Big Day Out, Milton Keynes, 1999: Metallica, Manson and the bottles
Metallica headlined the National Bowl, Placebo insulted 50,000 people, and Marilyn Manson's set ended early under a hail of bottles. What I remember, and what the papers say.
On Saturday 10 July 1999 I was at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes for the Big Day Out. Metallica were at the top of the bill, with Marilyn Manson, Placebo, Creed, Sepultura, Ministry, Ben Harper, Queens of the Stone Age, Monster Magnet and Terrorvision under them.
What I remember
It rained bottles. Manson mooned the crowd, a bottle hit a guitar, and he stormed off to boos.
What’s on record
- The bottles started before Manson. Brian Molko dedicated Placebo’s “Bruise Pristine” to “50,000 crimes against fashion”, and said later that the bottles started flying once the crowd worked out how many of them he’d insulted.
- Manson’s set was cut short. It ended after a Patti Smith cover. Kerrang! called it fraught: Manson tried to dive into the crowd after someone who threw a bottle, and had a scuffle on stage with his drummer, Ginger Fish.
- Why it ended is disputed. One fan says a bottle hit Manson on the head and he walked off. The Manson fan wiki blames sound trouble that wouldn’t stop.
What I can’t prove
- The mooning: no account of the day mentions it.
- The bottle and the guitar: a bottle hitting Manson’s guitarist is reported from the Perth Big Day Out six months earlier, and even those accounts don’t agree with each other. Nothing puts it at Milton Keynes.
The bottles and the early finish are on record. The rest is only my memory.