Rock ‘n’ rolling with the punches: When bandmates turn on one another
After The View's onstage brawl this week, we look at some of the most memorable bust-ups in rock history
Scottish indie rockers The View kicked off their reunion tour earlier this week (May 10) quite literally with a kick.
Frontman Kyle Falconer had lent the floor to bassist Kieren Webster to sing a handful of songs, only to become increasingly frustrated at his bandmate hogging the mic. In footage taken at Manchester’s Deaf Institute on Wednesday, Falconer is seen landing a fair few punches and a kick on Webster.
“The problem with this band is he wants to sing the songs and he canny, right, so I’ll see you later,” Falconer later reportedly told fans as he returned to perform encore song ‘Face For The Radio’.
The band then confirmed that they wouldn’t play last night’s (11 May) show in London, but have since said that it was a “brotherly bust-up”, confirming that they’ll still play a string of dates later this year.
Punch-ups in rock music are nothing new. Booze, drugs, jealousy and long days on the road can make for a particularly potent cocktail of violence (disclaimer: we’re not attributing all that to The View).
Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones may have famously chucked a TV off a hotel balcony in the early 1970s, but actual band in-fighting followed a decade later when late drummer Charlie Watts lamped frontman Mick Jagger. And perhaps the most drawn-out fight in rock history is that between the Gallagher brothers. A backstage brawl in 2009 consigned Oasis to the scrapheap.
Here’s our look back at the biggest in-fights in rock.
Babyshambles
Pete Doherty’s indie band Babyshambles, formed during a hiatus from The Libertines, were playing the group’s largest gig at London’s Brixton Academy in 2005. According to reports from the time the frontman appeared to disconnect guitarist Patrick Walden’s instrument accidentally. An on-stage brawl followed.
After bouncers stepped in and the band left the stage, the bandmembers returned five minutes later and wrapped the headline set with no further issues.
The View
The Scottish band’s first live show in six years didn’t get off to a good start.
As outlined, singer Kyle Falconer took issue with bassist Kieren Webster on the tour’s opening night in Manchester. “I’ll fucking kill you,” Falconer was heard screaming as he wrangled with his bandmate. Watch below.
Crazy Town
The View aren’t the only band to have very public fisticuffs in recent months. Crazy Town, the LA rap-rock band known for their 2000 hit ‘Butterfly’, were filmed in possibly the bloodiest band battle yet.
Singers Bobby Reeves and Seth Binzer (aka Shifty) had a frankly shocking fight backstage after what one fan on TikTok called an “epic fail” of a show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina last month.
The brawl happened after lead singer Binzer didn’t arrive until right at the end of the set. Co-vocalist Reeves was forced to fill in for the majority of the gig, loudly criticising Binzer for his absence.
Later, the pair were filmed fighting backstage. In the clip Binzer is heard accusing Reeves of stealing money, while Reeves threatens Binzer’s family. It’s all quite graphic so we’ve decided not to include it, but feel free to seek it out if that’s your bizarre bag.
According to NME, Reeves took to social media later to share a video of his battered face. “Me and Shifty got into a little scuffle but it’s all good, we’re brothers.” Reeves said that his injuries were “no big deal” and concluded the video with: “Love ya’ll and love Shifty too.”
Razorlight
Frontman Johnny Borrell and drummer Andy Burrows exchanged blows on a booze-fuelled night out in 2007. A bloody fist-fight at North London pub The Hawley Arms was claimed to have unravelled.
Burrows, who quit the band in 2009, later told The Mirror that he “hated” being in the band, and that he and Borrell “didn’t get on”. “[Burrows] never wanted people to know that we both wrote songs and I couldn’t be in control,” he said.
The Brawley (geddit) Arms fight was reportedly over ownership of the band’s 2006 hit song ‘America’, for which they have co-writing credits.
Amazingly there’s now some semblance of peace, with Borrell and Burrows reuniting in 2021 and announcing a string of tour dates that includes a London show at the Eventim Apollo tonight (May 12).
“We’ve always had this deep personal connection, but I’ve also felt so distant from him at times too,” Burrows told Rolling Stone UK of Borrell last year.
“Still, I wound him up at times. The respect for each other is huge and I honestly think he’s one of the greatest this country has ever produced. He’s a proper old-school rock and roll star. Even now I don’t understand him, almost in this weird magical way.”
For his part, Borrell replied: “Look, it’s not entirely unchallenging and I don’t always understand him, but I think that’s the nature of being in a band. It’s much better than it was.”
The Rolling Stones
Bill German, founder and editor of the Beggars Banquet Stones fanzine, famously described a meeting in Amsterdam in the 1980s to discuss whether the Stones should call it quits.
German claimed that at one point Mick Jagger said something to Charlie Watts in the vein of: “None of this should matter to you because you’re only my drummer.”
“[Watts] kept it bottled inside until he got back to his hotel room,” German wrote later. “He then clicked off his TV, put on his shoes, walked down the hall and knocked on Mick’s door. When the lead singer of the Rolling Stones opened it, his drummer clocked him on the jaw. Charlie then turned round and calmly walked away” [via The Week].
Oasis
We’re all quite exhausted by the Gallagher brothers’ 30-odd-year feuding and the “will they/won’t they” reunion chat. Fraternal fist fights and jealousy is as old as time (represented artistically in the murderous tales, including the Greek myth Phocus of Aegina). Whether or not it’s jealousy, disrespect, or general dislike (or all of the above), no one really knows the crux of why Liam and Noel no longer see or talk to one another.
The fateful night of August 28, 2009 was the final affront. Minutes before Oasis were due onstage at Rock en Seine festival the siblings had a violent fight backstage that reportedly involved Liam smashing Noel’s guitar. That was the end of Oasis. A message from Noel appeared on the band’s website hours later, reading: “I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer.”
Recently, Noel stirred up hopes for a reunion by telling France Inter in March that if Liam wants to reform the band then he should call.
“[Liam] should get his people to call my people; they know who they are, they know where we are. Stop talking on the fucking internet, and let’s see what you’ve got to say,” he said.
Until then, the rumour mill will continue to rumble on.