Couldn’t find much on youtube other than band/crowd altercations. I want personnel-on-personnel skirmishes. There’s too much debate about the authenticity of Marilyn Manson’s stage contretemps, so if anyone can mention anyone else…
Interesting feuds over the years I’m also interested in, for instance I only recently found out that Mr. Harrison shagged Mr. Clapton’s lady first, before the latter returned the favour. Or apparently during the Animals tour Pink Floyd made sure each of their personal semis - arranged with other semis to form a circle - had their entrances facing outwards.
Back to the pugnacious side of things, I doubt anyone can top the following example, (unfortunately only audio, but if anyone has videos of anyone else, awesomer)
But before you click on it, you have to keep in mind, (during the song’s first minute or so), the following description, courtesy a Mahavishnu Orchestra facebook page by one Ken McIntyre:
"The intro for “Noonward Race” was written for the full band and not just as a guitar-and-drums duet as heard on the album. During the recording of the piece, a long-standing tension between Rick Laird and Jerry Goodman boiled over into a full brawl, with the two of them knocking Jan Hammer and his keyboards over during the struggle. [Guitarist] McLaughlin and [drummer] Cobham continued to play at full volume during the entire altercation, and McLaughlin liked the effect so much he instructed Laird, Goodman, and Hammer to sit out while he comped behind Cobham’s solo later in the song.
Still always get a good laugh imagining what a fine donnybrook soundtrack the opening guitar/drums made here:
A club called The Moon (later The Musical Moon) in Tallahassee, FL.
First up, Nasty Savage; they play a brief but energetic set. Next up is Sick Of It All, who pound out their signature brand of hardcore for about 45 minutes. Then the headliners, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, popularly known as D.R.I. take the stage. The finish their first song, start the second… and about 3 bars in, the drummer launches himself OVER the drum kit to attack the singer. Actually leapt into the air like it was WWF or something. The two of them start wailing on each other (apparently the drummer had picked up a groupie and the singer fucked her, or something) while the other two guys just walk off the stage. Lights came up; she was over.
It was easily the shortest headliner’s performance I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen thousand & thousands of shows; I’m a stagehand).
Mark E. Smith has a habit of making his bandmates very, very angry at him (and some of them still refer to him as genius). If you don’t hate him, you’ve probably never been in The Fall.
Stone Temple Pilots were pretty dysfunctional due to Scott Weiland being a drugged out douche. I think it was on the Opie and Anthony show that they described being backstage at a show in New Jersey. The DeLeo brothers were pissed because it was their home turf and had a lot of friends and family in the audience. Weiland was locked in his dressing room refusing to come out. They were at the door screaming at him and calling him Axl. I found that amusing.
Ah, I see. Guess I could’ve used “band members” and “hate” for my search tags instead of “bandfights”.
Good thread, btw.
To comment on some of those posts:
Got a pretty good chuckle (and so true, too) from that.
I heard that he’d fire members by setting on fire the beds they were sleeping in at the time.
Yeah, apparently he tried to rule Deep Purple with an iron fist.
My favourite part in “Some Kind of Monster” was when PT tried to mask his bemusement upon learning he had just gotten fired.
During the recording of “5:15”, Townshend smashed Daltry over the head with a guitar, and Daltry responded by knocking out Pete with one punch.
For Rick Wakeman’s first try-out with Yes, Bruford and Squire came to blows, and then again, after a gig in 72, which I’m sure contributed to Bill’s departure.
Early in the career of the Who, Daltrey resorted to violence in a rehearsal and there was a big band meeting where Roger got fired (True). He was invited back into the band on a probationary basis and was forced to agree that he could not do that anymore. It was a big change because it had been his band, and now he was just the singer with his tail between his legs.
Charlie Watts punched a drunk Jagger in the face once many years ago according to Keith Richards. Apparently Jagger and Richards were getting drunk late one night (on tour) and Jagger thought it was a funny idea to wake up Watts with a phone call and demand “his drummer” come up to join them. Watts got up, showered, shaved and put on a nice Saville suit and went upstairs. Upon opening the door Jagger was greeted with a punch to the face that landed him on his ass. Watts screamed “Don’t ever call me “your drummer” again…you’re my singer!” and went downstairs to bed. I’ve read where Keith has told that story several times. I think it cracks him up.
When the Talking Heads recorded “T.H. '77”, David Byrne so despised producer Tony Visconti (Bowie’s go-to guy) that he sang everything with his back to T.V.
:smack::smack::smack: whoa - thank-you…man I REALLY screwed that up, thus:
Apparently Bongiovi (lol nothing to do with Bowie) did clash with Byrne. Wish I remember where I read it (long ago), and frustrating I can’t find a link for it.
Pretty bad synapse-crossing on my part to get the story mixed up that badly. XD
When George briefly “left” the Beatles for about a week in early '69 (after a row with John - by some accounts there were fisticuffs), he interestingly didn’t go back to Patti home, but mom home, which struck me as sorta odd.
Bongiovi was related to Jon Bongiovi. I read a book about the T Heads and the interesting thing was it said that Tina was in love with Byrne and it was this big dynamic in the band. And it wasn’t happening and she married the drummer. I love her bass playing.
