Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Irate fan's attack on Zappa included on new box set

The last track on the new The Mothers 1971 set includes the somewhat disturbing sound of Frank Zappa being pushed off the stage at The Rainbow Theatre in London.

After the encore I Want To Hold Your Hand (!) there is a loud noise where Zappa is pushed off the stage and obviously his microphone hits the floor. One can also hear the audience's reaction. Quite disturbing. Zappa hit the concrete floor in the orchestra pit and was seriously injured. This brought an end to the Vaudeville Band since Zappa had to spend many months in a cast and a wheelchair.

The 24 year old culprit later explained that he was upset since his girlfriend was in love with Zappa. Right after the incident he was beaten up by Zappa's roadies. Then he was sentenced to a year in jail.

But there is a mystery here. In the booklet of You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 3 Zappa states that the tape ran out before the incident occured. But since the recording now has been released that makes us wonder if he was wrong or even lied about that. No, the liner notes to the new release explains that another longer tape of the show was discovered after Zappa's death. Mystery solved.


If you dare to listen to this nasty incident, it's at the end of this track:
https://open.spotify.com/track/73i0BWff20pIv7f2vf7Dni?si=7b73ca309a4e4260

1 comment:

BEBOPER said...

Disappointing ! I wish we could hear the sound of the splapping festival on the jealous guy's cheeks !