Guitar and Bass Smashing.

[Mr Stinky]

I really need to vent my spleen on this subject. I realise there are going to be vastly different outlooks on this and I'll do my best not to turn BC into a session with a shrink.

When i see 'stars' wreck their guitars and gear, it really turns my stomach and makes me feel physically ill.
My first recollection was when i went to see Rainbow at the old Southampton Gaumont. It was a great gig until Blackmore rammed his strat. into the speakers and went nuts, smashing it into as many bits as he could. I remember thinking what an arsehole. If he disliked his guitar so much, why not just give it to someone in the audience that would be grateful for it. Or a school!
I never followed The Who, but they're a topic in themselves.

I can think of load of bands and players that i've liked over the years, only to be put off by the on-stage antics.
Kiss
NIrvana
Twisted Sister
Motley Crue
Greenday
Foo Fighters
Ygwie
even Metallica.

The drummer in Greenday for instance....not only does he kick his kit over, he uses the stands to make sure he splits all the shells so there's no way they can ever be played again. It makes me feel like smacking him in the face a few times. How many kids in the audience does he think would rather see the kit destroyed rather than have it given to them.

I'm wondering wether its just a display of arrogance and the fact that they can afford to buy replacments.
I realise that there is the chain of thought that a guitar/bass is just a lump of wood with some electrical bits or the fact that once you buy an instrument, its yours to do whatever you want with it.
I guess i'm a little more 'romantic' for want of a better word. When a guitar is completed and turned on for the first time, it has life and becomes a living thing with a soul.

That's my say on the matter, i'll be interested to see how this topic progresses. It's something that's troubled me for many years, pehaps one of you learned chaps or chapesses could explain it all to me.

[CamdenRob]

I was kinda with you until the bit about bass guitars having a soul...

[xilddx]

If that makes you physically ill and makes you want to physically assault people, you should go and see a psychiatrist. They may be able to help you with it, or cure you of your compulsive exaggeration disorder.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Mr Stinky' timestamp='1386080542' post='2295426']
I guess i'm a little more 'romantic' for want of a better word. When a guitar is completed and turned on for the first time, it has life and becomes a living thing with a soul.
[/quote]

No. That's not romantic, it's just wrong.

[EliasMooseblaster]

As a long-time fan of The Who, I shall do my best!

If it is indeed correct to credit Pete Townshend as the first man to destroy his instrument onstage, it all began as an accident - they were playing in a club with a low ceiling, and in the middle of one song, he accidentally put the head through the ceiling. The guitar came back down, but the head didn't, so to save face he grabbed his 12-string and finished the song (and rest of the set) with that, as if he'd intended to do it all along. The audience, understandably, went insane.

I think they freely admitted it was a bit of a gimmick to repeat this, but at the same time, The Who were always the angry group that appealed to angry mods. The (occasional) destruction of their gear evolved into a statement of that anger, even though it was really just a gimmick. If you watch those videos of Townshend and Moon laying into their gear from the '60s, Townshend clearly looks like he's letting off steam in the process.

The problem is that the bands who've subsequently done it don't have that backstory or that connection. I've watched clips of Nirvana doing the same, and it just looks staged and stroppy. Particularly when you're filling up arenas, like Kiss, like Nirvana, like Green Day, it just looks like three or four rich kids smashing toys they can afford to replace. It has none of the same resonance.

[RhysP]

[quote name='Mr Stinky' timestamp='1386080542' post='2295426']
When a guitar is completed and turned on for the first time, it has life and becomes a living thing with a soul.
[/quote]

They're just lumps of wood & metal - get a grip.

FYI - Blackmore, and many others, use cheap mockups to destroy at the end of their shows.

I'd happily smack the drummer in Greenday in the face too, but just for being the drummer in Greenday......

[Mr Stinky]

I wouldn't say it's an exageration, nor would i commit any violence of any sort. I was attempting to convey my feeling of 'blood boiling'.

I can't understand the concept of the sensless waste of a musical instrument.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Mr Stinky

[Skol303]

It doesn't make me feel physically ill, but I do find the whole 'smash my gear up' thing very tired and passe.

I suppose everyone wants to be Hendrix. Or as others have mentioned, Townsend... et al.

[i]"I'm so in the zone I'm gonna stick it to The Man and bust up my stuff!"[/i] Yawn.

But then I have a two year-old son who puts on this act whenever he doesn't get his own way. So maybe my perception of it is a little coloured

[chris_b]

John Hiatt wrote Perfectly Good Guitar when he saw Nirvana's bass player smash up a bass on stage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5begHSoQ1s

Says it all really.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Mr Stinky' timestamp='1386081540' post='2295445']
I wouldn't say it's an exageration, nor would i commit any violence of any sort. I was attempting to convey my feeling of 'blood boiling'.

I can't understand the concept of the sensless waste of a musical instrument.
[/quote]

Why don't you relax a bit, go and have a glass of milk and a sandwich or summat. The world can be a horrible place, there are much more important issues to die young of stress about. Boiling live animals to death for dinner so certain Chinese people can get a better boner, female genital mutilation in Africa, child abuse in Daventry, why Tom Daley's sexuality still has the power to shock some people, why many American states are fascist theocracies. Will that do?

[BetaFunk]

I've seen a few groups over the years that i wish had smashed up there gear BEFORE they went on stage.

[Mr Stinky]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1386081435' post='2295437']
As a long-time fan of The Who, I shall do my best!

If it is indeed correct to credit Pete Townshend as the first man to destroy his instrument onstage, it all began as an accident - they were playing in a club with a low ceiling, and in the middle of one song, he accidentally put the head through the ceiling. The guitar came back down, but the head didn't, so to save face he grabbed his 12-string and finished the song (and rest of the set) with that, as if he'd intended to do it all along. The audience, understandably, went insane.

I think they freely admitted it was a bit of a gimmick to repeat this, but at the same time, The Who were always the angry group that appealed to angry mods. The (occasional) destruction of their gear evolved into a statement of that anger, even though it was really just a gimmick. If you watch those videos of Townshend and Moon laying into their gear from the '60s, Townshend clearly looks like he's letting off steam in the process.

The problem is that the bands who've subsequently done it don't have that backstory or that connection. I've watched clips of Nirvana doing the same, and it just looks staged and stroppy. Particularly when you're filling up arenas, like Kiss, like Nirvana, like Green Day, it just looks like three or four rich kids smashing toys they can afford to replace. It has none of the same resonance.
[/quote]

Thanks for that.

Hmm. I can get my head around The Who bit, i think. Being the first, i can understand a little artistic merit may be attatched, together with the youth anger of the time. After all, they did their best to connect with the audience of the day.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Mr Stinky

[Grangur]

IMHO back in the 60s it was "rock n roll" it all went with the teenage angst thing of the era.

Doing it today is called "copying". I agree it comes across to me as spoilt-kid arrogance. They may as well get an iphone and smash that. It would be easier to clean up.

[BetaFunk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQz0u2yV4Os

[Mr Stinky]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1386082180' post='2295457']
Why don't you relax a bit, go and have a glass of milk and a sandwich or summat. The world can be a horrible place, there are much more important issues to die young of stress about. Boiling live animals to death for dinner so certain Chinese people can get a better boner, female genital mutilation in Africa, child abuse in Daventry, why Tom Daley's sexuality still has the power to shock some people, why many American states are fascist theocracies. Will that do?
[/quote]

Some valid points there,

This is a feeling that has bothered me since i was 16, and i'm now very old. Still think i've missed something along the way.

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1386081435' post='2295437']
If it is indeed correct to credit Pete Townshend as the first man to destroy his instrument onstage, it all began as an accident
[/quote]
Who (geddit?) knows who did it first but it's said that Charles Mingus destroyed a bass on stage long before that.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Mr Stinky' timestamp='1386082569' post='2295467']
Some valid points there,

This is a feeling that has bothered me since i was 16, and i'm now very old. Still think i've missed something along the way.
[/quote]



I would suggest the numbers of instruments wilfully destroyed each year is minuscule.

[Coilte]

I am old enough to remember this being done for the first time. I could never see the point of venting anger on a musical instrument, especially one that as a teenager I would have given an arm and a leg for. Even back then, it seemed to me, like a childish thing to do.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Coilte

[gjones]

Richie Blackmore used to swap his strat for a cheapo woolworths special before sacrificing it on the alter of Rock 'N' Roll and the Marshall stacks he used to destroy were made of cardboard. It was all just pantomime for the teenage boys in the front row.

I hope this bit of inside information has calmed you down.

[Low End Bee]

It's the highlight of the show when we share the bill with a band named Mr Bridger. Guitar abuse is an art form in the hand of their guitarist.
Split a strat in two on the venue floor last time. The drummer patches them up between shows "Couple of clamps and some wood glue and it'll be fine".

[xilddx]

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1386083938' post='2295489']
It's the highlight of the show when we share the bill with a band named Mr Bridger. Guitar abuse is an art form in the hand of their guitarist.
Split a strat in two on the venue floor last time. The drummer patches them up between shows "Couple of clamps and some wood glue and it'll be fine".
[/quote]

Good band too, and he's looks funny chucking a guitar about, I found it amusing.

[Mr Stinky]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1386083887' post='2295488']
Richie Blackmore used to swap his strat for a cheapo woolworths special before sacrificing it on the alter of Rock 'N' Roll and the Marshall stacks he used to destroy were made of cardboard. It was all just pantomime for the teenage boys in the front row.

I hope this bit of inside information has calmed you down.
[/quote]

Now that's interesting and something i didn't know. Thanks.

[Dingus]

Quite a lot of these folks are smashing factory seconds and guitars and drums ect asembled from the remaining parts of what was smashed the night before. But some are just vandals wantonly breaking stuff for the sheer hell of it. If they are daft enough, let them do it . Ultimately, they will have to foot the bill , so they are not hurting anyone except themselves.

Yes, they could give that equipment to underprivelliged kids to start a band with, but let's face it , they would probably end up being crap ,like most bands are , and smashing stuff is much more of a spectacle than conspicuous altruism.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Dingus

[gjones]

[quote name='Mr Stinky' timestamp='1386084289' post='2295495']
Now that's interesting and something i didn't know. Thanks.
[/quote]

Notice the headstock on the first strat. It's a hondo or something? Once he smashes it, he then is given the proper one to finish the song with.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miLo3hbEZE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miLo3hbEZE[/url]

[xilddx]

[quote name='Mr Stinky' timestamp='1386084289' post='2295495']
Now that's interesting and something i didn't know. Thanks.
[/quote]Yngwie did pretty much the same thing as Ritchie. But what didn't he do that wasn't the same as Ritchie?