worst singing accident

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 07:36 PM

Jeez, Don....I used to sing a LOT, but came the time, I'd rather compose, and write for some one else's particular voice, instead of writing a song, and 'everyone' doing it. Some songs work best, for a particular voice, rather than anyone who fancies them self a 'singer'..
just for what it's worth...nothing's etched in stone about that.

I can't feature Andrea Bocelli singing 'Tip Toe Through the Tulips' or 'Philadelphia Freedom'......Wink!

GfS

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Don Firth
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 04:46 PM

Hmm! Never thought about it quite that way. Now I'm worried. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 11:37 AM

Don Firth: "Then, I launched into the guitar intro, opened my mouth, and totally blanked out on the words!!! Zip! Nada! Nothin'!!"

....then the audience gave him a warm appreciative ovation!

Wink,

GfS

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 06:04 PM

Nastiest I ever managed was to cause a lad to spray his mates with beer at one line in a song he thought was particularly funny !

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 05:46 PM

I saw a famous folk person nearly demolish the sound system at a Walton Festival concert many years ago.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 05:20 AM

I saw Martin Carthy play at the Topic Folk Club in Bradford a good few years ago and when he started his second spot a large moth flew out of the soundhole of his guitar.

Dave H

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: stallion
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 05:16 AM

Electrocution usually infers death. All electrical services supplying public entertainment equipment are required to have RCD protection which disconnects if more than 30 milliamps on either line conductor leaks to earth and disconnects within 40 milliseconds. At last I can contribute to a thread with some confidance! By and large the circuit is disconnected before a shock is felt although it doesn't happen that often to me i hasten to add.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 05:09 PM

We've had another electrocution at the Edinburgh Fringe this year: Camille O'Sullivan, but she managed to carry on in spite of the spasm all down one side of her body! Some complex explanation of how she was saved from worse injury by something earthing.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 04:55 PM

The Depend didn't hold all of it! I was finishing a song, so I announced that "there was something on the main deck of the steamboat Julia Belle Swain I had left down there. "I'll be right back!" ---- I hit the stairs and fixed the situation in the mens room, took a picture of myself in the men's room mirror for some reason, then returned to the second deck and finished my set.

That photo can be seen at http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html

Art

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: stallion
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 07:51 AM

Oh Lord now for confessions, I was a paid guest at a folk club in the early 1970's and, having listened to all the floor singers whom I thought were all ten times better than me, got very drunk to calm my nerves. When I got up to sing the organiser asked if it was ok to make a tape recording, I said ok. Anyway my leg was shaking so much I sat on a piano at the back of the stage as I was singing a microphone cellotaped to to a bamboo garden cane appeared from behind me, there was someone laid in the gap between the wall and the stage with this contraption, I laughed so much I leaned back and the piano fell on him, didn't get my money and gave up performing for many a long year, the poor chap broke his hip.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: GUEST,Diane Forth-Eglon
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 04:11 AM

Hi Don, I don't know how to contact you, but I saw your post under "MY Voice is damaged, HELP!" regarding a scratchy singing voice. In June I had acute laryngitis and a week to two weeks later, the voice returned. I am a pianist/singer, and played in hotels in the Middle East and Africa, and I'm going through some personal mirk, but when I sing and play, life is more bearable. However, since the voice returned, its always scratchy and when I try and sing, Simon Cowell would not put me through to the next round! Especially the high notes which sounds like a weak windy sound. Believe me I was a good singer. What do I do? I want to return to the entertainment industry and join a band. I can't afford singing lessons or a private ent as I am epileptic and on benefit. PLEASE HELP! Thanks. Diane. My email is [e-mail]

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Don Firth
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 03:08 PM

Yeah, I remember the Eagleson Hall concert, but I can't say I remember the verse sung on the harmony line. All of which goes to prove, I guess, that if you accidentally drop your pants in front of the audience and go right ahead as if that's what you intended, you might just get away with it!

I pulled a doozy one evening singing at the Corroboree in 1963. I was about to sing The Flying Dutchman. I went into this long and elaborate introduction (folk singer:    someone who spends twenty minutes introducing a three minute song), talking about the myth of the Flying Dutchman and it's many variations, even talking some about Wagner's opera, Der Fliegenede Hollander, based on a version of the flying Dutchman myth. I yammered on endlessly!

Then, I launched into the guitar intro, opened my mouth, and totally blanked out on the words!!! Zip! Nada! Nothin'!!

Fortunately, the audience was friendly, and they thought it was pretty funny! They let me live!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Bru
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 01:00 PM

The only accident I've witnessed, which didn't turn out as bad as it looked, was at the 1968 Jazz & Blues Festival at Kempton Park. Saturday night, we'd got seats, but lots of people had climbed on the roof of a stand at the rear of the ground. It collapsed, although nobody was aware of what was happening at the time, until the blue lights started appearing. John Gee was on the stage, trying to get through to the audience. We just shouted and cheered louder - Arthur Brown was due on and we thought it was one of his spectacular appearances (the year before he'd been lowered in on a crane - anybody remember that).

One of the things I do remember about the 60's was the unbelievably dangerous things with did with electrical equipment. Nobody was suppposed to get killed, but they sometimes did. Accidents short of death were commonplace. A crack off an unearthed mic full of gob was potentially lethal, but hardly rare. Those were the days.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: frogprince
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 12:08 PM

I was personally to blame for the worst singing accident I've been present for. We usually camp at a resort a few miles away on summer holiday weekends. They had been having karaoke nights. Par for the course was some people who were actually very good to supurb, some who were pitiful. I finally got it in my head to get up and sing "The Times They Are A-Changing". I froze up totally, and damaged the song badly. For a fact, they didn't have karaoke again for at least a couple of years; I really wondered sometimes to what degree I was the reason. I really, really, should leave singing to my wife.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: open mike
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 11:05 AM

explanation of previous post here: (wikipedia entry)
Later Years
Mayfield was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s, though he had a somewhat lower public profile. On August 13, 1990, Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down after stage lighting equipment fell on him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York.[8] The accident set him back, but Mayfield forged ahead. He was unable to play guitar, but he wrote, sang and directed the recording of his last album, New World Order. Mayfield's vocals were painstakingly recorded, usually line-by-line while lying on his back.

Mayfield received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In February, 1998, he had to have his right leg amputated due to diabetes. Mayfield was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999. Health reasons prevented him from attending the ceremony, which included fellow inductees Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Dusty Springfield, George Martin, and 1970s Curtom signee and labelmate The Staple Singers.

His last appearance on record was with the group Bran Van 3000 on the song "Astounded" for their album Discosis, recorded just before his death and released in 2001.
[edit] Death

Curtis Mayfield died on December 26, 1999 at the North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, Georgia due to his steadily declining health subsequent to his paralysis. He is remembered as a modest man with great musical insight and sensitivity.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: G-Force
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 10:02 AM

These incidents can be serious: think Curtis Mayfield.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: kendall
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 07:46 AM

It was during a folk festival, I told a story about a preacher and just as I finished it, there was a loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning at the same time. The lights went out and I felt called upon to comment, so I looked up and said "Whats the matter, can't take a joke"?
Some folks swore I arranged it.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Deckman
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 07:23 AM

I've got an old memory that sticks in my mind, and it envolves Mudcatter favorite Don Firth, and meself!

Don, do you remember that evening, in 1959, at Eagleson Hall in Seattle's "U" district, when you and I were giving a concert? We were just working up some duets and we were trying out "The Mermaid" for just about the first time. On the chorus, you sang that strong melody line, with your strong voice, while I sang a higher harmony. When it came my time to sing a verse, the only thing that came out of my pea brain was the harmony melody. So there I was, singing a strong verse with a VERY WEAK harmony melody.

You looked at me, I looked at you, and I silently said something like: &(*^&*%$%^&* ... and kept on singing. That's one of my re-curring nightmares! Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: open mike
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 08:53 PM

hurray for luthiers...who can revive our precious instruments..
i was playing at a dance when a sweaty couple lost thier grip
and came crashing into my dear martin...the crack was repaired,
but Martina does not ring quite like she used to...

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: GUEST,Jan Burda
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 10:41 AM

It could have been the night the late Fred Holstein left the stage in his own venue, amidst much audience applause, tripping over a mike cord. The old D-18 in one hand and a D12-28 in the other, sailed out in the audience at a high rate of speed. Two crashes. One feels sick after the kind of event. I repaired both.
                                     or
Paul Geremia and Peter Madcat Ruth playing a rocking blues number on stage at Somebody Elses Troubles, when, Paul's priceless Stella 12-string hits the floor hard, decapitating it. As it was about to fall, gasps came from the audience, followed by a substantial noise. It got repaired.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Little Robyn
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 07:04 AM

The second Banjo Picker's Convention held at Te Rapa, just out of Hamilton, New Zealand at Easter 1968, had a large circus tent for the main venue. I heard it was the largest circus tent in the southern hemisphere, at the time, though there are bigger tents used nowadays.
The weather had been bad (it was the week the interisland ferry, Wahine had sunk in Wellington Harbour) and was still very windy.
The big tent had been erected for a Friday start and was used for concerts and a 'barn dance' throughout the weekend.
On Sunday afternoon there was a family concert, aimed at the large number of children there and by then the tent had become very floppy, the sides blowing in and out with the wind.
At half time the side doors/flaps were opened just as a wind gust blew straight in. The tent billowed up, like a huge balloon! I was sitting at the back, near the tent wall which had been securely anchored to the ground and a group of us just skedaddled underneath as it lifted in the air.
One of the longest metal poles bent over and a couple of the wooden poles snapped. There was a long tear where the roof canvas had ripped and the whole thing was ruined, I believe.
Several other smaller tents were pushed over as well.
Luckily, nobody was injured and an enclosed venue in town was made available at short notice, so the final concert was able to go ahead.
But I still feel nervous in large tents if the wind is blowing, especially if the sides or roof are moving in and out, even if they are made of a stronger plastic/nylon material and not just canvas.
Robyn

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Gurney
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 02:39 AM

I saw an over-lubricated performer fall from a low stage onto a Guild and wreck it. Neither were insured.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 12:35 AM

Not while she was performing, but—

Metropolitan Opera diva Renée Fleming, in her autobiography, The Inner Voice:   The Making of a Singer describes a similar incident. It's been awhile since I read it, so I'm a little fuzzy on where she was and what she was doing, but she says that she had gone to "the little girl's room" to "freshen up" and was walking in a nearby garden when a man stepped up to her and said quietly, "Miss Fleming, I think you'd probably like to know that. . . ."

Yup. Back of her skirt tucked into the back of her panty hose.

Then she described how she went to see an opera performance, got there late, and tried to sneak in, being careful not to make any noise or cause a disturbance. Very dark, except for the stage. She sat down, gauging her location by the row of seats in front of her, forgetting that the seats were sort of staggered, so audience members could look between the heads of the people just in front of them. Pratfall! Landed with a resounding crash! People in the surrounding area leapt up to help her. At least one of them recognized her and said in a loud enough voice to reverberate through the opera house, "Miss Fleming, are you hurt!!???" Fortunately, nothing damaged but her pride.

Some days are like that.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Genie
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 11:41 PM

LOL, Nick ( What kind of skirt were you wearing?)

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Nick E
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 08:28 PM

I have that happen all the time, I call it Please Dont Tell My Wife!

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: DebC
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 08:23 PM

Skirt in the pantyhose...had that happen twice. I called it a wardrobe malfunction.

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Genie
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 06:53 PM

Does walking out of the restroom and turning your back on your assembling audience to set up your amp, while your skirt is tucked into your panty hose count?

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 06:12 PM

True. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 05:16 PM

Don, that wasn't "singing" and we don't know that he was an accident.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 04:18 PM

Somewhere, I have slides of the Irish stage at the Smithsonian Folk Festival about 25 years ago. They had rigged a roof 'cover' for the stage by stretching tarps (plastic?) on cables, so they could be pulled open or used as a sun shield.......then it rained...hard...but the cover was flat. And before the crew could do anything, there was a huge dip in that cover as the rain filled it. The Irish Group kept playing for a bit, but soon retreated to a small trailer as the crew first tried to move the tarp...totally impossible....then, as they realized what might happen if several hundred gallons all broke loose at once, they got boards and poked several holes in the 'water balloon', causing quite a series of gushers...at least semi-controlled.

I was under a big umbrella in front, taking pictures madly, and watching the MC and players looking out the trailer door, and being glad they got out of the way.

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 04:12 PM

Bob Dylan?

(sorry. . . .)

Don Firth

Subject: RE: worst singing accident
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 04:12 PM

Seamus has a great tale involving a tent in Pennsylvania.

Subject: worst singing accident
From: open mike
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 04:05 PM

The worst singing accident I have witnessed was when Garnet Rogers was thrown to the ground by an electrical shock. For a while we were worried that he needed C.P.R., but he came out of it. Still ok i hope!

what sort of disasters have you experienced or seen during musicmaking?

It seems I recall of a tornado tearing up the stage at a festival in canada not too long ago..

and of course there were those who were trampled to death in Germany recently at a "Peace Festival"

I do remember a power outage once, where the performers continued to perform un-plugged and the audience members shined flashlights on the outdoor stage. (strawberry music festival)