Here at Dose of Metal we are not only musical. We are also socially aware. That’s why we’re devoting this week’s Tuesday Trivia to the recent UK rioting.
It’s a horrible thing that’s happening there right now. The youth of the country is facing so many problems, it was evident at one point riots would errupt.
Here’s a breakdown of the reasons for the recent protests:
- Some people apparently couldn’t install 50+ Mb internet in their suburban London districts. Shameful.
- Playstation Network was down for over a month. The rage built up, in the meantime kids started live action streetfighting.
- Local scene shop ran out of hairdryers. All the scene kids shaved their heads in protest and turned skinhead over night.
- New Limp Bizkit album made a divide between the metal and rap crews. Shootouts were inevitable.
- People started getting aggravated due to long queues for iPad 2 and white iPhone 4.
In case you didn’t figure it out, I’m being fucking sarcastic. This is the most shameful shit Britain’s seen in ages, downright looting, and it’s hurting legitimacy of, you know, real protests in the real world, with real problems.
What does this have to do with metal? Well, you know the drill. Jumpdafuckup.
The only thing they ever truly started... A fashion riot.
Guns N’ fucking Roses? Yes, Guns N’ Roses. To be clear right from the start, this, just as well as the UK rioting, has nothing to do with real problems. In this case, it’s even extremely ironic what the reason was. The riots I’ll be covering today happened exactly 20 years ago (plus a month and a few days, therefore not exactly 20 years, therefore I could have written about 20 years ago, but it’s still close… Just fuck off). On this very special anniversary, we sort of get reminded on one of metal’s not so nicest moments (and we’ll get reminded of a few more very soon, hint hint).
On July 2nd, 1991, Guns N’ Roses had their infamous performance at the Riverport Amphitheater, Maryland Heights (near St. Louis), Missouri. Infamous, because during the 15th song, Rocket Queen, Axl “pulled a Nikki” (or, in fact, as we learn today, Nikki pulled an Axl) and jumped in the crowd to stop an audience member from taking pictures of the show. Douche move, regardless of the fact that it was less common back in the day to flash a camera (plus they didn’t have iPhones, lulz cavemen), and, as much as I despise people watching a live show through an iPhone, a fucking still picture even counts as a memory. Axl hit audience members, security, and threw a hissy fit when he got on stage, regarding the lameness of the security, and went off stage. The band cut the show, and for unknown reasons, it made the audience angry. Either way, what happened is that a dozen people got injured, Axl got sued for inciting a riot, but unfortunately never got any time. They did however incorporate a message to all the fans in the artwork for Use Your Illusion albums, nicely saying “Fuck you, St. Louis.”
Here’s a video of the events at the show. Fun starts at 1:13.
Rocket Queen launched into the audience
And here’s a recent video of a Sony warehouse burning down, for those of you who feel cheated the article wasn’t more hardcore. It holds CDs for Nuclear Blast, Victory and Vagrant records:
The roof, the roof...
If the last video made you pissed off, try to help and catch a looter. That’s all folks!
