Went to this show tonight, Great American Music Hall in SF.
Ian comes on at 9:45 which I though was late, as there is an 11pm curfew. Before he came on there was an annoying bloke chanting manchester manchester the whole time.
Anyway show starts , the 1st thing he does is take someones cell phone and talk to the person on the other end.
So he starts singing and he's all pissed off about the sound from the monitors, can't hear shit, stops a song brings up all the lights, and tells then to sort it. If you think Liam Gallagher had attitude this was nothing. Asks how much we paid, people respond $30, he laughs, tells a girl to move away from the speaker or else people won't be able to hear.
Anyway some tooing and froing and we are off again. only to have him stop it again, he throws the mic into the balcony. Then dissapears off down to the sound person to have it out.
And we are away once more. Sounds okay, then havoc, a lunatic decides it would be fantastic to tackle ian at the ankles, no security nowhere to be seen. They then appear and drag the guy off stage not without Ian getting in a few boots with his new Adidas Ian Brown Limited Edition shoes.
More bouncers get on the stage and start pulling people back, one guy a pretty young bouncer about 6'2 starts pushing Ian around a little, he's 5'10 and he pushed back, before you know the bouncers on the ground with about 3 band members, and about 5 people from the front row beating the crap out of him. I'm about 4 people from the front ,and have a ringside view, ian has his mic out and beats the guys head with it several times, so much so that there is lots of blood all over the place. At this point the Chick who was doing the sound check jumps in to the fray and sorts it out. Big Girl.
The band take off escorted out by the GAMH manager, I am thinking that's it, get your refunds at the door folks, you can't have the band beat on the staff. But no 10 mins later they are back on stage.
Ian then proceeds to ask if anyone wants a go. that he'll fight them on the spot, one idiot puts his hand up, but then slinked away. Another bozo beside me starts coming the hard man, and Ian tells security to get him out, and they do.
Show continues with more sound eff ups, and it gets more good natured after that. Takes cameras from people and takes a couple of snaps. He had to drop a couple of songs 3 or 4 I think because of the fight and no encore, just played straight through.
The weird thing was the dynamic at the front of the stage completely changed, prior it was all girls and a few Ian Brown lookalikes, and after it was almost exclusively blokes
handle
03-16-05, 03:42 AM
I wonder how he feels that Morrisey's new video is called "Putting the 'M' in Manchester"
:)
atlantamoi
03-16-05, 06:56 AM
God, that's a funny story. I like when a performer will sometimes talk between songs, but THAT is waaay beyond the pale. Were you miffed that only a few songs were performed? I saw his new video the other day and I thought, "Man, he's really been through the ringer." Looks like he's been to a rave every night since "Second Coming".
Giles
03-16-05, 08:51 AM
yeah, but how was his singing, what songs did he sing?
BadlyDrawnBoy
03-16-05, 10:50 AM
IAN BROWN ARRESTED AFTER ONSTAGE FIGHT
IAN BROWN has been arrested in SAN FRANCISCO after an onstage bust-up with a member of the audience, NME.COM can exclusively reveal.
The singer was playing at the Great American Music Hall as part of a North American tour in support of his current album ’Solarized’ when the alleged incident happened.
According to fans at the show, Brown was complaining about the sound quality at the venue, and after three songs got so upset he stopped the song.
One fan claimed: “This guy in a white top jumps onto the stage from the crowd, rugby tackles Ian Brown to the floor. Everything stops and the band members run to the aid of their leader.”
A witness continued: “So this is where we think, ‘Well that’s the show over, $30 wasted’. Then Ian Brown and co come back on the stage after 15 minutes. The show went on. Even though the sound was poor there was no other fights, Ian stopped the band a couple of times during ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ because of the sound and feedback. Then they were gone.”
After the show he was arrested at his hotel and taken for questioning.
However, a spokesperson for the singer told NME.COM that at the time of going to press no charges had been brought against the singer.
BadlyDrawnBoy
03-16-05, 10:56 AM
Sounded okay, not great to be honest for someone who kept stopping the show
Setlist from HOB, which was mostly the same
TIME IS MY EVERYTHING
DESTINY OR C
SALLY CINNAMON
MADE OF STONE
FOUNTAIN
DOLPHINS
WATERFALL
SHE BANGS THE ......
4 EVER + A DAY
GOLDEN GAZE
LONGSIGHT
SWEET FANTASTIC
LOVEBUG
F.E.A.R
ADORED
BadlyDrawnBoy
03-16-05, 12:42 PM
some pics are here
http://bagelradio.com/photos.html
fazeem
03-16-05, 01:59 PM
I saw Ian in Toronto and have been keeping abreast about the tour from reading review of the official Ian Brown forum. He has been having sound issues at every tour stop. Has his road crew ever heard of thing called a soundcheck? I was very worried about Ian's singing, since I've read bad things about it and he wasn't the best when I saw the Roses in Chicago, but in Toronto he sounded great until he started complaining about the sound. After stopping songs midway a few times and taking long breaks between songs to get the sound sorted out, the band actually sounded worse.
I didn't think he had a attitude toward the crowd, he just wanted to make sure that he and the band sounded good for us. But after hearing about his sound issues at every tour stop, I wonder if this was part of an act. Who know?
It was still great to see him play his own excellent solo stuff and amazing to hear him dust of the Stone Roses classics.
I hope he comes back to the US for more touring but after this tour and his subsequent arrest, I highly doubt it.
DJLinus
03-17-05, 10:38 AM
They then appear and drag the guy off stage not without Ian getting in a few boots with his new Adidas Ian Brown Limited Edition shoes.
I didn't even know that he had his own shoes. I'm assuming that this is just a UK thing. It's just as well because I searched for some pictures of them after reading this thread and those shoes are UGLY.
But it does remind me that I need to pick up a new pair of Superstars.
BadlyDrawnBoy
03-17-05, 01:58 PM
Its not a uk thing at all its an adidas thing you go to adidas.com and look for the superstar 35th anniversary collection. Bunch of artist designs. sellling on ebay for about 250 per pair
rondo
03-18-05, 08:03 AM
Whats the current album like?
I haven't listened to him at all for a couple of years. Sure must be good to hear some StoneRoses songs live!
Grampa
03-23-05, 12:31 PM
I saw Ian in Toronto and have been keeping abreast about the tour from reading review of the official Ian Brown forum. He has been having sound issues at every tour stop. Has his road crew ever heard of thing called a soundcheck? I was very worried about Ian's singing, since I've read bad things about it and he wasn't the best when I saw the Roses in Chicago, but in Toronto he sounded great until he started complaining about the sound. After stopping songs midway a few times and taking long breaks between songs to get the sound sorted out, the band actually sounded worse.
I didn't think he had a attitude toward the crowd, he just wanted to make sure that he and the band sounded good for us. But after hearing about his sound issues at every tour stop, I wonder if this was part of an act. Who know?
It was still great to see him play his own excellent solo stuff and amazing to hear him dust of the Stone Roses classics.
I hope he comes back to the US for more touring but after this tour and his subsequent arrest, I highly doubt it.
Fazeem,
His road crew knows what a "soundcheck" is. They went through one every show day of the US and Canadian tour. Most of the time at those soundchecks was devoted to attempting to please Ian Brown with the sound of his monitors.
At the SF show the soudcheck ran so long that the doors opened late and the showtime delayed by about three quarters of an hour. This despite the efforts of the two sound technicians employed by Ian Brown and the two provided by the venue.
And despite the additional monitor speakers brought in to suppliment the house gear.
There were 12 monitor speakers on stage and SIX of them were just for Ian Brown.
His voice was so LOUD in those monitors that the monitor sound was clearly audible in the audience even when the band was playing. But because those speakers were facing Ian, and not the audience, what the audience heard was muddied up by the monitor sound.
There was no pleasing the man with the sound. He is by all evidence deaf as a brick wall, and has a bad attitude to boot.
He or his management needs to invest in in ear monitors. They're kind of like hearing aids but much LOUDER.
But I doubt he can get them for free from Adidas.
He will be back, eventually, touring the US. He wasn't arrested, just detained for questioning. If the guard sues him, it will just cost him money.
I'm glad you enjoyed the Toronto show, in spite of the "bad sound"
But, the complaining about the sound isn't part of the "act", just the result of ego, and denial about hearing loss.
I know, I've been doing sound and dealing with difficult performers for over 30 years
BadlyDrawnBoy
03-24-05, 02:08 PM
Here's the video of the fight..
http://www.starfucks.info/IanBrown.wmv
fazeem
03-24-05, 05:34 PM
There was no pleasing the man with the sound. He is by all evidence deaf as a brick wall, and has a bad attitude to boot.
He or his management needs to invest in in ear monitors. They're kind of like hearing aids but much LOUDER.
But I doubt he can get them for free from Adidas.
He will be back, eventually, touring the US. He wasn't arrested, just detained for questioning. If the guard sues him, it will just cost him money.
I'm glad you enjoyed the Toronto show, in spite of the "bad sound"
But, the complaining about the sound isn't part of the "act", just the result of ego, and denial about hearing loss.
I know, I've been doing sound and dealing with difficult performers for over 30 years
Grampa,
It's too bad to hear about Ian's bad attitude as he is someone I've admired for years. At the show I did get tired of him stopping songs half way through, but I felt he had the audience's intrest at heart since he was saying that he needed to hear what they we playing inorder to make sure he sounded good for us. I heard of his diva like mentality and I just this is another confirmation that it's really true.
Buy: