Fact #162836
When:
Short story:
Prior to their British tour, The Beastie Boys spark outrage at the Montreux Festival in France, Europe, when they allegedly poke fun at crippled children.
Full article:
Mike D (Beastie Boy) : There had been debates in Parliament about whether we should be allowed to perform in Britain and whether we should be allowed to bring our 'inflatable' penis, which was actually hydraulic. I've always had this image of very earnest people in wigs discussing the merits of a hydraulic penis.
John Reid (management representative, Def Jam Records) : My job with the Beasties was to try and cause as much chaos as possible on the road and build the press story as we went along. It didn't take long for Britain to go to town on the band.
The whole press thing blew up when we performed with Smokey Robinson, Sting and a load of others at this tv special in Mentreux, during the early part of our European tour with Run DMC. The Daily Mirror ran a story about the boys laughing at crippled kids who were at the show, and that upset everyone because it wasn't true. We did deals with a lot of the journalists who were out there to keep the press thing moving, but that was out of line.
Mike D : This Mirror journalist, Gill Pringle, had been hanging in Montreus trying to get a story and she had asked Adam Horowitz (Ad-Rock) for a few words. He blew her off because he didn't have time and, because she'd been snubbed, she just made up the entire story.
Joe Donnelly (press officer, CBS) : When the crippled children story appeared, all hell broke loose. The phones didn't stop ringing, with everyone trying to find out what the hell had been going on. We were the out-of-control centre. I fell out with Gill Pringle for a long time after that story.
Paul Boswell (agent, Beastie Boys) : I remember getting off the bus for a show in Offenbach and everyone was talking about the news story in the Mirror that accused the band of beating up cripples. We were all astounded. The band kept saying, 'Why are they writing this shit?' There was a lot of resentment. From then on, there were twenty or thirty tabloid animals in pursuit all the time.
Mike D : When I read it, I was really pissed off. I felt powerless to convince anyone that it wasn't true. We didn't sue the paper, although we did consider it. It would have been too costly. There was actually a small retraction printed much later but by then the damage had been done. I had to phone my mom and tell her that I wasn't really a cannibalistic, child-eating mass-murderer.
Joe Donnelly : We had to send people to Paris to fly in with the band, to try and keep things under control. It was utter chaos at the airport because the week before they came in, the band had 21 front cover stories in the national dailies.
Mike D : There were journalists crawling all over Heathrow Airport when we got there, so we had a bit of a press conference, where we got pissed off and ended up goading these idiot journalists, throwing bread rolls at them. Adam Yauch (MCA) got pissed and said, 'We don't give a fuck what you people fuckin' think. Goodbye!' And we left.
(Source : not known)
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John Reid (management representative, Def Jam Records) : My job with the Beasties was to try and cause as much chaos as possible on the road and build the press story as we went along. It didn't take long for Britain to go to town on the band.
The whole press thing blew up when we performed with Smokey Robinson, Sting and a load of others at this tv special in Mentreux, during the early part of our European tour with Run DMC. The Daily Mirror ran a story about the boys laughing at crippled kids who were at the show, and that upset everyone because it wasn't true. We did deals with a lot of the journalists who were out there to keep the press thing moving, but that was out of line.
Mike D : This Mirror journalist, Gill Pringle, had been hanging in Montreus trying to get a story and she had asked Adam Horowitz (Ad-Rock) for a few words. He blew her off because he didn't have time and, because she'd been snubbed, she just made up the entire story.
Joe Donnelly (press officer, CBS) : When the crippled children story appeared, all hell broke loose. The phones didn't stop ringing, with everyone trying to find out what the hell had been going on. We were the out-of-control centre. I fell out with Gill Pringle for a long time after that story.
Paul Boswell (agent, Beastie Boys) : I remember getting off the bus for a show in Offenbach and everyone was talking about the news story in the Mirror that accused the band of beating up cripples. We were all astounded. The band kept saying, 'Why are they writing this shit?' There was a lot of resentment. From then on, there were twenty or thirty tabloid animals in pursuit all the time.
Mike D : When I read it, I was really pissed off. I felt powerless to convince anyone that it wasn't true. We didn't sue the paper, although we did consider it. It would have been too costly. There was actually a small retraction printed much later but by then the damage had been done. I had to phone my mom and tell her that I wasn't really a cannibalistic, child-eating mass-murderer.
Joe Donnelly : We had to send people to Paris to fly in with the band, to try and keep things under control. It was utter chaos at the airport because the week before they came in, the band had 21 front cover stories in the national dailies.
Mike D : There were journalists crawling all over Heathrow Airport when we got there, so we had a bit of a press conference, where we got pissed off and ended up goading these idiot journalists, throwing bread rolls at them. Adam Yauch (MCA) got pissed and said, 'We don't give a fuck what you people fuckin' think. Goodbye!' And we left.
(Source : not known)