the thing is, I think my tangents are interesting and pertinent. So... I keep them, but move them over here to help with flow.
This piece here is a footnote to my 'Found Sound' piece.
Here is a funny aside I just remembered as I was typing this up. It think it was Guns' second riot- St Louis, or something like that. Axl saw a guy taking a picture. Axl snapped, and dove in the crowd. Then, he beat the kid up... and then stormed out of the arena. This ended the big show. They were, understandably, banned from St Louis for a long time. With that in mind, I have changed my position. I now FULLY endorse Rolling Stone making money off illegal G&R footage.
During the band's performance of "Rocket Queen", the 15th song in the set (counting drum and guitar solos), lead singer Axl Rose, in the middle of the chorus, pointed out a fan who was taking still pictures of the show, saying "...Hey, take that! Take that! Now, get that guy and take that!" When security was unable to deal with the person, Rose decided to confiscate the camera himself, saying "I'll take it, god damn it!" and then jumped into the audience and tackled the person.
After taking the camera, striking members of the audience and the security team, and being pulled out of the audience by crew members, Rose grabbed his microphone and said "Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!", slammed his microphone on the stage and left.
The sound the microphone made sounded to some fans like a gunshot. After Rose left, lead guitarist Slash quickly told the audience, "He just smashed the microphone. We're out of here." This infuriated the audience, setting off a riot in which dozens of people were injured.
The footage was captured by Robert John, who was documenting the entire tour for the band. Rose was charged with having incited the riot, but police were unable to arrest him until almost a year later, as the band went overseas to continue the tour.
Lighten up, Francis!
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