The notorious riot at a Black Sabbath show in 1980
The history of rioting at concerts is an unfortunate scar on the music industry — an act which has unnecessarily cost countless lives. Miraculously, nobody was killed during the horrendous riot at a Black Sabbath show in 1980, but tragically, it was almost a different story.
On October 9th, 1980, Black Sabbath were gearing up to headline the Mecca Arena in Milwaukee for what should have been a classic concert. Unfortunately, it was memorable for all the wrong reasons, and somehow, bloodshed was avoided. While 9,000 people who attended the show came home angry about what they witnessed in the arena, the most important thing is they returned home.
The support band for Sabbath were Blue Oyster Cult, and on the giant tour, it’s estimated the two groups played in front of 1.5 million in total. Reportedly, the crowd began to grow restless during the hour’s wait between Blue Oyster Cult’s set and Sabbath’s, when murmurings of violence started to break out.
Sabbath took to the stage at 9:30pm, and the crowd were hellbent on causing destruct from the offset. The Birmingham natives were only successfully able to deliver two songs before an audience member threw a glass at Geezer Butler, which knocked him unconscious, and ended the concert.
Before leaving the stage, Ronnie James Dio told the Milwaukee crowd: “I just wanted to say one thing, perhaps the last thing I say. The stage is not a trash can. We don’t appreciate things being thrown at us. You’ve thrown something for the last time. You hit Geezer on the head. We don’t appreciate that either. We wanted to give a lot for you, but not our blood. If you don’t want to enjoy it, then tough shit!”.
After the incident, Geezer was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and Black Sabbath’s production manager, Hew Price, fiercely said on-stage (via LouderSound): “Good evening! I am Black Sabbath’s Production Manager of this crew. And I’d like to tell you that all that Black Sabbath really wants to play here in Milwaukee tonight. Black Sabbath wanted to rock and roll!”.
At this point, Hew appears angry at the crowd and shouts: “Black Sabbath do not appreciate being hit by flying objects!”. The audience responds by booing, to which he adds, “Please, please. 1776 was a long while ago! Let’s cool out and have a good time, okay?”.
Price proceeded to inform the crows about the severity of Butler’s injuries and says: “Whoever the arsehole was that threw their glass at him, you fucked it all up completely, so screw you”.
After the crowd continued to wait for Sabbath to return, their dream was cut short at 11:15pm when the venue’s lights were switched on. The audience angrily demanded the return of the rockers, and when it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, a full-blown riot broke out, which caused $40,000 worth of damage to the venue.
