VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
I feel like hecklers are an important part of live music, but sometimes they'll say or do something mind-blowingly audacious or terrible. Let's share our best stories about hecklers being terrible!
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Back in the early eighties I was in a band (Secrecy) that played cover tunes of the day being- big hair and spandex rock. 
. I never bought into the look and decided to wear my boy scout uniform instead.
Was kinda cool people dug it but it was wearing thin quick for the other people in the band had wardrobe changes for every set.
So one gig I decided to wear a funky colored set of pajamas and animal slippers and it was a hoot!
We were pretty popular and lotsa people usta come and see us and by the next week woman were bring me all kinds of different type of pajamas ... Stripes, polka dots, leopard skin etc. and different animal slippers till I had a whooping huge wardrobe of this stuff.
We played this one private biker bar (for those of you in the N.H. area it was The Zoo in Manchester)
so there I was performing and the biggest biker dude I've ever seen walks up the the foot and a half high stage and looks me straight in the eyes and sayz *Why are you dressed like that? Play *Holy Diver by Ronnie James Dio* or I will kill you - RIGHT NOW!
I told him that we only knew Rainbow in the Dark and that we would play fro him.
That didn't fly with this guy so he pulled me off the stage during the song and proceeded to chase me around he pool tables while I was sill trying to perform - Like a rainbow in the dark - HELP! - just a rainbow in the dark - HELP! - ..... you get the picture.
Looked very funny I suppose cause all of the other bikers and the dates were on the floor laughing about it. So where my band mates!!!!
Once the song ended though the guy thanked me for being a sport and still wanted to hear HOLY DIVER! Gave me a small bag of c☼ke slapped me on the back and laughed as he walked off to the other side of the club.
We played there on a six week rotation but never saw my new found friend ever again.
Oh Yeah ..... the MEMORIES.
. I never bought into the look and decided to wear my boy scout uniform instead. Was kinda cool people dug it but it was wearing thin quick for the other people in the band had wardrobe changes for every set.
So one gig I decided to wear a funky colored set of pajamas and animal slippers and it was a hoot!
We were pretty popular and lotsa people usta come and see us and by the next week woman were bring me all kinds of different type of pajamas ... Stripes, polka dots, leopard skin etc. and different animal slippers till I had a whooping huge wardrobe of this stuff.
We played this one private biker bar (for those of you in the N.H. area it was The Zoo in Manchester)
so there I was performing and the biggest biker dude I've ever seen walks up the the foot and a half high stage and looks me straight in the eyes and sayz *Why are you dressed like that? Play *Holy Diver by Ronnie James Dio* or I will kill you - RIGHT NOW! I told him that we only knew Rainbow in the Dark and that we would play fro him.
That didn't fly with this guy so he pulled me off the stage during the song and proceeded to chase me around he pool tables while I was sill trying to perform - Like a rainbow in the dark - HELP! - just a rainbow in the dark - HELP! - ..... you get the picture.
Looked very funny I suppose cause all of the other bikers and the dates were on the floor laughing about it. So where my band mates!!!!
Once the song ended though the guy thanked me for being a sport and still wanted to hear HOLY DIVER! Gave me a small bag of c☼ke slapped me on the back and laughed as he walked off to the other side of the club.
We played there on a six week rotation but never saw my new found friend ever again.
Oh Yeah ..... the MEMORIES.
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M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Now that was possibly the worst but I have a few more that are right up there on the scale.
Wish
Never Sarcastic....Honest
POIDH
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
That's amazing!
cakewalkKaKed
HOORAY FOR BOOBIES !!!
Oh Yeah ..... the MEMORIES.
Hahahahhahahahahhahahhahahhahahahhahahhahahaahahhahaahahhaaa !!!!
great story !!! "you must spread some rep e.t.c*
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
POIDH
All true man, all true.
Some of the stuff that is hidden within my mind from being on the road most of my life ..... It is very amazing that I lived through it all.
Every so often something like this thread will come alone jars a memory lose and out it falls. I have to sit back for a moment and say *Heck! That did happen to me!*
Yeah go ahead and laugh now but at the time
ashcat_lt
Well-known member
I used to run a late night open stage thing in this bar in New Orleans. One night while I was in the middle of a song this French junkie chick came right up to me and said "I know how to play guitar!"
Not exactly heckling: I was in a band for a few years that just could not find a decent drummer. We tried pre-recorded drum tracks for a while, but most of the time just went without. There were a few times when folks in the audience tried to "help" by playing tambourine or something. Of course, they were incompetent and just made things worse. The closest I've been to a fight in over 20 years was when one of these people refused to stop after repeated polite requests and I finally took his toy out of his hands.
Not exactly heckling: I was in a band for a few years that just could not find a decent drummer. We tried pre-recorded drum tracks for a while, but most of the time just went without. There were a few times when folks in the audience tried to "help" by playing tambourine or something. Of course, they were incompetent and just made things worse. The closest I've been to a fight in over 20 years was when one of these people refused to stop after repeated polite requests and I finally took his toy out of his hands.
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
I heckled Lou Reed once.
At The Paradise in Boston. Front row seats. He had just finished a song and I yelled out *Play Vicious for me Lou* we were maybe 10 feet away from each other.
He looked me square in the eye for about 15 seconds then started playing it ... the band kicked in behind him - the crowd went nuts.
At The Paradise in Boston. Front row seats. He had just finished a song and I yelled out *Play Vicious for me Lou* we were maybe 10 feet away from each other.
He looked me square in the eye for about 15 seconds then started playing it ... the band kicked in behind him - the crowd went nuts.
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Nice! (7 chars...)
Mr Clean
AKA Teddy Wong
Not a heckler story but a similar thing.....
I was in a band playing an acoustic gig at a Love Music, Hate Racism weekender festival, indoor, big stage. Probably only about 300 people there but it was a good local gig. Anyway, our singer introduced us and said it was great to be here and Love Music, Hate Racism was a good cause. Then I piped up over the mic and said, "I thought it was Hate Music, Love Racism."
I swear to god you could've heard a fart at the end of the big hall. The only two sounds that came before we started playing was our singer looking at and saying to me "TWAT!" and some woman in hysterics at the side. I thought it was funny, but apparently it wasn't.
I rescued a bit of friendliness from the crowd on the last song though when we did a cover of The Equestrian Statue by Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. The crowd loved it.
I was in a band playing an acoustic gig at a Love Music, Hate Racism weekender festival, indoor, big stage. Probably only about 300 people there but it was a good local gig. Anyway, our singer introduced us and said it was great to be here and Love Music, Hate Racism was a good cause. Then I piped up over the mic and said, "I thought it was Hate Music, Love Racism."
I swear to god you could've heard a fart at the end of the big hall. The only two sounds that came before we started playing was our singer looking at and saying to me "TWAT!" and some woman in hysterics at the side. I thought it was funny, but apparently it wasn't.
I rescued a bit of friendliness from the crowd on the last song though when we did a cover of The Equestrian Statue by Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. The crowd loved it.
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Wow! Some people has no funny bone, huh.
Mr Clean
AKA Teddy Wong
Apparently not. The uneasy feeling from a dead crowd after was not funny then, but it is now. 
witzendoz
Senior Member
Same kind off thing happened to me, we were touring the UK and playing at the Edinburgh fringe festival for 2 weeks, due to venue scheduling one of our shows had to be shortened by 10 mins, so we decided to give the crowd free CD's to make up for the short show. I said something along the lines "We are giving you Free CD's, I know the word Free means a lot here in Scotland" (a take on the scots being tight with their money, which is not actually true) you could have heard a pin drop, and a very big Scotsman in the front row gave me a stare that could kill at 1000 feet.
Alan.
VomitHatSteve
Hat STYLE. Not contents.
Man! I've never managed to get a dead-silent crowd besides when I've cleared the room.
I even have a song that blatantly mocks half the crowd to their face, and it usually goes over pretty well.
I even have a song that blatantly mocks half the crowd to their face, and it usually goes over pretty well.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Ah, Moresound, you're the Moresoundiest !
I heckled Sooty once.
When I used to work with kids, we took a group of kids up to Granada studios in Manchester. It was a great day out and while on the tour of the studios decided to take in a live Sooty show. Now, these weren't 3, 4 and 5 year olds, these were teenagers, fairly hard boiled. But it was something to do so at the appointed time, we go into the theatre to watch Sooty the bear, Sweep the dog and Sue the panda. Personally, I liked Sweep because he was a rebel but I always hated that stupid Sooty in the same way I always dug Donald Duck but detested Mickey Mouse. Anyway, throughout the show, the kids and I and my co~worker were heckling Sooty, "Aaaah, you're rubbish", "Lame Sooty, lame !", "Chess is more exciting !", "Sweep's better than you'll ever be !", "We love Sweep !", "We hate Sooty ~ and we want our money back !" ~ you get the picture. In one scene, Sooty is the chief of the fire brigade and Sweep sets a house on fire so Sooty saves the day
by putting out the fire with a real hose squirting real water. We'd been heckling Sooty so much that his controller turned the hose on us and soaked the whole lot of us ! We were all diving for cover. It was so funny. We'd probably been spoiling it for the little kids that loved Sooty but they all loved seeing Sooty get his revenge. Where we were sitting was disgustingly wet. In the end we ran out laughing. That was 20 years ago, but those of us that were there still remember it. When we bump into one another, we'll say "Do you remember the day we heckled Sooty ?". It was like heckling the Prince of Wales, you just didn't. For about 8 years, members of the church I was part of at the time used to go down to this old people's home about once a month, sometimes more, and chat with the residents, sing, let them sing and generally take an interest as few ever got visitors. Some of them were OK but many of them were so moany. I guess they had reason to be. There was a lady there, Mrs Harris, that always used to shout "I want to go to bed !". Three that I was really friendly with died suddenly. They were all just waiting to die, really, and quite a few did. But most of them liked us coming.
Anyway, one evening I was giving a talk on something or other when in the middle of what I was saying, one old lady just waved her hand and shouted at me "Why don't you just shut up !".
It was so funny, I just burst out laughing and told her why I wouldn't !