Life often stands in the way of art. From cultural boycotts to vocal haemorrhages, gigs get cancelled, fans are disappointed, live agents weep into empty wallets. This week, it was the Foo Fighters’s turn, when their frontman, Dave Grohl, broke his leg during a concert, and the band announced their headline show at Glastonbury would be axed, leaving Florence + the Machine to take their place.
Florence has had her own injury-based problems. After she broke her foot on stage after some seriously emotive prancing at Coachella in April, she was consigned to a stool for her set at Radio 1’s Big Weekend last month. She still hit the high wails, but looked frustrated by her inability to exercise her usual stage-clambering skills.
When asked about the status of Florence’s foot on Wednesday, her press team cheerfully predicted that they “expect her to be on full form for Glasto”. Just in case she needs some inspiration, here are some musicians who carried on, regardless of their afflictions. (Apologies in advance to Jedward fans. Your boy just missed the cut.)
Jessie J
When Jessie J fell off a stage while rehearsing for the Capital FM Summertime Ball in 2011, she thought she had torn some tendons in her foot. It turned out she had broken it, which threatened to derail her chances of getting the crowd doin’ it like the man’dem on the Other Stage. Fortunately she delivered her set from a gilded gold throne with luxurious burgundy trim. Despite sporting her protective boot, she still rocked her ubiquitous unitard and made it look better than anyone who isn’t Rihanna ever could. Check out the video below of her doing Price Tag with a little girl she pulled from the crowd. Maybe cry a little bit.
Meggido’s Aldrin Montecinos
Spare a thought for Aldrin Montecinos, lead singer of Chilean black-metal outfit Meggido. Aldrin decided to start a fire on stage with his band in a record store in Valdivia, Chile. Presumably it was a bid to replicate the supernatural carnage on the hill of Meggido, where it’s claimed Armageddon will take place. His hair and beard unsurprisingly caught on fire. If you’re the lead singer of a black-metal band, it’s not very cool to finish a set because of something so namby-pamby as an on stage flame. So he growled and howled his way through the rest of their repertoire, before going to hospital to treat the first-degree burns on his face.
Damon Albarn
In this video from Glastonbury 1992, Damon – doing a passable impression of Mark E Smith and the Artful Dodger – crashes arse first into a stack, causing the top speaker to fall on to his left foot, which breaks. Unabated, he proceeds to hop around before leaping on to the back of a disinterested stagehand who doesn’t even turn round to acknowledge the plonker on his shoulders. To be fair to Damon, he finishes the song with aplomb – luckily it’s the last one – before hobbling off to leave Alex James to stare moodily at the crowd with a fag between his lips.
Def Leppard’s Rick Allen
On New Year’s Eve 1984, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen was driving his car through rural roads near his hometown of Sheffield when he crashed it into a stone wall. Rick was flung from the car, but his left arm was severed by a seatbelt that wasn’t properly attached. Over the next 20 months, Rick learned to drum with a customised electronic kit that uses pedals to trigger the snare drum rather than the hi-hat. After only a few pub shows, the band played Donington’s Monsters of Rock festival, and a year later they conquered the world with Hysteria – all with Rick on the electro skins. Sorry Dave Grohl, but you’ve got a way to go to match that.
Madonna
Everyone remembers where they were when they saw Madge get yanked off a raised platform at the Brits. Of course she got back up and finished the song, albeit with her timing slightly out on the dance moves. The world laughed, but in retrospect her recovery was impressive and reinforced what we all knew: Madonna is as hard as nails, and her dedication to the art of performance is something we should all bow down to.
Any more to add? Let us know in the comments.
