Stage diving
Stage diving is the act of leaping from a concert stage onto the crowd below. It is often the precursor to crowd surfing.
Long before the word was invented, public stagediving took place during the first Dutch concert by The Rolling Stones at the Kurhaus of Scheveningen on August 8, 1964.
Initially seen as confrontational and extreme, stage diving has become common at hardcore punk and thrash metal performances. Many musicians have made stage diving a part of their stage act. Iggy Pop is often credited with popularising stage diving in popular rock music. Jim Morrison was another early performer known for having jumped into the crowd at several concerts.
Risks and incidents
Stage diving can cause serious injuries. One example is when Peter Gabriel of Genesis stage dived during the end of their song "The Knife", landing on his foot, thus sprained his ankle. On 20 August 2010, Charles Haddon, the lead singer of English synthpop band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, died after a performance at Pukkelpop, Belgium. He committed suicide by jumping from a telecommunications mast in the backstage artists' parking area. Haddon was reported to have been distressed after he feared he had seriously injured a young girl earlier after a stagedive.
