburg and Berlin, 1958

In 1958, during a show in Hamburg, Germany, rock and roll stars Bill Haley & His Comets were midway through a set when some teenagers started fighting each other.

About 100 police officers arrived, which at first didn’t deter these hardy pugilists who also chucked various objects until the concert was pulled.

Later that month, when the Comets played at the Sportpalast in Berlin, another riot erupted with five police officers being badly beaten and six fans hospitalised. In West Germany, the riots were condemned as examples of out-of-control juvenile delinquency, and in the East the authorities called Haley a “rock and roll gangster” with an anti-socialist agenda.

BW Festival, Gisborne, 2015

Stuff reported on the 1st of January 2015 that 63 people were arrested and 83 injured, with seven of those hospitalised.

Police told the so-called newspaper the riot broke out in the festival campgrounds around early evening on New Year’s Eve – the third day of the five-day festival - and the disorder lasted about three hours.

The police were pelted with cans and other objects, vehicles were overturned and fires were lit. Another media report suggested it began when a tent was set on fire.

The campground director said a mob mentality took over when a small group started to cause trouble.

"It's hard to say where it starts really but they started to cause trouble, started to light fires and just create general unrest. That built into a bit of a mob mentality and then they start to move in mass I guess, start to do things like charge the fences and break down the internal fences and things like that."

The festival line-up included Shapeshifter, David Dallas, Peking Duk, Sticky Fingers, Home Brew and Flume.

Riot On The Radio: Gigs that ended up in a massive punch-up Part 1

Craig Stephen returns to the everythingsgonegreen lounge, with a three-part offering on riotous gigs that didn’t end well … here’s part 1:

***

Today the tabloid media would go apeshit if a riot broke out at an Arctic Monkeys or Green Day gig, but these days fans tend to be generally well behaved, ‘assisted’ in that endeavour by bonehead security and/or heavy-handed police surveillance. You can even take your mum along. But trouble and music once went hand in hand, and we’re talking way before Altamont.

“I’ve never been in a riot / Never been in a fight / Never been in anything / That turns out right.” – 'Never Been in a Riot' by The Mekons (1978).

So, in no particular order here’s the first half dozen gigs … (with a dozen more to come over the next two parts).

Altamont, California, 1969

The Altamont Speedway Free Festival riot was described by Rolling Stone magazine as "perhaps rock 'n' roll's all-time worst day". This was supposed to be California’s version of Woodstock, which had taken place four months earlier, but it was beset by violence from the get-go and ended with the stabbing to death of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter by a Hells Angel during the Rolling Stones' set. 

There were two other deaths at the event as well - one by drowning, another as a consequence of a hit-and-run car accident. Hunter was brandishing a revolver at the time of the incident, resulting in the Hells Angel being acquitted of murder on grounds of self-defence. 

But the circumstances leading up to the stabbing and the aftermath of Altamont continue to be discussed today. 

The festival and the Charles Manson cult killings are said to have signified the end of the 1960s hippy dream of peace and love.

Glastonbury Festival, Somerset, 1990

This particular year the ostensibly hippy festival was overshadowed by violent clashes between security forces and New Age travellers, with 235 people arrested. 

According to organiser Michael Eavis, the riot was sparked by heavy-handed treatment of the travellers by security, but also, as he told the Guardian in 2010, "We were like a social safety valve, people needed to let off steam during the Thatcher years; it just got a bit out of hand." 

Melvin Benn, who was then in charge of beer sales at the festival, said some travellers were very demanding leading up to the incident."I was dealing with a situation just off site where, at that time, there was a very rampant traveller community that were pretty un-hippy. They were pretty aggressive and the travellers were threatening to kill me. We weren't willing to give in to all of their demands. We weren't willing to allow them all in to sell drugs or give them diesel for their vehicles."

That resulted in a stand-off that resulted in a whole number of travellers making quite a vicious attack on the farmhouse, where Michael Eavis lives, just after the festival finished. 

Eavis’ daughter Emily, now a festival co-organiser, described seeing “outside the kitchen window Molotov cocktails being thrown and vehicles being set alight." 

The violence resulted in the festival being cancelled in 1991, but it returned in 1992 with a 10-foot fence around the site to ensure people paid to get in: in other words not the travellers. 

Premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Paris, 1913

It's perhaps the most infamous premiere of a ballet when Igor Stravinsky unleashed his dissonant, aggressive masterpiece at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in the French capital on 29 May 1913, and triggered a riot. Or so the legend goes. 

Witnesses told of differing accounts - of when trouble started; of how many police were called in; and of how many arrests were made (possibly as many as 40). 

Lydia Sokolova, one of the dancers on the stage that night, said the audience came prepared. "They had got themselves all ready. They didn't even let the music be played for the overture. As soon as it was known that the conductor was there, the uproar began," she said in 1965. 

The performance continued to the end, despite the rowdiness of the audience, and one thing most accounts seem to agree on is that there was an ovation.

The Jesus and Mary Chain, London, 1985

Their short, abrasive sets, often performed with their backs to the crowd, irked fans intentionally and not just on this evening. Trouble had flared up at earlier Mary Chain gigs in 1985, resulting in a tipping point at the North London Polytechnic when the PA was ripped down and punch-ups broke out amongst the crowd. 

According to Creation records boss Alan McGee: “Meat Whiplash went on first. Halfway through the set, Stevie, the guitar player, threw a wine bottle into the audience. Somebody got on stage to belt him, but he and the rest of the band ran away, except for Eddie Connolly, the bass player. So he got socked. The next band on was the Jasmine Minks, and they went on carrying clawhammers. They wanted people to see they were tooled up. So the audience had a bottle thrown at them, the second band went on with hammers ... is it any wonder it all went off?” 

NME writer Neil Spencer wrote that soon after the Mary Chain began their set a fight broke out. “They went off stage, came back on stage, the equipment got pushed off, and the police were completely incompetent. It was impossible for them to deal with it.” 

That wasn’t the end of it as the band’s Jim Reid explained. “After we came off, we were in our dressing room, and we heard all this pounding on a door down the corridor. It was an angry mob banging on a cupboard door, thinking it was our dressing room. I remember peeking out of the door, watching these people shouting, ‘Get the bastards! Get the bastards!’.”

Daniel Auber, Brussels, 1830

As violent as all the other events were, none of them caused an actual revolution. However, the performance of Daniel Auber's five-act opera La Muette de Portici in Brussels played a significant role in the Belgium revolution of the same year, which resulted in the country gaining independence from the Netherlands. 

The nationalistic opera was chosen for a performance at the Theatre de la Monnaie on 25 August 1830, as part of King William I's festival to celebrate 15 years of his reign. The French Revolution had occurred just a month earlier. 

During a second act duet, the crowd cheered so wildly that the performers had to stop singing and start over. 

Eventually, the performers reached the peak of the piece's lyrics — singing ‘Aux Armes’ (Call to Arms) — and dozens of spectators took that message literally, into the streets. When the fifth act arrived, audience members began to boo in an attempt to stop the show and apparently incite a riot. "The delirious crowd [hurled itself] out of the hall—and into history," wrote 20th-century French composer Lionel Renieu. 

The audience chanted patriotic slogans, stormed into government buildings, and began destroying factory machinery. Soon they were flying the flag of Independent Belgium.

Section 25 & Joy Division, Bury, 1980

"There were riots all the time at gigs," recalls Peter Hook.

Bury Town Hall was among the worst.

"There was a massive riot there and I got beaten up. I got beaten up all over the place," he says.

The 400-capacity hall was heaving with people after the fire exit doors were opened, letting in about 200 more in.

There were rumours that Ian Curtis had been in hospital and the gig might be cancelled. Curtis indeed wasn’t well enough to perform, but he did, briefly.

For Section 25’s finale they were joined by the three members of Joy Division, sans Ian. 

Nobody had explained any of this to the audience so there was some confusion when Curtis eventually stepped out on stage. Someone threw a pint glass at the stage sparking a fracas. Rob Gretton dived off the mixing desk into a bunch of skinheads and Hook was physically restrained in the dressing room by Tony Wilson, his wife, and Paul from Section 25.

Guest Post: The Stones at Mt Smart ...

And so it was that the rock n roll juggernaut known as the Rolling Stones hit these shores last week. For the final stop on the relatively expansive eight-leg Australia/NZ ‘On Fire’ tour. Friend of everythingsgonegreen, Tony ‘Soul Man’ Murdoch, was at the gig at Auckland’s Mt Smart stadium, along with nearly 40,000 others, and what a vivid picture his words paint for us (tail feathers and all) …

Yeah, it was a wicked nite ... rain kinda threatened but never really entrenched itself. Three towering video screens covering the back of the stage captured every pulse of the bands collective heartbeat ...

 

Started Up

Jagger the focal point really, flicking his hips 'n pouting his lips to every funky snare drum shimmer from that metronomic master of rhythm Mr Watts, 'n Charlie's partner in crime on thumping/pumping bass guitar, Darryl Jones. Oh yeah … Ronnie 'Faces' Wood resplendent in body hugging red leather jacket, just keeping it all so tight and funky for his mate Keef to take centre stage and carve it all up.

Lisa Fischer on backing vocals was a real highlight ... Soul Sista #1 in the house all nite long, just adding that groove to every song ... a cameo appearance from Mick Taylor on 'Midnight Rambler', an extended blues workout that incorporated part of their famous cover of Muddy Waters 'I'm A Man'.

The NZ National Youth Choir on 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' was another highlight, which I thought was a nice touch from the band, then 'Miss You' turned into an extended disco/funk workout … man, I was in 7th heaven when that happened.

Way too much fun for one night really and yep, I'd do it all again at the shake of a phunky tail feather ...!!!!!

 

DVD Review: The Stones In The Park (1969 / 2006)

The news this week that the Rolling Stones have released a digital album featuring the band’s two recent Hyde Park gigs (19 tracks culled from the July 2013 gigs) comes as no great surprise. It probably wasn’t enough that the 65,000 people who turned up to each show paid anything from £95 to £300 for the privilege of attending. Why not cash in while the going is still good? ... I’m sure Jagger and co need the money. Go to iTunes and pick up a copy if that’s your bag ...

But the general consensus is that the going is no longer very good at all. That the Stones have lost their mojo, and collectively they might just be starting to feel the pinch of old age. I’ve no idea whether or not that is true because I’ve resisted buying any “new” Stones material for years now. And yes, there are diehards who insist that the band wasn’t complete shit at Hyde Park. In fact, a few reviews were very positive indeed ... and so the juggernaut rolls on.

Regardless of any of that, there is a real irony in the fact that the inferior 2013 version of the Rolling Stones are looking to cream it from a couple of Hyde Park gigs, when the far superior Stones of 1969 played the exact same gig to more than 200,000 people for FREE.  

That epic day was captured on film and released on video/DVD as ‘The Stones In The Park’. Here’s my review of that DVD ...

*

The year 1969 looms large as a pivotal and era-defining one in the wider context of Rock history. With The Beatles all but defunct and on the very cusp of self-destruction, with landmark events such as Woodstock and Altamont occurring, and the release of a number of albums that would ultimately qualify for “all-time classic” status, the year heralding the end of the Sixties will forever be recalled as one of huge cultural significance. And that’s without even really scratching the surface. Then there was this, The Rolling Stones performing live at London’s Hyde Park, a free concert, just two days after the untimely and somewhat mysterious death (by drowning) of founding member and (the recently sacked) guitarist Brian Jones.

The late Sixties was a period when outdoor concerts in Hyde Park were fairly regular occurrences, but it’s fair to say that none were quite like this one in terms of scale or longer term relevance. This was just huge … as I’m quite sure many of the 250,000* in attendance that summery July day would attest. This DVD, The Stones In The Park, is a compilation of documentary and concert footage captured exclusively by Granada, recording the momentous occasion for posterity.

(*This is the conservative guesstimate, the DVD inlay suggests some “half a million” were present (if not entirely accounted for). Other sources suggest 250,000-300,000 - the correct figure most likely being somewhere in the middle).

Although the film itself is relatively short in length at around the one hour mark, The Stones In The Park offers considerably more than a mere collection of concert highlights. That is perhaps just as well, given that the performance of the Rolling Stones that day won’t go down as one of their greatest live efforts. Support bands on the day included Roger Chapman’s Family and a fledgling version of King Crimson, but neither - or indeed, any of the other support bands - are covered here. The film-makers instead preferred to provide build-up to the Stones’ gig by capturing the general vibe and sense of anticipation as the crowd slowly swells - interspersed with excerpts from an interview with Mick Jagger.

So it’s bare-footed, flowery bell-bottomed, cheesecloth-clad hippies to the fore as we survey the loved-up and mostly long-haired bohemian crowd. Providing a precursor to the chilling events that would take place at San Francisco’s Altamont Speedway just a few months later, “official” auxiliary security is provided by a surprisingly youthful chapter (or two) of the Hell’s Angels. It is difficult to imagine such an occurrence in today’s far more enlightened times, yet the menace provided by the leather-clad Bikers was just as likely a necessity considering the sheer volume of people in attendance. An otherwise too daunting a task for the local Met - although we do sight the odd “Bobby” or two loitering around the fringes.

On to the performance then, twelve tracks from a larger Stones set-list ultimately making the cut for the film; the highlights (a relative term) being ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, the impressive ‘I’m Free’ (a less-celebrated Stones track subsequently turned into a dancefloor smash by the Soup Dragons some 20 years later), the perennial live favourite from that era ‘Midnight Rambler’, and of course the “new” single ‘Honky Tonk Woman’. Perhaps the best moment though was reserved for a rather unique voodoo-drenched version of ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ - which included some riveting percussion from a group of African drummers who had by then joined the band on stage, complete with a suitably-attired tribesman intent on giving Jagger a serious run for his money in the strange-ethnic-boogie stakes.

Jagger, looking resplendent in an effeminate white frilly number, paid tribute to Brian Jones at the beginning of the set, reading a short poem (Shelley’s ‘Adonis’) for his dear friend. One can only wonder what was going through the minds of the band members as they performed what had essentially become an impromptu Memorial gig for Brian. Surely they must have been experiencing some amount of trauma and/or shock given that Jones had died so suddenly just hours before.

Certainly new guitarist Mick Taylor handled the situation with some aplomb considering it was his first live performance with the band, and Taylor would become a valuable permanent member of the line-up through the band’s most creative period until he was eventually replaced by Ronnie Wood in the mid-‘70s.

But generally, as mentioned above, despite their resolve and professionalism in terms of fulfilling their obligations come the day, the self-proclaimed greatest RocknRoll band in the world turned out a less than stellar set by their own high standards (‘Satisfaction’ being the most notable disappointment) and much of their playing was fragmented and sloppy to say the least (aye, looking at you Keef Richards).

However, that was probably not really that important in the wider scheme of things. The Stones In The Park was a one-off, a monumental event, and I’d be fairly sure that the large majority of those present couldn’t have cared less about note-perfect renditions.

Overall, putting the rather poor sound quality and often grainy footage aside, this DVD is a genuine slice of history and a compelling documentary account of a band about to embark on phase two of what would prove to be a truly remarkable existence. From a social and historical perspective, the Hyde Park gig occupies an important place in the rich tapestry of popular culture, if only for the sheer weight of numbers who endorsed as much at the time. Recommended.