Is Alan OK?

[Nasalhair]

I just heard about what happened at the End of the Road festival when
Alan had a bit of an outburst and hurled his guitar into the audience
(link here: http://www.the-fly.co.uk/?content=36&articleid=2943&tofriend=1)
Is he ok?

[Randal T. Rioux]

This is not unexpected, and is indeed sad. However, clicking on that link
and seeing a big picture of a douchebag with an overworded blog makes me
want to throw *my* guitar at people. Please, quote next time to spare us
:-)

Thanks,
Randy

[rob mccolley]

to quote without linking is to distort. your friend from the middle robmccolley.com --- On Mon, 9/15/08, Randal T. Rioux <ra...@pulledbyakite.com> wrote:

[Nasalhair]

Evidently you have some personal thing against the person whose site I
linked to, but when I saw a single line on another site (NOTBBC, where
somebody posted "at End Of The Road on Saturday Alan Sparhawk of Low
completely lost it at the end of their set and hurled his guitar with
hammer throwing force into the crowd") I wanted to find out more,
Googled it, and the site I linked to had the most detailed write-up of
what happened. I don't really think your response was warranted to be
frank, Randal.

[kadman_dm]

When someone has a mental breakdown, the way Alan did a few years ago,
they never truly return to "normal." Perhaps he was having a difficult
episode based on an argument during the day.

Or, from the description in the article, and from watching Retribution
Gospel Choir, I think we all know that Alan's guitar playing can, at
times, become frantic. And, perhaps, the strap to his guitar gave way
sending his guitar into the crowd. I watched videos of Alan being
interviewed about his equipment, and I believe he cares about his
instruments too much to just let them go flying into the crowd as a
souvenir.

Just my thoughts.

[joshua*]

i dunno.  the blogger guy got on my nerves as well.  

he essentially said "alan had a breakdown on stage because of personal issues.  i heard him say that playing that night wasn't any fun for him because of these personal issues, but he played a good set that night and i enjoyed it so that should fix all his problems. lulz!"  

it was very shallow, cold, and self-centered.  

joshua*

[Steve]

Thanks for the link Nasalhair - it sure sounds like Alan had a bad
day.

Here's another report from an audience member:
-- and it was clear from the outset that he was mightily pissed off
with something. He said about half way through that "Everyone who has
ever loved me just told me they hated me today."
To which Mimi replied, "Not everyone."
Then at the end he trashed his guitar and hurled it into the crowd
hammer-style. Could've decapitated someone but no-one was hurt and
some lucky bloke was posing for photos all night with a broken guitar
he caught.
http://drownedinsound.com/articles/4015975

And a similar report on a bbc website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/news/20080915_endoftheroad.shtml

And another report from an audience member:
http://anorakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=67&p=70053&sid=e544266e45499f1e522188960910362c

And another fan who retrieved a piece of the guitar (see comments at
end):
http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=12&p=951&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more951

[GaryG]

I gather they're playing Chicago tonight.

Anyone going? I guess show reports would be even more welcome than
usual...

[Phildo]

Hi Guys.

Well, here's the verification. We were at the front of the stage, a
little to Alan's right. before they started, we were talking to a
lady who'd seen them at Union Chapel recently and said she was worried
about Alan - that he'd seemed remote and distracted.

From the start, it was obvious that there was a weird sort of tension
on the stage - Alan and Mimi didn't so much as say a word to each
other. Anyway, they launcheed into the set and, as expected, it was a
blinder. Alan, in particular, was playing out of his skin. His on-
stage comments have been mentioned elsewhere, so I don't need to quote
them (although his line about "no guitar techs after all this time -
what's that about?") was funny.

At the end of the set, he started wrenching squalling feedback from
his guitar and then suddenly grabbed the strings and ripped them off
it, throwing it down to the stage. He seemmed to stand still and look
at it for a moment, before going back to it, picking it up and
smashing it much harder on the stage. That's when he started swinging
it round, possibly three times - like an olympic hammer thrower - and
launched it into the crowd. I think he was offstage even before it
landed.

Up to that moment, there'd been tumultuous applause. At that moment -
stunned silence. We didn't know what to be more shocked by - the fact
he'd done it (we didn't know nobody had been hurt and feared the worst
- there were many kids at the festival) - or the fact we'd just seen
someone whose music we care about so much have a breakdown on stage.

We went back to our tent in silence and drank.

I hope Alan's OK, but I hope the same for Mimi & the kids.

[uptownavondale]

was it his red les paul - the one with the bigsby - i once had a
conversation with him about that guitar and he said he totally loved
it - it's prob not cheap either - a couple of thousand bucks maybe? i
think he must be feeling pretty bad...

[moritz]

here it is: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2889236035_4e5abf8680.jpg?v=0

[Cormac Phelan]

Looks like it's a step down from the red Les Paul. I'd say that's a Les Paul Studio, which is essentially a Les Paul minus any superficial ornamentation. It goes for around 1000 quid:

http://www.thomann.de/ie/gibson_lespaul_studio99.htm

The B-5 Bigsby he's got on there would bring up the value by a few hundred at most. Still....that's a fierce amount of nice guitar to turn into firewood!

Cormac

--
www.cormacphelan.com

[roice]

I'd say it's a L6, it's thinner than a Les Paul and wider too. I have
one, I'd like to smash it sometimes too.

roice

On Oct 3, 10:57 pm, "Cormac Phelan" <cormacphe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Looks like it's a step down from the red Les Paul. I'd say that's a Les Paul
> Studio, which is essentially a Les Paul minus any superficial ornamentation.
> It goes for around 1000 quid:
>
> http://www.thomann.de/ie/gibson_lespaul_studio99.htm
>
> The B-5 Bigsby he's got on there would bring up the value by a few hundred
> at most. Still....that's a fierce amount of nice guitar to turn into
> firewood!
>
> Cormac
>