Shattered

October 7, 2010 11:40 AM

Hey Mick, why don't you start singing Gimme Shelter at the mixing desk in the middle of the a huge crowd and then leisurely stroll to the stage. Nothing bad will happen. (SLYT)

According to Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who fimed this show:

"Mick came up with the idea returning to the stage from the mixing booth, which stands in the centre of the auditirium.His security team were immediately worried, but Mick wasn't becouse he thoght the Japanese were too orderly for there to be a problem.However, he took two bodyguards with him...

He got to the booth relatively unnoticed in the dark and then started to sing into his microphone as he walked towards the stage, some 200 feet away while audince parted, in theory,to let him through.

Well, it has to have been the shock, the fact that they'd never had a star literally in their midst before, becouse suddenly they completely lost all their inbred control and mobbed him in a very alarming way. I was shooting the video from the stage, and it wasn't artificial, He was in real trouble, we in the crew all knew it and could do nothing about it. The situation was desperate, and thyough the camera I could see stark fear in Mick's eyes..... Callaghan (bodyguard) finally got Mick to the stage. He was white-faced and in a sweat. When Japanese released the video they had edited out the mob scene becouse they didn't think it politic to show Japanese kids breaking ranks. But for Mick and for me, it's a hairy moment we will never forget"

posted by punkfloyd (66 comments total)

Looks like some in the crowd had sticky fingers...
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:53 AM on October 7, 2010 [4 favorites]

When Japanese released the video...

Wait, what? That's the sort of sentence I expect to hear about North Korea or maybe China, and I'm not sure I buy it about Japan. Was there some sort of "official" release of this video and squelching of other releases?
posted by gurple at 11:56 AM on October 7, 2010

SCORE! I GOT HIS WALLET! I GOT HIS WALLET!*

* Translated from the Japanese
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:56 AM on October 7, 2010

Sorry for the typo's. I did some copy/pasting and bad editing.
posted by punkfloyd at 11:57 AM on October 7, 2010

I must have missed the bit where he started singing. I just heard the occasional half hearted talking, even when he was throwing himself around at the end.

Maybe my version is corrupted.
posted by Brockles at 12:02 PM on October 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

Sorry for the typo's what? Don't leave me in suspense!
posted by hippybear at 12:03 PM on October 7, 2010 [16 favorites]

they completely lost all their inbred control
Sarcasm, right?
posted by variella at 12:04 PM on October 7, 2010 [4 favorites]

I must have missed the bit where he started singing.

I was struck at how, when he did try to use the mike from the mixing booth, he was fighting the sound delay. Looked like he tried several times to sing, and was distracted enough by the sound coming back to him a fraction of a second after he sang it (and then again, that was a fraction of a second late behind the music since he was listening from the middle of the auditorium...) that he kind of just gave up on that idea.

We've come a long way with our monitor technology in the past 22 years, and now bands like U2 can split themselves all over the stadium and still be playing with each other and not with the sound coming out of the sound system.
posted by hippybear at 12:06 PM on October 7, 2010 [4 favorites]

Seriously, how could one man not learn the same lesson about his popularity and crowds over and over again?
posted by piratebowling at 12:09 PM on October 7, 2010 [5 favorites]

Do you ever get that 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds' feeling? I do.
posted by uraniumwilly at 12:10 PM on October 7, 2010

Wireless microphones: just because you can does not mean you should.
posted by rongorongo at 12:11 PM on October 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

I had the same experience hippybear did, and at first I thought this was the "something bad" you alluded to on the front page. That would've been amusing but not worth the hyperbole. Fortunately, the video didn't disappoint... this was a wholly terrible arena concert experience all around.

On an unrelated note, I'm still trying to calculate our distance from the parallel universe from which Ke$ha hails, where her Mick Jagger lyric makes any sense at all.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:15 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's weird seeing Joe Satriani playing guitar for Mick Jagger. I mean, I knew he had been Jagger's guitarist on that tour, but I had never seen video - and I never really think of Satch as "the guy from Jagger's band." And check out how young Nathan East was, too. Crazy.

Also: The 80s were so terrible yet so great.
posted by The World Famous at 12:25 PM on October 7, 2010

Metafilter: Sorry for the typo's.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:25 PM on October 7, 2010 [4 favorites]

There's a story about a U2 show in Tokyo on the ZOO TV tour (the last show actually). Bono thrives off crowd energy, but this crowd was very sedate. So during "Where the Streets Have No Name" he unexpectedly jumps off the wing of the stage into the aisle and proceeds to run a lap around the Tokyo Dome, trying to get the crowd onto its feet. At first, the crowd stayed in their seats and he had plenty of room. But by the time they were in the home stretch, fans were rushing towards him from every corner. The head of his security was a grizzled Vietnam veteran who started having a flashback as he was trying to keep a path clear for Bono. He described seeing "Asians charging, running towards them" and having to keep telling himself "this is not Vietnam."

Maybe there's a reason there's "the stage" and "the crowd".
posted by dry white toast at 12:26 PM on October 7, 2010 [3 favorites]

I once played in a band with a singer whose last name was Rollings.

I was forever arguing we should call the band The Rollings Tones.
posted by fourcheesemac at 12:30 PM on October 7, 2010 [19 favorites]

If those cats who are goofing on my grammar don't stop it, I'm splitting man!
posted by punkfloyd at 12:30 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also: The 80s were so terrible yet so great.
posted by The World Famous at 8:25 PM on October 7

You're half right.
posted by Decani at 12:30 PM on October 7, 2010

On a positive note, he didn't hire any Hell's Angels for protection.
posted by Killick at 12:33 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

I like the moment when someone waves "move back, nothing to see here", as if one hand raised against the crushing wave of bodies will make a difference.

Then from another camera, the shot starts on Mick and his bodyguards trying to move ahead, and then the camera pulls back to see that the stage is still miles away, and you feel sorry for him.

I can give Mick the issue with sound delay and kind of chatting his lines (compare with the studio cut from 1969 for a sad comparison), but he crawled up on stage, reminding you the fact that 1) he is 44 years old, and 2) he is not Iggy Pop.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:33 PM on October 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

As an aside, type "who sings backup on" in google and the auto complete gives you "Gimmie Shelter." Which is effing brilliant and kind of scary if that is what you were looking for in the first place, as I was.

And in case you're wondering, it's Merry Clayton on the original track. A performance so great, it warrants a mention in the lede of her wikipedia article.
posted by Brodiggitty at 12:36 PM on October 7, 2010 [4 favorites]

It's just a SATA Raid
It's just a SATA Raid...

That song will always be close to my heart.
posted by circular at 12:37 PM on October 7, 2010 [3 favorites]

He had better luck with this stunt in 1981 in Phoenix and Hampton. This may be why.
posted by punkfloyd at 12:41 PM on October 7, 2010

the parallel universe from which Ke$ha hails, where her Mick Jagger lyric makes any sense at all.

It's actually quite near, just a small typographical error away. The lyric was supposed to read 'until', not 'unless'.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:43 PM on October 7, 2010 [3 favorites]

The wireless microphone is perhaps the most insidious sonic device ever invented, partly because it picks up the radio communications from every passing emergency vehicle (or, in Baltimore, from the Shock Trauma helicopter), partly because it encourages artists to stuff the mic into their mouth for a whole lotta pumpphumup ppfumphump plosive goodness, and partly because no singer ever in the history of the sound man universe has ever been able to understand that, while prancing around stage with the wireless, it will pick up every speaker, every monitor, and every instrument and produce gales of howling, screeching, wine glass-shattering feedback that can only be controlled by killing the mic altogether, to the singer's severe disapproval.

Mostly, it's an evil thing because it encourages performers to be extra casual and to mingle with their "people," who will immediately shriek "YOU FUCKING ROCK SO FUCKING MUCH YOU FUCKING FUCKER!" into the microphone at a decibel count roughly equivalent to the sound the Space Shuttle's main engine would make if you happened to be about six feet away at the time of ignition.

My favorite of all moments in my techie days with the museum came when, at our annual Mardi Gras indoor parade/extravaganza, an intrusive unnamed officer of the organization had me cut off the instrumental accompaniment of "Spirit in the Sky" to a float of dancing rock & roll angels in mid-stream. I, of course, didn't control the mic level from my DJ stand, so the music went dead, but six increasingly-desperate angels danced harder and yelled louder in the sudden wash of general-purpose crowd noise, and the lead angel just kept pointing at me and his mic, asking the same question, over and over, at increasing volume.

"Why'd you cut the music? Where's the music? How am I supposed to sing?"

They kept dancing, red-faced, and tried to sing the music a capella, and the unnamed officer just scowled until they were towed out of the room on their float.

"Yeah, I just don't like that guy," the unnamed officer said, and it took quite a while to get a vibe going again.
posted by sonascope at 12:44 PM on October 7, 2010 [5 favorites]

Apparently there is a rumor that Ke$ha is Mick Jagger's daughter. Ooo.
posted by smackfu at 12:46 PM on October 7, 2010

Looks like some in the crowd had sticky fingers...

YEAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 12:49 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

When Wyclef Jean wanted to go out in the crowd, he did it on the shoulders of a HUGE roadie. He milled about the crowd, then made his way over to where the Prime Minister of Haiti was standing. Then they did a call-and-response rap together.

This was after Condi Rice was caught dancing to Shaggy, and after a surprise set from Jimmy Cliff. Not bad for a free show.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:49 PM on October 7, 2010

Yeah, if Keith is in the band that whole fiasco never happens. It's a cliche that Keith and Mick are each other's yin and yang, but in this case the absence of somebody around to slap some sense into his head nearly got him killed.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:54 PM on October 7, 2010

Oh, we know what Keith would do.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:02 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Too bad he wasn't singing "Don't Tear Me Up."
posted by crunchland at 1:04 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

I love the Stones, and I love this song.
I couldn't watch the video of Mick getting mobbed all the way through... but just on the strength and amazingness of the vocals, that 1988 show was blowing me away. Do we know who the woman in that version was?

I saw their 2002 tour live. And promptly developed an ardent crush on backing vocalist, Lisa Fisher. Also, I wish I had that dress. But only if I had legs that good.

I love that the Stones are still touring, still singing this.
posted by SaharaRose at 1:21 PM on October 7, 2010

We've come a long way with our monitor technology in the past 22 years, and now bands like U2 can split themselves all over the stadium and still be playing with each other and not with the sound coming out of the sound system.

They're probably using wireless in-ear monitors, but the U2 stage rig probably also uses zone control for their monitor systems, and who knows how much insane technology goes into their backing tracks, digital signal processing and other stage tricks. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were using guitar or pedal triggered MIDI devices to help quantize, shape notes/sustains and autopitching hardware or software that a lot of modern guitar bands use to keep songs precise and orderly. They also probably use a click track or other in-ear cue system to help keep everything tidy. It's not easy to keep a tempo when you're surrounded by a stadium full of speakers, natural delay/reverb and a hundred thousand screaming fans.
posted by loquacious at 1:38 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

There's an old story about Iggy Pop playing an overseas gig in some country where the crowd was not familiar with the custom of stage-diving.

He ran from the drum riser to the lip of the stage mid-song and and launched himself off, expecting the crowd to catch him and pass him overhead round the first ten rows as usual. Instead, everyone standing in his flightpath backed frantically away, leaving the Igster to crash painfully down on an empty patch of concrete floor.

Probably apocryphal, I know, but I love that story.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:47 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Hey Mick, why don't you start singing Gimme Shelter at the mixing desk in the middle of the a have the Hell's Angels work security for a huge crowd and then leisurely stroll to gently plead with people to be "cool" as they are getting beat down. Nothing bad will happen. (SLYT)
posted by bionic.junkie at 1:59 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Don't those people know where he's been? And they're trying to touch him?
posted by Burhanistan at 2:08 PM on October 7, 2010 [4 favorites]

I love that the Stones are still touring, still singing this.

I admire their spirit, but after watching this performance I'd rather not see the Stones live until time travel is realized.
posted by clearly at 2:18 PM on October 7, 2010

That looked like he was being attacked by zombies.
posted by Siberian Mist at 2:27 PM on October 7, 2010

And in case you're wondering, it's Merry Clayton on the original track.

And a quick Google throws up the fact that she did her own version, which IMHO smacks the original around the face with a wet haddock.
posted by Grangousier at 2:34 PM on October 7, 2010 [11 favorites]

And a quick Google throws up the fact that she did her own version , which IMHO smacks the original around the face with a wet haddock.

I am blown away. Gimme Shelter is one of my favorite songs ever and I had no idea I would ever hear anything as good as the original Let It Bleed version. I don't know how I missed Merry Clayton's own version before now. But if you could edit Keith's solo into it, it would be, hands down, better than the original.
posted by The World Famous at 2:39 PM on October 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

Surely it's: Metafilter: Sorry for the typo's what?
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 2:41 PM on October 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

great post. it took me some time to realize the exotic line-up. Joe Satriani: guitars :: Jimmy Ripp: guitars :: Doug Wimbish: bass :: Simon Phillips: drums :: Phil Ashley: keyboards :: Sybil Scoby, Bernard Fowler, Richard Cottle, Linda Moran and Lisa Fisher: backing vocals.
cd version of this concert here
posted by ouke at 2:44 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Jesus Christ, Merry Clayton's version sent chills up my spine. Thanks, Grangousier.
posted by languagehat at 3:13 PM on October 7, 2010

Is that Doug Wimbish? I guess that's why I thought Nathan East looked so different!
posted by The World Famous at 3:25 PM on October 7, 2010

Simon Phillips freakin rocks.
posted by humboldt32 at 3:40 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

> There's an old story about Iggy Pop playing an overseas gig in some country where the crowd was not familiar with the custom of stage-diving.

Not apocryphal at all: it was in New York City. Oh, the embarrassment.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 4:00 PM on October 7, 2010

I was on the RS Security detail for their Soldier Field Shows in 1996. We had security guarding a long walkway that lead to a smaller stage at mid-field. We had about 30 guys on each side to protect the Stones as they ran down this 4 foot wide plank. Once we got the signal, everybody took up a spot a long the plank and as soon as Mick stepped foot on the runway, we got massively rushed. We all had to lock arms and I though for sure they'd tip the thing over. Mick was nearly sprinting and high fiving everyone. In the process, he high-fived me in the side of the head (he had a massive ring on) and it left a knot. I remember thinking as he was high-fiving and basically inciting more people to rush the walkway "Thanks a lot, asswipe."
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 4:08 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

loquacious: "Who knows how much insane technology goes into their backing tracks, digital signal processing and other stage tricks."

U2 have a full second band playing along underneath the stage in case of technical problems. The Edge's guitar has cut out? The sound guy just fades up the understage backup guitarist until it's fixed.
posted by minifigs at 4:17 PM on October 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'd love to see a citation for that, minifigs. I know they have keyboards and other sweeteners happening under the stage, but a full second band?
posted by hippybear at 4:23 PM on October 7, 2010

I assume minifigs is joking. The only other person that actually plays with U2 in concert is Terry Lawless. He does some keyboard backing tracks on some live songs and sets up all of the sequencing for the live shows. He is considered part of the sound crew, so he isn't on stage with the band. Dallas Schoo (The Edge's guitar tech) will trigger effects for The Edge if he is unable to get to his switching board in the show.
posted by bionic.junkie at 4:45 PM on October 7, 2010

Dallas Schoo (The Edge's guitar tech)

Otherwise known as Rocko? I saw him put together a band made up of U2 crew members to play as the first band for their epic Honolulu show at the end of the Vertigo tour. (That would be the one where Pearl Jam opened for them -- one of the most incredible nights of rock-n-roll I've ever witnessed.)
posted by hippybear at 4:50 PM on October 7, 2010

Otherwise known as Rocko?

Rocko Reedy is the stage manager for U2 on tour.
posted by bionic.junkie at 4:59 PM on October 7, 2010

Maybe there's a reason there's "the stage" and "the crowd".

If someone knows what they're doing, crossing that barrier can be electric for both parties. Peter Gabriel used to do an all-out stage-dive at the tail end of his song "Lay Your Hands On Me" in concerts. It was a feature of his concerts for a really long time, and Peter had to be talked out of it in later years (although, maybe his current age played a part in that as well -- stage diving probably ain't as easy when you're 60). Often asked about this in interviews, he said that audiences were usually "surprisingly gentle".

It helped, though, that it was something he had always done for the song, even when he played smaller houses, so fans sort of grokked that "we need to not be dicks about this" and things usually ended well. (Maybe he'd get a jacket nicked -- like you see in this clip -- but that was the worst thing.) ....The first time I saw Peter in concert, I was sixteen, and wasn't even sitting on the floor, and it was still an absolutely electric moment.

I can give Mick the issue with sound delay and kind of chatting his lines (compare with the studio cut from 1969 for a sad comparison), but he crawled up on stage, reminding you the fact that 1) he is 44 years old, and 2) he is not Iggy Pop .

....I dunno, he seemed to do okay with this song a year ago with U2 and Fergie at the Rock and Roll Hall O'Fame 25th Anniversary Concerts. ...He did seem a bit thrown by Fergie at the end, but I chalked that up to...Fergie.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:05 PM on October 7, 2010

...He did seem a bit thrown by Fergie at the end, but I chalked that up to...Fergie.

Yeah, Fergie messed up the lyrics and missed a cue and Jagger kindly waited for her to figure it out and get back on track before he jumped in singing with her again.

Also, I do like U2, but is there no classic rock song they can't make sound wimpier?
posted by The World Famous at 5:41 PM on October 7, 2010

Reminds me of this 1979 recording of AC/DC's Rocker. Featuring Angus soloing piggyback through the crowds (about 3:25 in the video, just after getting some O₂). I don't know how Angus isn't ripped into tiny little pieces of Angus.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:54 PM on October 7, 2010

This is why bands break up. So shit like this doesn't happen.
posted by dudekiller at 6:19 PM on October 7, 2010

That sidelong look at the guitar players around 4:00 is great.
posted by box at 6:28 PM on October 7, 2010

Apropos of nothing: In that clip, Mick is already older than I am now.

And I'm OLD.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 6:36 PM on October 7, 2010

Also, I do like U2, but is there no classic rock song they can't make sound wimpier?

Actually, the joke they tell about themselves is that that's why they started writing their own stuff -- because they were so crap playing other people's stuff. If it was their own stuff, they could save face by saying, "uh, yeah, it's....supposed to sound like that."

(They woke up on the next song with Mick, which was one of their own.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:50 PM on October 7, 2010

I've had some bad ideas...
posted by Mick at 7:27 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Otherwise known as Rocko?

Rocko Reedy is the stage manager for U2 on tour.

Ah, excellent. I thought I might be getting people confused. I'm not really all that "up" on the backstage people who work so hard for U2 when they tour. You'd think having seen them ever tour since Joshua Tree I would be... I'm a bad person, I suppose.

I've been digging to find a bootleg of Rocko's set in Honolulu for nearly 4 years now. If you come across it anywhere, please let me know.
posted by hippybear at 7:49 PM on October 7, 2010

hmmm - needs more keith and charlie
posted by pyramid termite at 8:54 PM on October 7, 2010

I've been digging to find a bootleg of Rocko's set in Honolulu for nearly 4 years now. If you come across it anywhere, please let me know.

The band is Rocko & The Devils. Here's his Youtube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/rockoandthedevils

It has lots of clips from the Honolulu show.

Here's an entry from his blog about the show:

http://rockoandthedevils.blogspot.com/2006/12/devils-getting-on-stage-in-hawaii.html

Looks like there were some audio files there at one time, but the link is dead now. If I find a complete set of the show, I'll PM you.
posted by bionic.junkie at 10:17 PM on October 7, 2010

I love that the Stones are still touring, still singing this.

Well, I think it's horrible! Why doesn't someone give them shelter already? Poor Rolling Stones!
posted by No-sword at 10:54 PM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

hippybear: "I'd love to see a citation for that, minifigs. I know they have keyboards and other sweeteners happening under the stage, but a full second band"

The only citation I have is a sound engineer that did sound for a support band at a U2 gig. He's not the type to embellish things so I took him at his word.
posted by minifigs at 2:01 AM on October 8, 2010

That sidelong look at the guitar players around 4:00 is great.

Yeah, a lot conveyed in that very tiny little glance. Heh.
posted by umberto at 8:49 AM on October 8, 2010