Oops I did it again: showbiz casualties mount up

On the last weekend in October, Róisín Murphy played a show in Moscow which she won't forget in a hurry.

During the performance, the singer hit her head on a chair and damaged her eye-socket, forcing the cancellation of a couple of European shows. Naturally, footage of the incident quickly surfaced online at You Tube.

The same weekend as Murphy's mishap in Moscow, Fall Out Boy frontman Pete Wentz broke a bone in his leg during a show in New Orleans. No shows were cancelled, but Wentz is currently on tour sporting a cast.

Murphy and Wentz are not the only ones to have memorable nights onstage. For pop stars, injuries of this sort are an occupational hazard. Forget about Keith Richard falling out of a coconut tree or off a ladder in his library, performing under the bright lights should carry its own set of health warnings.

David Bowie may have thought that he'd nothing to worry about at a Norwegian gig in 2004, but a lollipop thrown from the crowd whacked him in the eye and forced him to stop. A few weeks later at a Czech show, Bowie copped a pinched nerve in his shoulder, and pulled the gig and the rest of the tour.

The year 2004 was also a bad one for Ryan Adams (he tumbled off the stage at a show in Liverpool and broke his left wrist), Muse's Matt Bellamy (he hit himself in the face with his guitar during a show in Atlanta and ended up needing stitches) and Aerosmith's Steve Tyler (an onstage leg injury called for emergency surgery which he discovered he had contracted hepatitis C).

Meanwhile, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page says a broken finger on his left hand is healing well and he is confident of performing in the band's rescheduled reunion concert in London on December 10th.

© 2007 The Irish Times