We Will Rock You

Many of you are regular listeners of Long Live Rock, the show I co-host on Blog Talk Radio with Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited. Now I’m pleased to announce that we’re going to start a series of product giveaways and give you the opportunity not only to win free cool stuff, but be a part of the show!

First up is a hardcover copy of Ozzy Osbourne’s recent autobiography I Am Ozzy. This acclaimed book is a must-read for any fan of Ozzy or hard rock and metal in general.

To register to win, all you have to do is leave a comment in the comments section below. Be sure to include your email address. Next Tuesday I will select a winner at random from everyone who enters. I will email that winner and set up a time to record you for the show, and we’ll announce you on the show the following Sunday! It’s that simple.

Recently I posted a story about an incident at the High Voltage Festival in London that allegedly transpired between Joe Elliott, Ian Hunter and the road crew of Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

To summarize it, Joe and Ian overran their time onstage, and according to published reports that I was using as my sources, as well as photographer Ross Halfin (and some off-the-record emails I received), ELP’s crew pulled the plug on Joe and Ian, resulting in a general fistfight at the side of the stage.

Many of you wrote to me in defense of ELP, saying that Joe and Ian were at fault, that they knowingly overran their time, and that it was the festival’s organizers who pulled the plug, not ELP. And in all sincerity I should have looked at the other side of the story before I published what I did. I usually hold myself to a higher standard than that, and in this case I rushed to judgment, so I apologize to all of you and to ELP and their crew as well.

On the other hand, at least I didn’t jump the gun anywhere near as much as the British tabloid The Sun, which reported the incident as “a thirty-man punch-up” in which Joe and Ian “wielded their guitars like axes” while screaming, “Let’s have it, you bastards!”

As entertainingly far-fetched as that is, apparently what did transpire was interesting enough in itself. One of ELP’s crew members posted the following at Progressive Ears:

-None of us were involved with ushering D&O off the stage - any communications with them and their staff was done by the right people — the FESTIVAL staff. And yes– D&O had run over — and ALL DAY the fine staff at the festival was KEEPING THE SHOW ON SCHEDULE. Like all other bands — ELP had an exact time to play — and stuck to it –the ELP show ended exactly when it was supposed to, as well.

Ross, with all due respect, if he is the source of this story –assumed that everyone onstage with working credentials or wearing a flashlight (or whatever criteria he used), was working for ELP.

That’s the way it happened. DEFINITELY a scuffle, DEFINITELY a commotion on stage right and bad vibes, but we were not involved. If Ross likes , we can have him take a look at what the four ELP crew members look like– we all have Facebook pages with work related shots on them. He’ll then be certain he got the story wrong.

FWIW I quite enjoyed a bunch of the D&O set — I’m an Ian fan and have seen him live 3 or 4 times — always great. The band opened with a PERFECT version of Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend”.
Too bad their show ended with all this.”

Anoher of the crew working the ELP show that day emailed me privately, and this was his take:

“I was standing by Keith Emerson’s Moog, getting ready for
the turn around scheduled at 8:10 PM. I was prepping it and
tuning up the instrument. Jimmy Page was sitting down in
front of the Moog and watching the Down and Outz perform. I
asked 2 people to step away from the MOOG and to not put
their beers on the moog stand. Page was enjoying himself.

After the tuning, I walked over and sat down by my rack gear
and watched Rob perform the last song before they introduced
Ian Hunter and the other guitarist. The guitarist came out
but Ian was still backstage right, behind a curtain and
sipping his wine from a wine glass. Rob then said some
people need to be announced twice, and re-introduced him
again. Ian then walked out and stepped up to the mike. The
drummer started a count in for the song, but Ian stopped him
and walked around the stage a little more. The drummer once
again started the count in but Ian stopped again. I turned
off my recorder at this time, because it was a waste of
video to watch this pompous start up of his song. I walked
away and came back about 10 minutes later.
The agreement we had with the promoter and show people was
that we would have 35 minutes to turn around and bring our
gear up and running, show ready. That’s not much time. The
show was running a tight schedule and each performer knew
how long they would be onstage. At this point, the schedule
was running on time. My understanding is that the Down And
Outz were now looking to go over time, thereby taking away
our turn around time. We had been advised that there was a
very hard curfew of 10:30 PM, We had our set and was it
timed to go to 10:30, barring any overlays from previous
bands.
The stage manager advised management of the Down and Outz
that their set was over, and that they should thank the
audience and walk off. Rather than honor their agreement,
they, and Ian, were ready to launch onto another song. The
stage manager then told his stagehands to start taking the
Down and Outz gear off the stage, and the announcer cut the
mikes and went to canned music. At this point, Ian Hunter
charged after one of the stage hands, grabbed his arm and
flung him around, screaming at him to put the “his” piano
back. Jimmy stood up from his chair as this event was
happening right in front of him. I was standing next to
Jimmy and escorted him out of the path of Ian and the stage
hand as well as the small group that was now forming around
the stage hand, Ian and the piano. It was at this time that
I reach over and thanked Jimmy for changing the direction of
music and, by extension, changing my musical direction. He
shook my hand, shrugged his shoulders as he looked over at
the scuffle, muttered something then walked to stage right
and off the stage. Ian Hunter walked away from the scuffle
shortly thereafter.
I watched from upstage right as an Asian man screamed
obscenities at the stage manager, all this while the stage
hands were busy removing Down and Outz gear and moving our
equipment to the previous staked places, that were put there
at 2:00 AM the night before. The stage manager asked the
Asian man to stop yelling and pointing his finger in his
face. When the man refused, the stage manager had him
removed from the stage by 2 other stagehands.
This is when Rob, still carrying his British flag designed
electric guitar, stepped in and told the stagehands to stop
that. Push came to shove and the whole flotsam of people
ended up on a backstage railing/overhang. I thought the
railing would let go and collapse under the pushing and
shoving from each individual. I then saw Rob punch one of
the stagehands in the side of the face. This stagehand was
stunned at first and his cheek went red. Another stagehand,
much bigger than the one Rob had punched, entered the fray
and stood between Rob and the just punched stagehand. The
new guy was much bigger and therefore a more even match for
Rob, who did not throw a second punch. Rather, he backed
away under the advisement of his entourage. I could hear a
girl telling him: ” don’t Rob, it’s not worth it.” He
withdrew, as did the group, and I went back to moving my
gear into place, albeit with a now shortened turn around
time, thanks to the Down and Outz special guest and the
ensuing antics.
In a nutshell, I think that the Down and Outz played a great
set, and this set came unglued when their “special guest”
Ian Hunter came out. From my experience of what I saw, Mr.
Hunter displayed certain arrogance towards the audience from
the moment he was called out twice to come and sing. This
in turn pushed the set list over the Down and Outz’s
allotted time. The stage manager was only doing his job,
which was to maintain a schedule, which by all means was
very tight. ELP’s stage crew, of which we are but 4, had
now to double time in order for us to meet our allotted
start time. We had a couple of technical issues that
compounded our turn around time and caused us a slight delay
in our scheduled start time. None of our crew were involved
in the slightest with these guys. Their indiscretion
forced ELP to “steamroll” through their set in order to not
be cut off by the hard curfew imposed upon them. The ELP
set, which should have been 150%, ended up being only 100%,
partly because of this delay.
In the future, I would advise you to check your facts before
printing a biased, one sided and pompous review of a show,
which was based on someone lackey’s jaded view of a great
band. And I hope that you call this individual out and hold
him accountable for his bullshit reporting.”

Representatives for Joe and Ian have not responded to my emails asking for comment.

I am pleased to announce that Helen P. is the winner randomly chosen to receive a copy of Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer’s autobiography Hit Hard from We Will Rock You.

Congratulations Helen!

I recently  reviewed Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer’s riveting autobiography Hit Hard: A Story Of Hitting Rock Bottom At The Top. Now I’m giving you the chance to win a copy for yourself!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post with your email address, and at the end of the month I will choose one lucky winner at random from those comments. It’s as simple as that. I will announce the winner in a post here at We Will Rock You.

Good luck!

I am happy to announce that Glenn Donithan has been selected as the winner of the new Black Crowes DVD  Warpaint Live. He will receive a free copy of the new project from Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Keep visiting We Will Rock You for more contests and giveaways coming up!

     Eagle Rock Entertainment will release The Black Crowes’ new concert DVD Warpaint Live on June 30th, but you can get your copy free from We Will Rock You.

     Just email me at sterlingwit@aol.com before next Friday to enter to win.  I will choose one entry at random and I will announce that winner next Friday. It’s as easy as that!