3

Pink Floyd Accidentally Toppled The Venetian Government

The Who was all about teenage angst. For Led Zeppelin, it was bizarre homages to Lord Of The Rings and pederasty. For Pink Floyd, it was rebellion and smashing the system -- which the city of Venice learned all too well in 1989, after a gig by The Floyd caused the collapse of their government.

In 1989, Venice decided to expand its cultural horizons by inviting Pink Floyd to perform a free gig in the city's historic St Mark's Square. One problem: Historical preservationists argued that vibrations generated by the band could damage the city's historic buildings. If only they had built that city on (something compatible with) rock 'n' roll.

As a compromise, the government moved the gig from the city center to a floating stage moored offshore. Why yes, it did look completely bonkers.

Sadly, no photos of the all-gondola mosh pit survived.

2

Alice Cooper Nearly Hanged Himself On Stage

Alice Cooper is famed for his wild stage shows, featuring snakes, pyrotechnics, elaborate costumes, electric chairs, and the like. It is objectively and provably pretty bitchin'. This kind of showmanship does have its drawbacks, however. When things go wrong, they go wrong in a fairly significant way. Case in point, that time he almost hanged himself during a gig.

We're guessing this is a bit without a lot of room for mistakes.

While rehearsing for a concert at London's Wembley Stadium in 1988, Cooper and his band were practicing that ol' staple the fake hanging. After Cooper put his head into the noose and started play-acting strangulation, the piano wire that was holding him up broke, leaving with him with the minor problem of actually being hanged ... at least until a roadie realized he wasn't just putting his all into the routine and cut him down.

As he admitted in an interview, the wire snapped because he never bothered to check or replace it between shows. "Everything has its stress limit and after doing so many shows, I never thought about changing the wire. You know, I figured it'll last forever."

Alice Cooper: Not the bastion of workplace safety we'd always assumed.

1

The Killers Got Caught In A Piss Storm

In June of this year, thousands of fans filed into Swansea, Wales' Liberty Stadium and prepared for a mass Mr. Brightside singalong by drinking and drinking and drinking and then having a little drink to wash down all those drinks. Then it came time to use the bathroom, and it's a soccer stadium, so that was no problem, right? Turns out concert organizers had taken it upon themselves to implement some kind of bizarre toilet-based class war, and the bathrooms were only available for fans sitting in the higher levels. If the lower levels wanted to relieve themselves, they had to leave the stadium and queue at a porta-potty in the parking lot.

Related: 15 Most Ill-Advised Career Reinventions In Rock Music History

Lines for those potties lasted upwards of 45 minutes to an hour. As you'd expect, fans started pulling a Pink Floyd and relieved themselves all over the stadium's fences. The Killers finished their set and left the stage to discover the massive social media mess that their production staff had created, with some demanding full refunds on account of missing so much of the show.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images It was only a piss, how did it end up like this? It was only a piss! IT WAS ONLY A PISS!

Adam Wears is on Twitter and Facebook, and has a newsletter about depressing history that you should definitely subscribe to.

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