Trashed hotel rooms, shattered TV sets; why not add a fan’s pair of broken teeth into the mix?
Despite a historically-reinforced incentive for rock idols to outdo each other in excessive hotel bills and the total sum of tour damages, accidentally maiming a fan with a flying microphone doesn’t sound like the romanticised shenanigans promised for the hedonistic muso lifestyle. You surely wouldn’t be parading that dentist bill around backstage.
But that’s exactly what occurred on the first leg of the Australian Guns N’ Roses tour, with controversial frontman Axl Rose set to be sued by a fan who was hit in the mouth by a stray microphone flung by the singer into the audience.
From indulging in the inevitable ‘lead singer v lead guitarist spats’ with the equally iconic Slash, to mind-fucking children’s conceptions of Halloween, Rose can’t seem to control himself – the soothing waters of WA’s Indian Ocean clearly having no effect on the rocker’s impetuous antics.
Adding item #564 or so to the long list of possible regrettable encounters, in the midst of the finale of Guns N Roses’ gig at Perth Arena on Saturday 9th March, an imaginably excitable Rose threw his cordless microphone into the crowd (with the most likely benign of intentions) only for it to hit 39-year-old pest controller, and life-long Guns N’ Roses fan, Darren Wright in the mouth, as The West Australian reports.“The next thing I knew, I was whacked in the mouth. I thought I had been punched… I could feel bits of teeth in my mouth.” – Darren Wright, GNR Fan
“With the bright lights and explosions, I couldn’t see anything,” said the dazzled fan. “The next thing I knew, I was whacked in the mouth. I thought I had been punched. I was quite stunned and it took a few seconds to realise what was going on. I could feel bits of teeth in my mouth. Then someone is climbing through my legs to grab the microphone.”
Wright also suffered a cut lip as well as a chunk of tooth going astray, subsequently exposing a nerve. The injured punter is looking at a $5,000 dental bill which he believes should be paid for by the frontman himself.
Wright retrospectively analysing the event with a frank perspective: “I don’t think he intended to do it, but it came at me at a fairly flat and hard trajectory. Those cordless microphones are not light. I’m surprised it didn’t do more damage,” he said. “At the very least, I want someone to pay to get my teeth fixed.”
Despite a peace offering in the form of a signed microphone (not sure whether that’s ironically genuine or insincere) and an apology from tour promoter Andrew McManus in the form of a telephone message, Wright remains adamant that monetary compensation is the only appropriate form of resolution to this unfortunate happening.
“In reality I don’t think the microphone is going to fix my teeth or pay for the dentist,” explained Wright. “I’m a father of four on a single income doing it hard in Perth.” That being said, despite pursuing legal action, Wright says he doesn’t “harbour any ill feelings.”.
Having been a fan of Rose, his possible civil suit respondent, since the age of 17 – for him it seems nothing can shrug off the idolising aura of the rocker. Wright reminiscing about seeing the band in Melbourne on its first tour of Australia says: “It was my first trip away on my own, I’d saved up my money, and I thought they were fantastic.”
Despite having returned to the land of Oz frequently in the past few years, the Guns ‘n’ Roses stint in Perth marked the first time they’d played to a bandanna-clad Aussie audience since 2007.
With a reportedly lacklustre performance, repetitive in nature and missing a core ‘Slash’ component, our Tone Deaf reviewer lamented over the number of “disappointed fans” who walked away that night “bickering about the performance,” possibly discouraged from ever returning to another Guns N’ Roses show.
Especially when it seems that the only substantial crowd interaction that can be mustered by Rose subsequently manifests in a fan’s bloodied mouth. What does that say then, eh?
For those attending the up-coming East Coast shows, a word of advice: a mouthguard may prove a valuable investment.
