01/28/01
Limp Bizkit Exit Big Day Out Because Of Fan Injuries
A teenager suffered a heart attack and about 30 fans were hurt
in the mosh pit during Limp Bizkit's performance at the Sydney
stop of Australia's Big Day Out festival on Friday, prompting
the band to pull out of the tour.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the 18-year-old woman
was clinically dead when security pulled her out of the pit
near the stage at Sydney RAS Showgrounds shortly after the
first song of Limp Bizkit's set.
The teen, who was not identified in the local report, was
resuscitated after having oxygen pumped into her lungs and
receiving an adrenaline shot from emergency medical technicians
backstage, the Morning Herald reported. She was taken to
Concorde Hospital in Sydney and remains under observation there.
Six others reportedly were treated at Concorde Hospital for
minor injuries, while up to 30 fans were treated at the
festival's medical tents, which one witness described as
"a war scene," according to accounts in the newspaper and
the Australian Associated Press.
The melee began as some members of the 55,000-person crowd
surged to the front of the stage while Limp Bizkit played.
The band stopped the show for 20 minutes, and frontman Fred
Durst asked the crowd to calm down and "chill out" as the
heart-attack victim was pulled out of the pit.
In a statement issued late Friday, the rock group said it
wanted to immediately stop the show, but was warned by local
police officials that that might cause a riot.
The band continued playing, but stopped several times to calm
the crowd as local fire marshals sprayed water on the audience
in what organizers said was an attempt to reduce "the
temperature and volatility of the situation."
Afterward, Limp Bizkit pulled out of the three remaining
Big Day Out concerts in Melbourne (scheduled for Sunday),
Adelaide (February 2), and Perth (February 5) over concerns
about the "cavalier attitude toward fan safety by festival
organizers."
"We'd like to express tremendous sorrow over the injuries
suffered by our fans during the Big Day Out concert,"
Limp Bizkit said in the statement. "We pray for the life of
the heart attack victim."
The band said it alerted the promoter, Creative Entertainment
of Australia, about crowd-safety issues after the first Big Day
Out show in Auckland, New Zealand, on January 19, and again
after second concert in Gold Coast, Australia, on January 21.
Limp Bizkit requested additional security and a T-style
barricade, but said it was rebuffed by Big Day Out co-promoter
Vivian Lees, even after the band threatened to leave the tour
following the Gold Coast show.
"We basically begged this guy to increase the security measures,
" Durst said in the statement, "and were told he has been doing
the event for 10 years and that he knows what he's doing and to
leave him alone."
"We tried to explain that crowds are different from 10, or even
three years ago," said Jeff Kwantinetz of Limp Bizkit's
management company, The Firm. "We were ultimately frustrated
by his response."
Big Day Out organizers initially commended Limp Bizkit for
their "full cooperation ... through this difficult situation
and their commitment to the safety of their audience," but in
a later statement the organizers expressed "relief at the
departure of Limp Bizkit."
"The Big Day Out has a principal commitment to crowd safety
and security of all patrons," the organizers said. "The
measures proposed by Limp Bizkit were substantial, untested
and radical changes to the existing structures and procedures
in place for the show as understood by the Australian safety
authorities, including the police and planning bodies."
Organizers have replaced Limp Bizkit on the bill by elevating
an Aussie group, Powderfinger, to the headlining slot for the
three remaining shows. Limp Bizkit said they plan to return
to Australia and "play for our fans under our own terms and
with proper safety and security."
The Big Day Out incident is the latest in a string mosh pit
violence over the past two years.
In June, nine people died as a result of a stampede at the
Roskilde festival in Copenhagen, Denmark, while Pearl Jam
performed.
At Woodstock '99 in Rome, New York, organizers criticized
Limp Bizkit for encouraging an unruly audience to tear up
portions of the stage setup during their performance, causing
security to delay the show some 45 minutes prior to Rage
Against The Machine's set. "Everybody was trying to pinpoint
[the blame] on us," Durst told MTV News later that year.
The band responded with the video for "Re-Arranged," which
Durst said "is about being persecuted for something you're
not guilty of".
Crowd safety issues were also partially responsible for
Glastonbury Festival organizers' decision to suspend this
year's edition of the U.K. festival in order to develop
strategies for maintaining control over the 100,000 that
annually attend the concert.
01/07/01
Final Film Plans and Durst Talk Scores
Fred Durst is currently putting together final plans for his
directorial debut, which will feature a score by the band and
will star guitarist Wes Borland.
On the band's forthcoming venture into the world of motion
pictures, Durst claims: "I think that it was just all bound
to happen and I think that Limp Bizkit as an enterprise is
definitely going to have its own film company. We're going
to be our own entity in everything that we do, from music
to film, just like Dreamworks."
Durst describes Limp Bizkit's score for his directing debut
as 'phat'. "A lot of the delays that Wes uses and a lot of
the subtle things we do in our band, the breakdowns those
are great moments for movies believe it or not. You don't
get to play a whole song in a movie, but if you just take
some ill bridge that we made�a serious scene in a movie, man."
"I think we're going to score this movie and I think its
going to be a groundbreaking score and, on the shoulders of
Limp Bizkit, I think it's going to change things for bands
scoring movies. I hope it does."
01/01/01
Limp Bizkit Gets Named Worst Everything
In the latest issue of Alternative Press [Trent Reznor on the cover], Limp Bizkit
get named worst in just about every category of the Readers' Choice Awards that
they possibly can. Last year they were named best AND worst on everything just about,
and also currently rank at #4 on the AP Readers' list for Top 10 CD's. Quite
strange that they should be named the worst in the awards when they apparently
seem to be doing so well in the AP charts. Is the Readers' Choice Awards rigged for
this magazine? You decide. In the meantime, here's a list of all the "awards" bestowed
upon LB this year by Alternative Press magazine.
Worst Artist:
Limp Bizkit
Eminem
Britney Spears
Worst Album:
LB's Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water
Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP
Kid Rock's The History of Rock
Worst Cover Art:
same lineup as Worst Album
Worst Live Act:
Limp Bizkit
Eminem
'N Sync
Worst Dressed:
Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst
Eminem
Christina Aguilera
Worst Hairdo:
Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst
Eminem
The mullet
Artist You'd Most Like to Vote Out of Music, Survivor-style
Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst
Eminem
Britney Spears
And that's that peeps. Don't be mad at me however, I didn't come up with these
things, I'm just reporting them for you. You can reach the Alternative Press
magazine by clicking here.
.back.