Best:

During Stevie Wonder's "In Square Circle" tour, at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, Luther Vandross showed up and did his "da da's" live on the song "Part Time Lover". It was cool... and unexpected.

During a concert by Juan Gabriel, in Los Angeles, Alejandro Fernandez showed up and was called on stage to sing a few tunes at his idol, Juan Gabriel's request. Awesome!

At a Kenny Loggins concert in Santa Barbara, Howard Hewitt and El Debarge showed up and sang some songs with Kenny that they worked on together on his then latest album. Very cool.

Weird:

At a "Toys for Tots" USMC Toy Drive in Santa Barbara with Kenny Loggins, Jan-Michael Vincent (from the film "Big Wednesday", among others) came onstage and played guitar and attempted to sing... he was sloshed too.


I was thinking about this the other day... I love concerts because of the unexpected things that can happen when celebrities show up! On PBS the other day, Michael McDonald was joined onstage (and to the surprise of the audience) by Toni Braxton, India.Irie and Billy Preston (all at different times of the show).

(btw - Michael's drummer, his very cool woman drummer is sporting the tattoo on her left arm)

Anyway... it made me wonder. At what shows did you witness something or someone cool and unexpected... or just plain weird?

Anyway we can dig up a soul who saw the whole James Brown/P/MJ concert ?

lilgish said:

That would have been UNREAL!

Prince's Fillmore Aftershow 2001 (San Francisco) -- Sheila E. showed up and played with Prince, front and center -- at 3am! It was the first time they had performed (and maybe even talked) with each other in years! And they had fun! Also there: Rosie Gaines (who also hadn't been seen with Prince in years), Najee, Mike Scott, Larry Graham, Rhonda Smith, John Blackwell, and others.
[Edited 7/2/05 18:07pm]

umm...no but Kelis came onstage with NERD and sung






oh oh, and ummm..Prince pulled my friend who goes to our parties onstage in the last Minnesota St. Paul Musicology show So jealous was watching from the second floor.

One and only special guest at a concert for me. 2004 in Glasgow, Primal Scream were joined on stage by a heavily intoxicated Shane McGowan of Pogues fame. Shane was supposed to join in an impromptu version of Sympathy for the Devil, being entrusted with the "wooh, wooh" segment. Couldnt manage even that. Ended up just walking about the stage with a can of lager. Everyone kept going up to him with a mic, but he just wandered around aimlessly. The work of a total fuckin' genius

Bob Marley's mum appearing on stage at the end of a Lenny Kravitz concert in London, 1991.

i went to a kelley deal 6000 show where sebastian bach came up on stage and sang. the girl who played gabrielle on "xena" was in the audience and they were trying to get her to come up on stage too, but it didn't happen.

I saw Bonjovi and Ray Davies turned up to sing 'Lola'.

Then there was the usual Timbercrap invasion for N*E*R*D
[Edited 7/4/05 16:07pm]

Oh, and I saw Paul Young and Michael Aspel came on at the end to give him the 'This Is Your Life' surprise.

Anxiety said:

we have a winner for the weirdest

Joey Mcintyre showed up at a Donnas concert in NYC a few years ago. He didn't sing though. From what I remember, I think he just danced onstage to one song. That was weird.

The best was when Sheila E performed "The Glamorous Life" in the middle of Prince's last Madison Square Garden show last year.

Sinbad at the NPS show at the Aragon in Chicago, 1998.

GrayKing said:

that's a damn shame.

prince came out and played a few songs with lenny kravitz during a show in west palm beach in 1999. that was pretty cool!

SassyBritches said:

I could only imagine... damn! That would be a trip for Prince to just show up and then hop on stage and perform!!

GrayKing said:

-----
What is your problem with Sinbad. Cool funk fan who had a lot of great groups on his "Vibe" TV show.

laurarichardson said:

what is he doing nowadays?

laurarichardson said:

well, if you have to ask....

Snap said:

in 1998 Shelia E and Rosie Gaines appeared in KC with Prince

I saw Prince in Oakland last fall and Time was the surprise opening band. They played a whole set.

WEIRD: I remember in 1988 seeing Elton John at Madison Square Garden & Gary Carter then (NY Met) came on stage & sang with the backup singers "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"

The best: Carlos Santana showed up at two Prince concerts I attended in 1997.Both times,he joined Prince on the Santana medley.

I saw Carlos Santana in cincy once
and, Bootsy & Foley joined him onstage

well i'm new here and this is my first time posting, hope i'm doin this right...but anyhoo in May i went to a tigerjam thing and stevie wonder was the main performer...he started playing superstition then all of a sudden the crowd went wild and there was prince playing the guitar! he only played a couple of songs before he left, and i'm still puzzled about why he left so soon...even stevie asked where he was before he played "so what the fuss"...i was so happy to have seen him tho cuz it was my first time seeing either of them live and altho i've liked some of prince's music for a while, i really just became a big fan this year (sadly after the whole musicology tour ) but it was great seeing my two favorite artists on stage together

I saw P-Funk in '93 in Miami and Bobby Brown was in the audience making a scene. Sure enough, he made himself known enough eventually to get called onstage. He slunk onstage like he was badass... and then didn't know what to do with himself. George gave him a mike, into which Bobby threw out "It's my prerogative" a couple of times, along with a few poor dance moves, before realizing he had no business onstage. He slunk off back into the audience looking mighty foolish. It was funny in a pathetic sort of way.

On a side note, that show was 4 hours and 15 minutes long! It was worth it though for the encore rendition of "Red Hot Mama" which closed the show.

Seeing Michael Stipe come on stage and sing a song with Radiohead was great. I forget the song but it was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert.

Weird: A high off his rockers (but of course) George Clinton at the DAngelo show in Concord, Ca. I was the only one who noticed or seemed to know who he was..George mumbled backing vocals to lord knows what song for like 1 minute and then walked off the stage and never returned...


Coolest: Ummm...Susannah singing Take Me Home (Betty Davis) during the W&L show...yeah yeah, she was a backing vocalist but i just thought it was cool they would let her do a whole song on her own...

and Nikka at the final Musicology show....once again, the bulk of the people didnt know who she was...the way she and Prince sang was soo sexual....I think the song was "whole lotta love"...

am i right folks?

I just remembered another good one: Courtney Love's unannounced performance at Lollapalooza in 1994. Before the Smashing Pumpkins' set, Courtney went onstage alone and performed two songs on her guitar (Miss World and Doll Parts). She did this at a few shows, but I saw her at the NYC show. Obviously, this was the year Kurt committed suicide and Nirvana was rumored to headline the festival so the whole experience was very emotional. It was the highlight of any and all the Lollapalooza shows I've been to.

cookieblues said:

Welcome to the Org!