Halloween is a time for tricks, treats, and pulling smelly, er, spooky shenanigans with friends…you know, no, actually, in the case of the prank Billy Idol pulled on his tourmates during his 1990 “Charmed Life” tour, smelly is actually the appropriate word. Idol was traveling with Faith No More, which had recently released a music video for their breakthrough hit, “Epic”, which featured a fish flopping on the ground. In a prank that was as disgusting as it was respectful of its source material, Idol arranged for the crew to drop 600 pounds of dead smelt onto the stage in the middle of Faith No More’s set. (Smelt are a type of small fish found around the world.)
To Idol’s credit, we suppose it’s better that he used hundreds of tiny smelts as opposed to, say, catfish or sturgeons, which might have done as much damage as they elicited disgust. And for whatever it’s worth, the fish didn’t seem to faze Faith No More. Band members mischievously threw some of the fish into the crowd of 14,000 people at the Seattle Coliseum and continued playing. Toward the end of their set, three anonymous people in dressing gowns took the stage and opened their dresses, revealing “mammoth false breasts,” per Seattle’s City Heat magazine.
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Dumping dead fish and people dancing around with giant breasts strapped to their bodies probably would have been a sufficient number of pranks for the Halloween show and final night of Idol’s tour. But where’s the seasonal spirit in that?
The Last Prank at the Billy Idol Show Ended With a Police Visit
If you’re willing to dish a prank, you have to be willing to take a prank, which is a valuable lesson Faith No More reminded Billy Idol of when it was time for the headliner to take the stage. First, Faith No More snuck someone on stage to sing backup vocals in a gorilla suit. A funny bit for the crowd, maybe, but Idol didn’t seem to notice. (The primate was behind him, after all.) The second prank garnered much more attention from Idol, the audience, and law enforcement alike.
Just before Idol finished his set, a group of five men took the stage wearing various objects to cover their heads (shirts, paper bags, towels) and nothing else. Naked as the day they were born from the collarbones down. The nude men danced in a conga line as Idol laughed his way through “Got to Be a Lover”. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, Idol even “blushed a little.” It continued, “Police were called in, but by the time they arrived the musicians had left the Coliseum and no one could prove who had pulled the prank, Idol’s publicist Rick Scott said.”
At least the conga line didn’t have to worry about the smell of dead smelt seeping into their clothes.
Photo by Ian Dickson/Redferns
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