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Have you ever fallen on stage?

8K views 50 replies 42 participants last post by  daviderato 
#1 ·
I was playing a wedding a couple weeks ago and the lead singer was doing his thing in the crowd. We try to interact during perfomances. As he was coming back to the band he tripped over the monitor and hit the ground HARD. It was one of those WOW - "That had to hurt." Moments.

So last night, the band played a big outdoor festival thing. There wash a very steep ramp for loading in and out. We played a nice show. During load out, the trumpet player was walking down the ramp and completely wiped-out. Somehow he managed to protect his horn during the fall but is was another one of those moments.

I must be next on the list - FINAL DESTINATION of falling. Has this happened to anyone else?
 
#2 ·
Haha, no I don't think I've ever fallen.

I had very few stage accidents too, surprisingly since I've done quite a few shady hard rock gigs and funk gigs where the crowd is suddenly dancing next to me and grinding into my bari etc. I was playing e-bass in a jam once and somehow the huge bass amp (which was stacked on top of another huge amp) managed to fall down, missing me by less than an inch. But I think that's the closest I got to dying on stage.

Oh and I've seen a singer being electrocuted by a keyboard once, too. Unfortunately he didn't learn his lesson and didn't stop singing for ever.:twisted:
 
#3 ·
almost....Working as a lead singer in the 80's, I was in the crowd and took a running leap onto a chair about 10 feet from the stage that was 3-4 feet high. the chair started sliding towards the stage and I just hopped back on stage. It looked planned. Scared the crap out of me. You'd think I'd remember that but just two weeks ago I climed some stairs to the "VIP" section of a club and stood on the first of a row of 4 tables. It started to wobble, so I steped on the second which did the same. This caused me to keep moving along the tables (playing a sax solo the whole time) I ended up stepping from the 4th table to an 8" ledge about 8 feet off the dance floor. I was actually stuck up there for a bit because I was scared to turn around. The crowd however, loved it :)
 
#4 ·
Our bass player feinted during the 3rd set of one of our gigs. He had not had enough fluids, and it one of the first times he was playing a 3 hour gig with us. We stopped the song we were playing, made sure he was ok, and he said he was alright, so we finished the 3rd set with him sitting on a chair. It was one of those bar/restaurant gigs where there are not that many people there anymore during the 3rd set, and almost no one is paying attention. So this was the most exciting thing that happened in the third set.
 
#13 ·
If we're going there, then I've taken a few running swan-dives, face first.

= = = = = = =

On the plane of reality, however, I haven't gone off the stage yet, but HAVE actually fallen off my keyboard stool - - from laughing.

Our guitar player was hammered in the third set, and started off yet another song in the wrong key, about the 3rd time that night. The bass player/band leader was yelling at him, but couldn't get his attention. So the bass player approached from behind, rared back, and landed the headstock of his bass right between the shoulder-blades of the clueless guitar hero, almost knocking HIM off the stage. I found the whole thing so incredibly funny (not to mention satisfying) that I doubled over and fell over sideways. Somehow the drummer and bass kept going and we eventually got on track.

No blood or damage, and the band didn't even break up.
 
#6 ·
One day after we completed a gig at a small theater I got into a fight with the piano player (nothing phisical, just arguing and calling names at each other) As I was leaving, I closed my part of the "interchange" with some heavy nasty name calling, just to fall from the edge of the stage into a seat in the first row. Was kind of a 6ft fall, kinda hurted some!
 
#7 · (Edited)
In 1989, I was playing tuba in the Wednesday night orchestra at a local mega-church. At the time, their attendance ran about 3,000 on Wednesdays. I was walking around a chair near the edge of the stage when I just stepped off into space. Apparently, in my alarm, I threw the tuba up. I landed with a small "boom"; the tuba landed on top of me with a larger "boom". Both of these sounds were followed by the sound of roughly 3,000 people going "ooooh!", "ouch!" and similar things. I was not physically hurt and several people checked on my well-being. The band director to whom the tuba belonged expressed his concern (for the tuba.) As I understand it, the church paid to remove the head-shaped dent from the bough of the instrument.

After the service, the members of the choir and orchestra came up to me to make sure I was okay....except, of course, for our drummer who instead chose to laugh mercilessly.


Good times.......
 
#8 ·
I did. A couple of times. On the stage, over the stage and behind the stage. But i was drunk each time. I don't know if that counts. But it was really unpleasant experience, each time.
 
#10 ·
I've nearly fallen off the stage. I was playing a gig even though I had the flu, and my balance was a bit wobbly to say the least. Luckily everyone else knew I was sick, and the trumpet player had been keeping an eye on me and gave me just enough of a tug on the arm to prevent me from completely losing my balance just before I crossed the point of no return. She didn't miss the next entrance either, though I did.
 
#14 ·
I haven't fallen on stage but one time I was helping load in for a gig. We got to the club early and all the lights were off. It was pitch black. I was walking across the room with my hands out in front of me trying to get to the far wall and find some light switches. Suddenly, I went flying downward. My elbows it something and one foot landed on something. It killed. I yelled for the other guy to help me and he came in and found the light switch and pulled me up. It turned out that a trap door down to all the soda and beer kegs had been left open and I stepped right into. The scary thing was that this lower room was about 20 feet down and it had a beam running across the room about 6 feet down. I was just imagining if I hadn't landed with one foot on that beam I would have fallen about 20 feet and probably cracked my head open. Or I could have fallen with the beam between my legs which would have been a whole other world of hurt.
 
#16 ·
As a young 18 year old rocknroll sax player I jumped off a 25-30 foot riser after playing the beginning of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page". I had done this successfully three time before and it never failed to get a great audience reaction (the jump and the solo) but this time I fell at an angle and was actually running when I hit to catch my balance
 
#18 · (Edited)
I've fallen off the stage before...

My band had just played a set at an outdoor set on a makeshift stage made from a flatbed 18 wheeler trailer. We were all making our exit off the stage and I got tangled in some mic cords and took a header off of the side of the trailer (backstage side thankfully) -- all the while clutching my tenor for dear life.

I rolled up into the fetal position around my horn and landed hard on my left shoulder with a loud popping sound (it's still not the same to this day). My horn survived unscathed though -- totally worth it.
 
#19 ·
Stages are dangerous places.

I worked as a union stagehand for many years. I was on the local crew setting up for ZZ Top. It was close to noon (I was looking forward to lunch), and we had just 'floated' the onstage lighting truss to about waist height. I thought I had about 3 feet of deck behind me. WRONG. I had 0 feet of deck behind me. I took a step back, and kept going backward, straight down 6 feet onto the concrete floor of the venue. It knocked me out for a minute or so, and knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't get up. They took me by ambulance on a board and neck brace to the hospital, where they X-rayed me and shot shot me up with demerol. Luckily, nothing was broken, but there was nerve and soft tissue damage. I was out for a couple of months, doing PT. It was weird not being able to bend over and tie my own shoes!

About five years later, I was in a theater, where several times a day, I would hop off the stage, and use the armrest of the corner seat as a stair step on the way to the sound console. After a long day, I missed the armrest, and ended up taking out the metal seat, shoulder and knee first. The shoulder was just bruised, but I walked around and 'shook off' the hurt knee.

A few months later, we were doing the 'out' in the same venue for David Copperfield (the magician). We were taking down speakers downstage right, when I heard the telltale sound of a batton unproperly weighted going out of control toward the grid. I pushed my friend off the stage and dived after. Luckily, the batton didn't come flying down, but the flyman broke his arm. I ended up injuring the same knee I had before.

A few months after that, I was climbing out of the orchestra pit after a long 16 hour day. My knee gave out, and I fell back into the pit. The good news was that I missed the harp. The bad news is I fell onto the harp stool, breaking it into splinters.

A couple of years later, I had my knee operated on. They took out 14 pieces of meniscus, and resected what was left.

My advice is to be very, very careful around stages.
 
#20 ·
Not me....

But... in high school our R&B band would do the tune Treat Her Right as our finale. Everyone would be jumping up and down, horns swinging from side t side, absolute mayhem on stage.

One time we were playing at Pearson College for their annual valentine's dance and we were on our last Tune (treat her right) everyone was going crazy, I was in the crowd of dancers playing and I look over to the stage and Kris (our lead singer) went and did this big high kick. He kicked so high that his other foot lifted off the ground and he fell on his tail bone. Without missing a beat he lay on his back and started gyrating while finishing off the tune.

Now that's professional.
 
#21 ·
I don't know if this counts, but since it was kind of funny I'll relate it; I was playing with a rock band back in the early 80s in Blaine Washington, it was the last set of the night, a number of different bands had just performed. We had played the first set then apparently drank a lot of beer while we listened to the other 6 bands perform. We started our last set, played a few songs then suddenly our guitarist decided it was a good idea to tackle our female vocalist causing them both to fall to the stage. At least they didn't fall off the stage. For some reason the promoters suddenly ran up to the stage and said that was enough for the night. Hmm....wonder why they did that?
 
#22 ·
I had a guy sitting next to me once who was a coke-head, and he fell out of his chair on the bandstand because he was rocking forward and back so hard...while he was playing...

He got up, got back in the chair and kept playing...

Our drummer had his drum stool break TWICE over the course of 27 years and he went flying over backwards in the middle of a song.

It was 'weird' the first time it happened...but when it happened again several years later I could hardly believe it...???
 
#24 ·
I did a bar walk during a solo and lost traction about halfway down the bar. My feet went out from under me and I went over the side breaking beer taps, spilling lots of beer and ended up breaking a few liquor bottles in the back bar down low. I had a few cuts and bruises, the wind was knocked out of me and I was soaked in booze but saved my tenor- I cradled the horn as I was falling so my back would take the impact.
 
#26 ·
Not directly on stage but if this is also stage-related mishaps . . .

I was on tour in Japan and had a concert in a town that made sake. Our hotel and concert site were adjacent to the factory and I could get plenty of sake cheaply. On top of that, I will eat anything and in Japan that can include some unrecognizable ingredients. With the sake and exotic foods, I had a bad case of the runs.

I made it through the concert (playing trumpet) without mishap, but just barely had enough time to make it to the restroom. The stage was high and I jumped off of it, landing in a squat and perfectly, simultaneously on both feet. Use your imagination. :yikes!:
 
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