Ongoing History Daily: Getting injured onstage by your own audience
Over the last couple of years, there’s been a disturbing trend of audience members trying to disrupt a performance by throwing something at the stage. Some have even been hurt. This is stupid, reprehensible behavior, but believe it or not, things used to be worst.
For a period in the 1970s, it became a thing to throw fireworks onstage. In October 1977, Aerosmith was in the middle of a gig at the Spectrum in Philadelphia when some idiot tossed an M-80 firework at the band. Steven Tyler suffered a burned cornea and an artery ruptured in guitarist Joe Perry’s hand. Twelve months later, Aerosmith returned to Philadelphia, only for Perry to be bashed in the head with a glass bottle.
In 2004, someone threw a lollipop at David Bowie and the stick got lodged in his eye. A roadie had to pull it out so Bowie could finish his set.
