After reading the Pete Townshend thread about his misuse of musical equiptment I just had to ask.
Has any one here destroyed equiptment on stage?
If your answer is yes, please tell me why?
I feel like I'm missing something when I see it being done, I mean besides dramatics, it seems hard on the rest of the band, not to mention the equiptment.
Joel

sorry for the off topic comment, but there was nothing like seeing the original WHO and standing in front of the stage, five feet from pete townsend and having the battered remains of his guitar fly over your head and into the arms of the guy standing behind you. no need for anyone to copy this though.

www.surfintheeye.com

yes, it was me. unbelievably cool to see the who up close and personal

www.surfintheeye.com

i broke a daphon pedal at at party. lol forgot it wasnt a boss

my frend tried to swing the guitar around his head without straplocks at a school concert.LOL
lets just say the song ended a little early

image

Maybe it's just me and my old fashioned ways and upbringing.. or the fact that I broke my ass to get the gear I have today..

Having said that...

SMASHING, DESTROYING, BURNING or doing otherwise to a good guitar or amp is just
PLAIN STUPID!!

I cringe when I see musically drained 'rock stars' - be they Townsend, Hendrix or some lame wannabee mutillating perfectly good gear.

Am I missing something or is there some artistic merit to CONSPICUOUS WASTE!

We had a show last year. We were all excited becuase they were going to be filming the show. We had Go-Go dancers. The club was packed to caqpacity and our Bassist was out of tune the entire nite. He was playing a $100 Korean bass that looked good. But played like crap.

So, to cut to the chase. At the end of the set, we were tapping our gutairs straight down on the stage. Nothing hard, just enough to get noise and feedback. Then all of a sudden over the top of my shoulder I see this blue blur and then Kerrraannnnggg!!!! The bass player just pulls a full on John Macenroe (Spelling?) and his fretboard seperates from the neck. Crowd is going wild. They want more music. The bands we are playing with are rock-a-billy bands. Not another electric bass to be found. So we play our first song over again. This time the bassist is trying to play and hold the fretboard onto the guitar. Still not in tune. Pure Lunacy.

Anyways after that he fully sacrificed the guitar to the go-go girls that stomped it properly into its watery grave.

So, that was our destructro moment. Hopefully the last, but it was rather exciting in the heat of the moment.

-Redd Tyde

completely stupid idea if you wana break you shit how about sending me it cause i would greatly appreciate any instruments i can get since monies tight for me

-Fly on little wing-

Couldn't Stand The Weather...

www.myspace.com/yougottabeshittenme
...add me...

well, if your are townsend in the 60s it was cool. never saw the who myself--not a big fan of them. saw hendrix burn a guitar in washington d.c.. he torched a strat--very uncool. saw toni iommi kick over his hiwatt stack in memphis_. looked kinda stupid to me. i personally have torched a couple of hagstroms--but we know i ain't right. personally, i work hard for my money and back then it seemed silly to destroy perfectly good guitars. if page had thrown his paul at mr. plant--well whatever. guess you had to be there. i have noticed that sometimes the more people at an event causes the group IQ to crash. not all the time though. help me ivanp--i can't think of the big word for that!! i haven't broken, burned or bashed any gear in years--but sometimes i want to peace_

I've only broken one instrument before. Actually, I didn't even break it, my cat did. I had it leaning against the wall, and she rubbed up against it. It fell over and one of the tuning pegs popped off. I guess it wasn't that big of a deal; I think my friend still has and records with it--minus one string, of course.

I'd never intentionally destroy a piece of equipment, though. Even when I was a teenager, I never thought of doing it. I don't have the money for that, and I think it's just a waste.

smashing guitars became so cliched for PT, that he vowed to stop smashing in 2006:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2231891,00.html

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/19062006/364/townshend-smash-guitar.html

"The Who rocker Pete Townshend has vowed never to smash another guitar onstage again.

The Won't Get Fooled Again star is well-known for his decades-old love of destroying the instruments mid-performance.

But the 61-year-old has now decided this trademark has become a cliche, and he has decided to auction the last guitar he smashed up to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in America's Gulf Coast region.

Fans can enter a lottery on website InTheAttic.tv to buy the battered instrument, signed by Townshend, that the guitarist dismantled onstage in Japan in 2004.

He says, "(My partner) Rachel (Fuller) plans to sell $10 lottery tickets for the last ever guitar to be smashed by the legendary me, at Yokohama in Japan."

A spokesman confirms, "Pete has promised the Yokohama guitar will be the very last to go."

Last edited: Jan 28, 2007 11:58:38