Eric Clapton ended a concert in Madrid early after being struck by a vinyl record thrown from the audience, leading him to skip the show’s planned encore performance.
The 81-year-old guitarist had just finished performing “Cocaine” at the Movistar Arena in the Spanish capital last week when the object was launched from the crowd and struck him in the chest, a video of the incident shared on social media showed. The footage also showed him recoil briefly after the impact before walking off stage.
Clapton did not appear to be injured and later performed in Barcelona on Sunday. A fan said on X that it was a vinyl record that was thrown at him.
After being struck by the object, Clapton did not return to the stage for his usual encore of “Before You Accuse Me,” in what was the musician’s first appearance in the Spanish capital in 25 years. According to Guitar World, the song had closed previous performances on the European leg of his 2026 tour.
The Independent has reached out to representatives for Clapton for comment.
Fans on social media criticised the audience member who threw the object and expressed frustration over the concert ending without an encore.
“Waiting more than 20 years for Eric Clapton to come and for some overexcited fan to cut the concert short ahead of time by throwing a vinyl record at him that nearly hit him square in the face. He walked off and never came back,” wrote one fan on X, formerly Twitter.
Esperar más de 20 años a que venga Eric Clapton y que un exaltado precipite el final del concierto antes de tiempo al tirarle un vinilo que casi le da en toda la cara. Se marchó y ya no volvió pic.twitter.com/YH9YEGBPWG
— HE REUNIDO aLA BANDA (@REVISTA_HRB) May 8, 2026
Another wrote: “Closed out a wonderful trip to Portugal & Spain with an Eric Clapton concert in Madrid. Got cheated of an encore after idiotic fan threw a cardboard LP sleeve onto stage that struck Clapton.”
Clapton’s European tour is scheduled to conclude with performances in Mannheim on 13 May, Cologne on 15 May, and Munich on 17 May. The guitarist will then return to the UK for a one-off show at the Sandringham Estate in August before beginning a US tour in September.
The North American leg will conclude in Austin, Texas, at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, which Clapton founded in 1999 to support Crossroads Centre, the addiction treatment facility he established in Antigua.
Increíble lo sucedido en el concierto de Eric Clapton en Madrid. Un asistente lanzó un vinilo con una nota y golpeo en el pecho al legendario guitarrista. Este decidió no tocar la última canción del repertorio por ello https://t.co/XEVYX00Mkx
— Vinilos Voladores (@VVoladores) May 8, 2026
This follows a string of cases in recent years in which performers have been struck by objects thrown from crowds during concerts. In June 2023, Bebe Rexha was hit in the face by a mobile phone while performing at Pier 17 in New York City, leaving the singer with a black eye and requiring three stitches. In 2024, she kicked out a concertgoer who allegedly tried to throw an object at her on stage in Norway.
The following month, Harry Styles was hit in the face by a thrown object during a live performance in Vienna while pop-rock singer Pink was shocked when a fan threw what she claimed was a bag of her mother’s ashes onto the stage.
A few days later, singer Ava Max said an alleged stage invader “slapped her so hard” during a show in Los Angeles that it scratched the inside of her eye, while country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini was hit in the face by a friendship bracelet thrown by a fan during her concert in Idaho.
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