Why do you *pay* for a concert and then do this?

[jay ratkowski]

I realize it's a large show, but if there's someone you really don't like, just turn your back for them or show up late.

Originally Posted by www.eonline.com
50 Cent Booed Off Stage

by Josh Grossberg
Aug 31, 2004, 2:15 PM PT


Right about now, we're thinking 50 Cent would have rather been in da club than on da stage.

The chart-topping hip-hopster cut short his set at Britain's Reading Festival over the weekend after getting booed and pelted with plastic bottles by a hostile audience just minutes after he began performing.

Accompanied by his G-Unit crew, 50 Cent hadn't even taken the stage at the legendary U.K. music bash on Sunday evening when the cranky crowd of 55,000 began yelling insults at the former crack peddler and hurling plastic cups.

Things got even worse when the lights came up on 50 Cent and he began performing tracks off his 2003 breakthrough, Get Rich or Die Tryin', according to NME.com. Fiddy's attempts to chill out the audience went nowhere--the boos got louder and the deluge of bottles intensified.

"We're just all here to have fun," said the rapper, whose real name Curtis Jackson.

The audience was having so much fun at that point that they began chanting "50 Cent is a wanker." One angry festivalgoer even lobbed a folding chair on stage. A frustrated Fiddy fought back, throwing bottles back at the crowd and flipping the bird. But after 25 minutes, he decided to throw in the towel and make an early exit.

He wasn't the only one to receive such a poor reception. The Rasmus barely made it through its first song when the fun-loving Brits on hand began lobbing mud at the Finnish rockers, who quickly exited stage right, according to NME.com.

Fiddy was one of the few hip-hop acts on display at Reading, the Streets and Goldie Lookin' Chain being the others. Traditionally a bastion for rock 'n' rollers, the fest's weekend roster included such name-brand acts as the White Stripes, the Darkness, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand and Green Day, which closed out Sunday's lineup.

It's been quite an eventful tour of the U.K. for 50 Cent.

According to British media reports, after playing London's Wembley Arena on Saturday, the rapper went to the trendy Leicester Square-based Circque club. Before he could get in the club, he saw that a fight had broken out among a few dozen wannabe gangstas outside and ordered his driver to ditch the scene, leaving behind members of G-Unit already inside. Cirque's owners reportedly blamed the rapper for drawing the wrong kind of crowd, which touched off the melee.

It's not the first club brawl involving Eminem's protégé.

Back in May, 50 Cent was playing at an invitation-only hip-hop concert at a Boston nightclub when he was hit by another water bottle and jumped into the crowd with his posse. The scuffle didn't escalate beyond pushing and shoving, and Fiddy ended up finishing his song while two men were charged with disturbing the peace.

On the brighter side, 50 Cent is still generating plenty of coin, Sprint announced that music tones from Get Rich or Die Tryin', including ringers for Fiddy's hits "21 Questions" and "In Da Club," has accounted for more than 500,000 downloads purchased since they went on sale six months ago.

I love how they are described as "fun-loving Brits." Yeah, throwing chairs at someone is always in good fun.

[bpd111]

Yeah, it's not good behavior, but it's still funny that someone ganged up on a ganstsa!!!

[jay ratkowski]

I think it's funny that he fought back.

I really want to know who the idiot promoter is that put $0.50 with Morrissey and Green Day.

[darren wilson]

Well, if it was a festival show and Fiddy didn't fit on the bill, people will make their opinions known.

[dex]

This festival takes place 3 miles from my house.

Anyway this was Mean Fidler Production's fault (or rather miscalculation) because they stuck him on right in the middle of rock acts on the main stage.

FRIDAY 27th AUGUST

THE DARKNESS
THE OFFSPRING
Ash
The Hives
The Distillers
Jurassic 5
Hundred Reasons
Reel Big Fish
Taking Back Sunday
Goldie Lookin’ Chain

SATURDAY 28th AUGUST

THE WHITE STRIPES
MORRISSEY
The Libertines
Franz Ferdinand
The Roots
New York Dolls
Razorlight
Thursday
Young Heart Attack
The 5.6.7.8.’s

SUNDAY 29th AUGUST

GREEN DAY
50 CENT
Placebo
Lostprophets
The Streets
Dropkick Murphys
The Rasmus
Thrice
Minus

Daphny and Celeste got booed off stage here a few years ago - the main stage has always been a rock stage.

ilia

[track7]

Aww us "fun-loving" brits, nothing quite like the full wrath of a pi$sed up throng of 50'000 Limeys hurling abuse and causing trouble. Its quite a scene that makes me proud to live here.

One of the most awful and also hilarious moments in a concert was when I went to see matchbox 20 on the UK tour last year. It was Birmingham arena, packed out and Maroon 5 (not well known at all back then) were opening for them.

Anyway a couple of songs in and generally the audience are being polite and clapping although a gaggle of a few were getting wrestle with listening to something they'd never heard before and hearning new music So they finish the next tune the tepid applause stops and before Adam Levine (the front guy) can talk to the audience a bit some Brummy with the thickest loudest deepest most inbred accent screams

"Get off you wanka you're fuc.Kiin' $hit!!!!!!!!!!!"

And i mean a the top of his voice, he was right on the front and a good proportion of the arena heard this. And obviously Adame Levine and M5.

I thought that was absolutley awful for them on their first UK shows shupporting a big band and to hear that come from an individual. You see in my mind if a crowd was generally just booing a bit and moaning then you kind of see it as a bad experience but to hear and see it directly in that manner one 1 person in the audience so loudly and obnoxiously woul;d really really make me cranky! lol Anyway Levine wasn't thrown for long and carried on like a pro - however I'm sure his experience of Birminghamwas marred for it!

Oh dear, you yanks may be over friendly to the point of nausea but i'd take that over the beer fueled obnoxious yob culture we have in england any day.

[hamand]

Originally Posted by track7

Oh dear, you yanks may be over friendly to the point of nausea but i'd take that over the beer fueled obnoxious yob culture we have in england any day.

Well said that man. (but dude, they got guns)

[Two hands31]

I'd have boo-ed too. 50 Cent just plain irritates me and stands for everything I dislike about the music industry (I know, ironic, considering I'm in music industry arts, but he's literally the only person I absolutely despise).

[caprile]

I'd probably have been the one who threw the folding chair.

I'd probably wouldn't have missed him

[Artist]

50 Cent on the main stage was pushing it.
Maybe the organisers should realise that Reading isn't likely to become a pop festival like V where they can mix up the acts too much.

Eminem pulled it off well a couple of years ago, because (IMO) his music is more listenable to those people who don't usually listen to his genre. 50 Cent really holds up the Gansta' image.

This is not to say that Reading is a full on rockfest, they have a dance/punk/boutique stage (depends on the day) and an up and coming bands tent, aswell as a comedy stage.
It's just that for a non rock band to be accepted on the main stage, well..... they have to be really good..

Put it this way, no one boo'ed RUN DMC.

[Carlo]

were they saying boo.......or boo-urns?

[Petie]

I was saying boo-urns.

The comedian Greg Fleet was once famously heckled thusly:

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! YOU. ARE. JUST. NOT. FUNNY!

[the.godfather]

I think its a shame really, I felt quite sorry for the dude. I suppose he was on the completely wrong line-up though, what was the promoter thinking about when he put him with Placebo and Greenday!

I actually like 50 Cent, he dont annoy me too much. Once again its the godamn awful crowds that spoil it. I can understand if they didnt like him, they booed him, but theres still no need for it. Just like Rob Fripp at G3.

I totally agree with track7 about the "beer fueled obnoxious yob culture" of the good ole UK. It wouldnt have happened anywhere near this scale in the US. Mainly because they wouldnt be stupid enough to put him on a lineup card with Greenday!

At the end of they day, 50 Cent has one-up on everyone in that audience anyways. He is earning more than any of those punks in the audience booing him would ever dream of. Just because they dont like that music they shouldnt disrespect him. He went there to perform for god sake.

I am sure there were a few people in the audience that didnt like certain bands, like Placebo for example. Not all bands are everyones cup of tea. But not everyone expresses this by being arrogant and getting violent towards them!

No doubt there were some people in that audience that actually wanted to see 50 Cent perform, or didnt mind seeing him at least. But there are always people that spoil everything.

[Artist]

Greenday + Reading = Rowdy band and Rowdy Fans. It was just the same in 2001? When Greenday were 'supporting' Travis on Friday (or was it Saturday lol). The audience and fans were pissed that Travis were headlining, big bottle fight in the crowd, band setting equipment on fire and not wanting to leave.
Seeing as he was before Greenday, a lot of people in the audience were GD fans trying to get a good spot.
Not saying they did the right thing, just that it was to be expected.

[Bar_Hook]

Originally Posted by jay ratkowski

I love how they are described as "fun-loving Brits." Yeah, throwing chairs at someone is always in good fun.

you think maybe he was being sarcastic?