Music stars hit rock bottom

Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts' - so sang Paul Simon, and the pop industry is one business where they rise (and fall) a lot faster than most. For those on the way up it's a firework display of unbelievable excitement - riches, fame, adulation and groupies.
Some put their fame down to chance, others are convinced of their right to be up there with the all-time greats.

Some make it overnight, some make the hard way, some make mistakes, some make it and then make mistakes. Some make mistakes so big it's hard not to stand open-mouthed in wonder at their blundering crass stupidity. And no matter how breathtaking it was going up, there nothing more breathtaking than coming down and, as they say, the bigger you are....

Here, in no particular order are what we consider to be some of the worst career moves ever made by those preening pop stars:

Michael Jackson invites young playmates to stay the night at his Neverland mansion and then tells TV journalist Martin Bashir all about it. No one tells Wacko Jacko it's one thing to dote on fresh-faced teenage boys, but quite another to admit on nationwide TV to letting them share your bed for the night, innocently or not. Result - the Gulf States extend Wacko their warmest welcome.

Faded UK glam rock star Gary Glitter takes his PC in to have the hard disk repaired. Staff discover hundreds of illegal pictures on the disk and tell the police, who immediately put him under arrest. Some might say his career is already in the long grass but the tabloids hound the old goat so much he eventually flies off to the South of France and then to Vietnam.

T-Rex singer Marc Bolan goes out on a dinner date with his girlfriend Gloria one September night. After an intimate meal together he asks her to drive them home in her trendy, souped up purple Mini GT. On the way the mini leaves the road on a hump backed bridge, shoots through a fence and smacks straight into a sycamore tree. Marc is killed instantly. Gloria is unconscious but lives.

The Rolling Stones's 1969 tour of the US was supposed to be the greatest ever and the free concert at Altamont Speedway, near San Francisco, its crowning glory. Then someone decides what a great idea it would be if the local Hells Angels handled the show security as happened at a Stone's concert in London's Hyde Park.

No one mentioned that US Angels are notorious for mindless violence and excessive drug taking. Mid-show the gardin' Angels are syphoning down the alcohol, firing up with dope and dropping enough acid to melt their not very solid brains. To keep the audience in line the massed Angels belt them with pool cues and pelt them with beer cans. Sporadic violence erupts all around the stage.

A black teenager is stabbed and kicked to death, two fans are run over by a jeep as they sleep and another is drowned. It's the end of the hippy era of love and peace and the show goes down as one of the biggest rock history disasters ever. This event was discussed in depth at TravelSavvy Europe City Breaks.

Jason Donovan is a monster UK pop star when he sues the Face magazine for libel over allegations that he's homosexual. He wins the court case but his jubilation is short-lived. He's vilified by trendy London, branded a homophobe, turned away from nightclubs and accosted in the street. He suffers the jeers of a 2,500-strong audience at the Astoria Theatre, London, when, in a bizarre conciliatory gesture, he turns up to judge a Mr Gay UK contest. He's soon dropped by his record company and returns to Australia. He's last heard of in the UK playing Sweeney Todd in Wycombe.

John Lennon convinces the Beatles that the abrasive son of a Budapest butcher Allen Klein is just the man to replace the deceased Brian Epstein as their manager. Paul McCartney distrusts Klein and doesn't sign but the others do. Klein cleans house at Apple Corps and cleans up on deals for himself. Convoluted contracts result in the Beatles losing Northern Songs, with a large slice of the profits going straight to Klein. In 1970, Paul McCartney files a suit against Klein and the other three Beatles to sort out the mess, salvage Apple and oust Klein. The legal struggle drags on for nearly 10 years. Klein is eventually condemned in the High Court for 'lamentable' book-keeping. Lawsuits keep the lawyers in clover and the biggest band in pop history falls apart.

Buddy Holly persuades Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper to hire a plane to Fargo when the heater on the tour bus packs in. He tells them if they take a plane they'll have time to wash their shirts before the next show. The chartered prop plane smacks straight into a cornfield near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all three of them. Dion, of Dion & The Belmonts fame, makes the best career move of his life in declining the plane ride offer.

Rising R&B star Johnny Ace is sitting backstage taking a break between sets at a Christmas Eve dance at Houston's City Auditorium when he pulls out a revolver and decides a quick game of Russian Roulette will be just the ticket. The gun has a single bullet in the chamber, he pulls the trigger and bam, he wins! He's just 25 years old.

Johnny Ace's career lasted barely 18 months, yet musicians from Bob Dylan to Paul Simon have acknowledged their debt to him, with Simon even writing a song 'The Late Great Johnny Ace' on his album 'Hearts and Bones'. His premature death prompts a huge run on his discs, Ace scores his biggest hit - the haunting 'Pledging My Love' - posthumously and the record company tries to cash in by recruiting Ace's younger brother to record as Buddy Ace. But it fails to hit the target with his fans.

Ozzy Osbourne thinks he's been thrown a fake bat during a Black Sabbath gig and, in the heat of the moment, bites off its head. When he realises it was a real bat he's eaten, he is forced to endure a lengthy series of extremely painful anti-rabies jabs. However, he does bite the head off a dove at a record company meeting, for reasons now long forgotten, which helps him make his fortune as a slightly deranged heavy metal legend.

Twice married hell raiser Jerry Lee Lewis decides to get hitched for the third time - only lucky girl number three is 13-year-old second cousin Myra Gale Brown. It's every parent's worst nightmare. The media frenzy is huge when he takes his new wife to London. Tabloid journalists discover she still believes in Santa and that he's still technically married to wife number two.

He's branded a bigamist and cradle snatcher. They even demand his deportation. The UK tour is abandoned and Jerry flies home to even more uproar in the US. His shows flop and his songs are banned by radio stations everywhere. Almost overnight, the singing sensation with three top ten hits is a social and musical pariah. He never makes another hit record in his life.

UK 90s boy band East-17 chart 18 singles and four albums when lead singer Brian Harvey announces 'It's cool to take drugs'. The tabloids fly into a feeding frenzy of self-righteous indignation. Under pressure the boy wonder does the worst thing possible - he apologises, alienating all the Ecstacy-popping fans who had no idea what all the fuss was about anyway.

Harvey is fired, attacked with a machete, jailed, hospitalised with depression and badly hurt in a bizarre accident when he runs himself over in his own car whilst vomiting.

Article Source: http://www.109b.com/artdash

Bob Cartwright writes for Europe City Breaks.

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