best moment of Billy Joel's Moscow tantrum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jKAksuhb2U

He's not wrong, though... (re: lighting the audience)

Wasn't he trying to stop the security beating up the fans, re: not lighting the audience? ISTRI not being quite the superstar "tantrum" it initially seems.

Has to be the keytar player.

ISTRI ?

I seem to recall it, I’d guess.

why does he care if there are lights on the audience?

why is he positioned extreme stage left?

Wasn't he trying to stop the security beating up the fans, re: not lighting the audience?

No, he had a film crew with him shooting a documentary - to get better shots of the crowd dancing, they were lighting up the first few rows of the audience but every time they did, they froze - Joel saw it as them fucking with his show.

OK, I've never seen this before - awesome! That song though, Jesus Christ.

Despite all the chaos, neither the band or himself miss a beat!

i kinda feel like if Billy had ripped the keytar out of the player's hands and launched it into the crowd, that the dude woulda just kept moving and fingering the air and smiling

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/28/arts/billy-joel-has-a-tantrum.html

Mr. Joel also yelled at people in the front rows who he felt were not responsive enough to his performance.

''Why are you here?'' he screamed. ''You obviously don't want to be here!''

It never occurred to me before, but his band's unflappability would suggest that they have an abundance of 'gwumpy Billy makes a boom-boom' experience under their belts.

keytar guy is an all-time session muso dork, jesus christ

Must find out who he is. Be right back.

Mr. Joel also yelled at people in the front rows who he felt were not responsive enough to his performance.

''Why are you here?'' he screamed. ''You obviously don't want to be here!''

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Sunday, September 2, 2018 1:41 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This isn't quite right - he was speaking to a specific set of people with links to the then-government who had received tickets as perks and had little to no interest in being at a Billy Joel gig for any other reason.

http://www.davelebolt.com/. Hero.

wow

recorded with artists like David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Billy Joel, Power Station, Foreigner, Julian Lennon, Chaka Khan, Roberta Flack, as well as contributing to major film scores working with John Barry, Michel Colombier and Marvin Hamlisch.

this guy might low key have more money than Billy

Due to a long-standing interest in technology, Dave moved to the S.F. Bay Area and ended up guiding a 15 year evolution of Pro Tools and its family of products, truly revolutionizing the audio industry and garnering an Oscar for technical achievement. He led Avid Technology’s Digidesign audio division as GM for 6 years, generating double-digit growth and managing more than 800 employees and $300M in revenue. 

This isn't quite right - he was speaking to a specific set of people with links to the then-government who had received tickets as perks and had little to no interest in being at a Billy Joel gig for any other reason.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, September 2, 2018 9:58 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is the article from the day after the event, they smoothed out a few of the details in later articles

the fuck is he doing here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5M0xWniKNs

Michael Keaton is totally playing him in the biopic isn't he

Drunk and humping the piano is one way to go through life.

I love how he crouches in a four-point start before taking off

Blowey Hole

I think Mark Ruffalo would also make a good Billy, but Keaton has that unhinged quality

Billy has a classier piano dismount than Connie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiMvXCp2Qvo

Every option deserves to win but flipping a piano is next level

The mic stand smash kills me too.

The piano flip is great mostly cos the musicians see it, briefly react, then just keep playing

F you mic stand ! Agh!

Wah, I’m playing in Russia and everything isn’t perfect

The piano flip is great mostly cos the musicians see it, briefly react, then just keep playing

I hope those guys found some sort of way to use this clip in some sort of online resume/CV, because any prospective employer has got to be impressed with that level of unflappability.

probably the most difficult thing about searching the internet for crazy billy joel footage is listening to so much billy joel. but you gotta do it

xposts it's possible they had seen him done it before. billy was out of control in those days

Although security in the audience was tight, hundreds of fans were allowed to crowd the stage. Some of the guards swayed to the music, although many without smiling.

seen him do it before. it's miller time over here, sorry

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The song in the video is “fantasy” but I keep thinking it’s “pressure”

wish it was, better song

i like the already bent mic stand prior to him finally finishing it off

The piano flip is great mostly cos the musicians see it, briefly react, then just keep playing

perhaps not enough attention being paid to Billy's upper body strength

fling up, you're strong, you're the piano man

I till cant tell what he is kicking against when he dies the kick thing, the keyboardist goes away but i do t think he was hit.

The keytarist is doofy but i think mostly in ignorance/denial of actual joel-antics.

Shit iphone u suck at screenboards

Re: Piano Humping

Cocaine is a hell of a... Well, you know.

It seems fortunate that no one was putting bread in his jar at that particular moment.

If keytar man is so great, why isn’t he listed on The Ubiquitous HIred Gun Session Veteran Shout-Out Thread

It's sweet how the crowd carry on enjoying themselves despite Billy looking like he might kill someone any minute.

That was just day-to-day life in the USSR iirc.

They might think this is what Western rock stars do every time they play.

This doesn't look anywhere near as exciting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFa-riJvcZA

“Something something something middle of the ni- hi- hight....”

early Interpol show?

STOP LIGHTING THE AUDIENCE

Autographed Billy Joel photo pic.twitter.com/oFE88vj8LV

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) February 10, 2021

STOP LIGHTING THE AUDIENCE

it's time to branch out, i need other vids like this, but not necessarily William Joel

^

Bonus points if it is BJ though

yeah, i would love to see a thread of musicians throwing childlike tantrums. the more visible drugs onstage, the better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9zogQOmQVM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YJfXdSR85o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5bbAW27LWQ

oh shit, i've only seen 2 of these 3!

whoever got called out by the smash mouth guy should have just sprinted toward him and tackled him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjumawGYmwg

your fave clip of singers getting pissed or stuff getting thrown at them or fights or paul stanley hating lasers

Still can’t get over Billy doing the crouch start before running across the stage and jumping on the piano although I’m happy to pretend that this has happened at every BJ show ever and is just one of his ‘things’

damn the links are all dead of course

it's haunting

hey leave that dead guy alone

― scott seward, Thursday, November 11, 2010 10:30 PM (ten years ago)

it's like the bible when some prophet wonders if there is even 1 or 5 or 10 good people left in the village. and then they check, and nope, none

Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, NYC, 1983 pic.twitter.com/IJnCHbo0kN

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) September 10, 2021

christie was like "hey billy remember the time you fucking lost it in moscow?". billy joel went "uuunnggghhh, i'm so sick of talking about that". christie's said "oh billy come'ere!" and billy went "uuunnnnggggh, hahaha, alright, alright"

and the guy in the back is like "billy joel in moscow tantrum is so good. god i want that on laserdisc. what a beautiful couple!"

lol CB’s at full exorcist neck twist O_O

lulz

STOP LIGHTING CHRISTIES NECK

https://i.imgur.com/75RpReE.png

who is that guy?! is the muscle?

is *HE* the muscle

i need a photoshop of her head fully upside down

Looks like some Disney haunted mansion shit

omg, in that Green Day video, there is something about Mike Dirnt dutifully smashing his bass right after Billie Joe starts smashing his guitar that is kinda sweet and absolutely fucking hilarious

ok, and then when Smash Mouth guy is pissed off and talking tough, his band launches into the limp-ass intro to "All Star" ... and then he steps out into the crowd like he's gonna fight and someone yells "Kick his ass, sea bass!"

and the Balmer video?

killer post by Old Lunch back in June, is what i'm sayin'

Always seemed pretty clean cut and upright to me, can't really even picture him drinking but again, haven't spent a great deal of time thinking about this.

That reminds me, he once showed up in the bar in Glasgow I routinely used to drink in after work on Fridays, but I missed him. I was never sure if that story was apocryphal but here's the proof:

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+THIRST+JOEL%3B+Singer+Billy+pops+into+Glasgow+pub+for+a+pint.-a060565980

I felt a little sorry for Green Day at the time because leading up to that show they had become total fucking shills for iheartmedia. I was stuck listening to alot of car radio at the time, and their testimonial promos for the 'festival' were inescapable on all formats; I think there was even one where one of guys talked about how excited he was to see Usher! They got played so hard by ihm.

BJ did 9/11

Blowy

not as good as Joel flipout, but slapping yr guitarist is a good one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ3zxvKEL28

the singer has no room to talk about bad performance here tho

looks like an Eastern European rock band before the Berlin Wall fell

oh, just saw the YouTube description, heh

in dark times, i turn to this video

there should be a Billy Joel rage cage with only keyboards

Sing us a song you’re the piano humping man

What's wrong with lighting the audience anyways? Does he not want to see them?

(╯°□°）╯︵ 🎹

check the start of thread, it gets unpacked a bit.

aaah

life in a northern town

Does this (and the Russian escapade in general) get much coverage in the new doc/s?