Panic At The Disco At Reading 2006

Panic At The Disco in 2008
Brendan Urie was knocked unconcious for several minutes but bravely continued the set.

My Chemical Romance were given a firm indication of the type of reception they were likely to receive after one particularly well aimed bottle felled Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie with a direct hit to the face. It was only seconds into the band’s Friday afternoon set but Urie was knocked unconscious by the force of the bottle, falling to the floor in a heap and in obvious distress at his predicament. Their set was halted for several minutes but they continued valiantly, launching back into their anthemic emo rock with aplomb and directing a two-fingered salute towards the unknown bottle thrower.

More: Panic at the Disco announced May 2014 UK Tour

 The FF’ers At Reading 2008

The FF’ers were the victims of circumstance. In 2008, the festival site was rife with rumours that Dave Grohl would be performing a secret set with his Foo Fighters cohorts and those with very beady eyes picked out the existence of a band called The FF’ers playing a mid-afternoon slot on the Festivals smallest stage, usually reserved for the exceedingly greenhorn bands. A huge crowd had gathered in front of the stage, eager to witness the Foo Fighters in such a rare intimate performance. But as The FF’ers stepped out onto the stage, it soon became clear that they were a genuine band, whose namesake’s similarity to a shorted version of Foo Fighters was nothing but unfortunate coincidence. In true Reading fashion, bottles flew and booes rung out. For a brief moment, an unknown band with an ill-judged name were the talk of the internet and the object of several thousand people’s derision.

More: Foo Fighters 8th studio album to be released in November

Sex Pistols At Roskilde 1996

PIL at Liverpool Academy
Even punk hero John Lydon was safe from the ire of the Danish crowd.

The year was 1996 and the Sex Pistols had just reformed. Was it the desire to re-ignite the punk flame, to spread the Pistol’s message of anarchy and freedom across the world, or simply just the desire to create new music that re-united them? No, it was cold hard cash, and the band had made no bones about the fact that the only thing stopping them from killing each other was the promise of a fat paycheck at the end of each show. At Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, audience members saw through this façade, and the punk icons were subject to a torrent of bottles which led to the band walking off after just two songs. They returned to play another three, with Rotten telling the crowd to “police themselves” but the crowd steadfastly refused and the band left the stage for good.

More: Morrissey's Sex Pistols letter resurfaces

Lethal Bizzle At Download 2008

Bizzle at Soul II Soul Classics Collection
Lethal Bizzle cited racism for the reception he received at Download Festival.

In a classic case of “well, what do you expect?” grime artist Lethal Bizzle was eagerly pelted with objects throughout his brief set at the iconic metal festival Download in 2008. In addition to the usual repertoire of bottles, Bizzle also took fire from hundreds of pots of Muller Rice which were being given away free only a short distance from the stage where the rapper was performing. Bizzle cited racism as the reason he was subject to such abuse, although the more likely case seems to be the fact that Lethal B’s style of grime is not exactly a perfect match for a festival whose bill is traditionally filled by classic rock and heavy metal acts. Needless to say, the Download Festival organisers have not booked a grime artist since Lethal Bizzle’s baptism of Muller Rice.

Cher Lloyd At V-Festival 2012

Cher Lloyd Live
Lloyd was left in tears after her inaugural V-Festival appearance.

Shortly after she appeared on The X-Factor, the then nineteen year-old Cher Lloyd received a brutal introduction the trials and tribulations of festival performance as her V-Festival set was targeted by bottle throwers. After only two songs, Lloyd sought the comfort of her management team backstage who goaded her into returning to finish her set. Despite her desperate pleas, the bottles kept on falling and after she realised some of them were filled with urine, Lloyd decided she could take no more. Her festival debut was a harsh learning curve in performance and composure that left her in a flood of tears and may have been a factor in a career turn towards modelling.

More: Breaking down the best tracks on Cher Lloyd's new album, 'Sorry, I'm Late'