25:18Oldies Music · Stories Behind the Songs1970s Concerts That Went Horribly Wrong
Episode: 10 Concerts That Went Horribly Wrong in the 1970s
From Sora Music Rewind · 20 min ·
About These 1970s Concerts That Went Wrong
The 1970s concerts that went wrong are still talked about decades later, and not because anyone enjoyed them at the time. Rock had grown into a business of stadiums and long tours, and the strain sometimes showed in public.
This countdown follows the episode from #10 to #1. Each night below was checked against reliable reporting, the musicians' own later accounts and reference sources. Where the script got a detail wrong or could not be confirmed, we corrected it or left it out.
The Countdown: 10 Nights When the Show Fell Apart
#10: Chuck Berry with John Lennon and Yoko Ono — The Mike Douglas Show (1972)
In February 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted a full week of The Mike Douglas Show, and Lennon made sure his hero Chuck Berry was booked. Lennon had met Berry for the first time that same day.
With the band Elephant's Memory, they played "Memphis, Tennessee" and then "Johnny B. Goode." Partway through, Ono broke in with a loud, wordless vocal, and the camera caught Berry's startled look. He kept playing like the professional he was. Stories that someone in the booth quietly switched off her microphone have never been confirmed.
#9: Van Morrison — New York (1979)
Van Morrison's voice rarely let him down, but performing often did. He began struggling with stage fright around 1972 and once said he enjoyed singing the songs, but that being out on stage could be "pretty agonising."
Writer Stephen Davis later recalled seeing him at a New York concert in 1979 where Morrison walked off after only four songs, apparently bothered by something about the sound, the audience or the band. Davis did not name the venue, so we could not confirm the episode's claim that it was the Palladium.
#8: Joni Mitchell — Isle of Wight Festival (1970)
The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival drew an enormous crowd. News reports at the time said about 250,000, while Guinness World Records later estimated 600,000 to 700,000. Several acts struggled that week, including Kris Kristofferson, whose set was ruined by poor sound.
On Saturday, August 29, Joni Mitchell had just sung "Woodstock" when a man known as Yogi Joe took over her microphone to make a speech. Her manager led him away, and some in the crowd booed. Mitchell stopped, asked the audience to give the artists some respect, and then carried on, closing with "Both Sides Now" and returning for an encore.
#7: The Doors — The Warehouse, New Orleans (1970)
On December 12, 1970, the Doors played the Warehouse in New Orleans. Nobody knew it would be Jim Morrison's last concert with the band. He had been drinking heavily, and promoter Don Fox said Morrison seemed "not all there."
Partway through the set, Morrison sat down and began telling jokes. Ray Manzarek later said it felt as if Morrison's spirit had left him. Near the end, during "The End," Morrison smashed his microphone stand into the stage floor until it broke through, then walked off. The show is also remembered for one of only two live performances of "Riders on the Storm."
The rest of the tour was canceled. Morrison moved to Paris, where he died on July 3, 1971, at age 27. The official cause was listed as heart failure.
#6: Eric Clapton — Birmingham Odeon (1976)
This night is remembered for words, not music. At a concert at the Birmingham Odeon in August 1976, a visibly drunk Eric Clapton spoke from the stage in support of Enoch Powell, a politician known for his anti-immigration speeches, and used racist language.
The irony was hard to miss. Clapton's career was built on the blues, and his cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" had been a No. 1 hit in America. Photographer Red Saunders, designer Roger Huddle and several friends wrote an open letter to the music press, calling for a movement called Rock Against Racism. Its first concert followed that November, and it grew into one of Britain's best-known music campaigns.
Years later, Clapton said he was deeply ashamed of the person he had been during those years of heavy drinking.
#5: Pink Floyd — Montreal Olympic Stadium (1977)
On July 6, 1977, Pink Floyd closed their In the Flesh tour before a crowd of nearly 80,000 in Montreal. Fans near the stage were setting off fireworks and shouting through the quieter songs, and Roger Waters lost patience.
He leaned over the edge of the stage and spat at a fan. Waters said afterward that he was shocked by his own behavior. That night he talked with producer Bob Ezrin about wanting to build a wall between the band and the audience.
That idea became The Wall (1979), which spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and has sold more than 30 million copies.
#4: Jefferson Starship — Hamburg, West Germany (1978)
In June 1978, Jefferson Starship were touring West Germany when Grace Slick fell ill and a festival show at the Loreley amphitheater was canceled. Unhappy fans rioted, and much of the band's equipment was destroyed or stolen.
The next night in Hamburg, the band played with replacement gear, but Slick had been drinking heavily. On stage she taunted the audience, repeatedly asking "Who won the war?" and giving a Nazi salute. The show had been filmed for the German TV program Rockpalast, but it was never broadcast.
Paul Kantner asked Slick to resign, and she did. She later called it a night of "dumb, drunken decisions." About three years later, she rejoined the band.
#3: KISS — The Dynasty Tour (1979)
By late 1979, the original KISS lineup was coming apart. At a show on December 8, Paul Stanley signaled Peter Criss to slow the tempo, and Criss responded by dragging the song to a crawl.
Two nights later in Jackson, Mississippi, Criss stopped playing in the middle of a song, then threw down his microphone after singing "Beth." At the next show, in Biloxi, he hit Gene Simmons on the back of the head with a drumstick, and Simmons kicked him in the shin during the break before the encore. Criss later admitted that cocaine had left him edgy and playing too fast.
The tour ended in Toledo on December 16, 1979. Criss was let go soon afterward, and Eric Carr took his place in 1980.
#2: The Who — Cow Palace, Daly City (1973)
On November 20, 1973, the Who opened their Quadrophenia tour in America at the Cow Palace near San Francisco. Before the show, Keith Moon had taken a tranquilizer and drunk brandy. Partway through the concert, he collapsed over his drums, came back, then collapsed again and was taken away.
Pete Townshend asked the crowd whether anybody could play the drums. Promoter Bill Graham sent up 19-year-old Scot Halpin from the audience. Halpin later said he played three numbers before he was exhausted. Rolling Stone gave him its "Pick-Up Player of the Year" award.
Halpin died on February 9, 2008, at age 54, of a brain tumor. Keith Moon died in 1978, at 32.
#1: Sex Pistols — Winterland, San Francisco (1978)
The Sex Pistols' only American tour was short and chaotic. Manager Malcolm McLaren booked them mostly into small venues across the Deep South rather than big cities. By the time they reached Winterland on January 14, 1978, the band was barely holding together, with Sid Vicious deep in addiction.
The sold-out show was broadcast live on KSAN radio. The band closed with the Stooges' "No Fun," and at the end Johnny Rotten asked the crowd, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Then he walked off. Within days, he announced he was leaving the band. He later wrote that he had felt cheated himself and did not want to go on.
Why So Many 1970s Concerts Went Wrong
Looking back, several threads run through these nights. Tours had grown bigger and longer, crowds were larger than ever, and alcohol and drugs were part of daily life for many musicians. When something gave way, it happened in front of thousands of people.
A few even led somewhere good, like Rock Against Racism or a fan's unexpected night on stage.
Were you at a concert in the 1970s that did not go as planned, and what do you still remember about that night?
Sources and Further Reading
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