Fact #146464
When:
Short story:
On their European Tour 1973, The Rolling Stones play at The Ernst-Merck-Halle, Hamburg, Germany, Europe.Full article:
Brian Croft (director, ESP, touring company for Stones' tours) : New effects are very hard to think up. We had enormous balloons filled with confetti which Mick threw out into the audience, but it became a very specialist job to put just the right amount of gas in them so that the crowd could play with them without them floating up to the roof. Temperature changes always made a few float up, so someone suggested an airgun.
I went and borrowed a gun in Hamburg to see if it would work. I was a cadet at school and a good shot, so I thought there'd be no problem. That night, I loaded up with pellets and waited at the back of the stage.
I ran onstage when the band were playing, with the airgun. That was a dumb thing to do, to run onstage with a gun during a Stones' gig.
One of the balloons floated up - it was as big as an elephant - so I aimed and fired - and nothing happened. I kept firing and nothing happened.
The next night the same thing happened, and everybody started to rib me about what a terrible shot I was. I got quite angry and, towards the end of the set, I ran out the back into a corridor and started shooting out light bulbs to prove I was a good shot.
I told them I needed darts but they said, 'You can't. You'll kill people.' But when I got some, they worked. The pellets just weren't penetrating those balloons.
(Source : interview in Beat Instrumental, December 1973)
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I went and borrowed a gun in Hamburg to see if it would work. I was a cadet at school and a good shot, so I thought there'd be no problem. That night, I loaded up with pellets and waited at the back of the stage.
I ran onstage when the band were playing, with the airgun. That was a dumb thing to do, to run onstage with a gun during a Stones' gig.
One of the balloons floated up - it was as big as an elephant - so I aimed and fired - and nothing happened. I kept firing and nothing happened.
The next night the same thing happened, and everybody started to rib me about what a terrible shot I was. I got quite angry and, towards the end of the set, I ran out the back into a corridor and started shooting out light bulbs to prove I was a good shot.
I told them I needed darts but they said, 'You can't. You'll kill people.' But when I got some, they worked. The pellets just weren't penetrating those balloons.
(Source : interview in Beat Instrumental, December 1973)