10 Famous Concert Screw-Ups

photo: Getty Images

There’s a famous scene in Spinal Tap where a replica of Stonehenge that the band had commissioned for their show is lowered onto the stage. Instead of standing an imposing 18 feet high, the fake monument is only 18 inches tall.

Yeah, it was a fictional flub in the career of a fake band, but the incident has come to symbolize the kind of real concert screw-ups that happen all the time. The concert world is filled with too many lip-synching disasters, botched lighting cues, flubbed backing tracks, and wardrobe malfunctions to mention. But that won’t stop me.

Here’s my list of my favorite concert flubs. One important note: I left off Jay Z playing Oasis’s “Wonderwall” at 2008’s Glastonbury Festival with a guitar hanging from his neck as a prop. It was insanely lame and deserves to be on some kind of list, but I know it wasn’t technically a mistake. Just poor judgment.

JANET JACKSON
Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction (2004)

“Nipplegate” was probably the biggest concert blunder of all time. It was definitely the most televised. Janet’s anatomy was flashed onscreen for less than a second, but the legal aftermath of the exposed nipple lasted for years. MTV, which produced the half-time concert, was banned forever from producing any more shows for the NFL. CBS paid a $550,000 fine (later overturned), while Justin Timberlake had to apologize on that year’s Grammys. And Janet? Well, she hasn’t played for Super Bowl-sized crowds ever since.

Clip below contains partial nudity

VAN HALEN
Out-of-sync “Jump” backing track plays (2007)

Diamond Dave and the Van Halen family buried the hatchet and reunited for a comeback tour. Everything was going their way: sold-out shows, a nostalgic fanbase, no brown M&Ms backstage. Blame one of the soundmen for blowing a good thing. At the band’s Greensboro, North Carolina, tour stop, the famed (and maligned by some) keyboard riff to “Jump” was played back at a different sample rate. For those of you who aren’t sound techies, here’s all you need to know: The keyboard sounds totally out-of-key with the rest of the band. TOTALLY out-of-key. It was bad. Watch for yourself. One would presume the soundman was sent home packing after the show.

THE WHO
Drummer passes out (1973)

The Who’s Keith Moon was a legendary party animal. He drove cars into pools, invented the art of throwing TV sets out of hotel windows, and ingested all manner of items not intended for human consumption. Before one San Francisco show, Moon downed some horse tranquilizers. Not surprisingly, he didn’t make it through the performance, and bandleader Pete Townshend brought up an audience member to finish on Moon’s behalf.

The missing drummer is addressed at 1:09

MILLI VANILLI
Lip-synch track skips (1989)

Long before Jessica Simpson’s sister Ashlee embarrassed herself on Saturday Night Live (more on that later) two braided dudes from France and Germany paved the way. Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were the next big thing until a disastrous 1989 performance for MTV. That’s when their vocal track skipped. They faked singing for a moment after that, then ran offstage. You know the rest of the story. Bye-bye, Milli Vanilli.

NIRVANA
Bassist hits himself with his own instrument (1992)

Nirvana was near the top of the grunge mountain when they performed at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. After a head-splitting version of “Lithium,” bassist Krist Novoselic (apparently upset over the sound of his bass rig) tossed his instrument up in the air. Note to self: Don’t stand underneath a bass that’s been tossed up in the air. Queen guitarist Brian May was standing backstage with a glass of bubbly to ease the pain — and the embarrassment.

The toss is at 4:15

ASHLEE SIMPSON
Lip-synching on national TV revealed (2004)

Following in the steps of the above-mentioned Milli Vanilli and other musical giants, Ashlee made late-night TV history when she was busted lip-synching on SNL. She blamed it on the band. She blamed it on the drummer. She blamed it on acid reflux (seriously). Her little ad-libbed hoedown dance after she was caught was almost a bigger embarrassment. People can forget a lip-synched performance. But a lame Hee Hawsquaredance? Major faux pas.

BEYONCÉ
Beyoncé falls onstage (2007)

Beyoncé gets paid a lot of money to dance. People show up at her concerts expecting a woman who is in command of the stage and her body. The problem is this: Beyoncé wears very high heels and long coats. That’s a dangerous mix, especially when complicated dance steps are involved. During an Orlando tour stop, Sasha Fierce fell down the steps headfirst. To her credit, she didn’t miss a beat, jumping up and finishing the tune. (Ashlee Simpson, hoedown queen, please take note.) When she was finished, she asked her fans not to post the fall on YouTube. Sorry.

THE DOORS
Lead singer shows up drunk and exposes himself to audience (1969)

It’s become the stuff of rock legend: A very drunk Jim Morrison rants, raves, and gets busted for lewd behavior at a Miami concert. While in retrospect it may seem like vintage-rebellious rock stagecraft, think about what the guys in Coldplay would say backstage if Chris Martin started prancing around half-naked and drunk onstage. They’d probably call it a screw-up. That describes the Lizard King at this point in his career: a sad, embarrassing, drunk screw-up.

U2
Lemon malfunctions (1997)

After the outsized stadium success of Zoo TV, the world’s biggest band decided to launch an even bigger, supersized stadium spectacle. The PopMart Tour was intended as a sardonic ode to commercialism and pop culture fetishes of all kinds. The centerpiece of the show was a giant, mirror-balled lemon that carried the band. During a stop in Oslo, the lemon failed to open, forcing our Irish heroes to exit through an escape hatch in back. Another almost as regrettable part of that concert was the Edge’s Village People-inspired outfit and handlebar mustache.

photo: Ebet Roberts/Redferns

BLACK EYED PEAS
Fergie wets her pants (2005)

I might expect this at an Ozzy Osbourne show. That dude is old, drinks too much (he’s sober now?), and doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going. But Fergie peeing her pants? Come on, she’s got an album called The Dutchess. Duchesses don’t pee in their pants. But Fergie did at a 2005 Black Eyed Peas gig in San Diego. She said she had a few drinks before the show. All the guys hoping to buy Fergie some drinks and get lucky, please think twice.