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By Clare Thorp12th July 2023

When Harry Styles was pelted with chicken nuggets while on stage at New York's Madison Square Gardens last summer, he took it in his stride. "Interesting approach," smiled Styles, who has also weathered kiwi fruits, Skittles and bunches of flowers while performing. But when a mystery object hit him in the eye at a concert in Vienna last weekend, he wasn't laughing but, rather, wincing in pain.

It was the latest in a string of incidents where audience members have hurled potentially dangerous objects at performers. Earlier this month Drake was hit on the arm by a flying phone. That came days after country singer Kelsea Ballerini was struck in the face with a bracelet. In May, Bebe Rexha was taken to hospital and needed multiple stitches after a phone hit her in the eye. A man, since charged with assault, told police he thought it "would be funny" to try and hit the singer.

It's not just live music seeing disruptive behaviour. In April, police were called to a performance of The Bodyguard musical in Manchester when rowdy audience members reacted with "unprecedented levels of violence" to staff. At other venues there has been everything from "heated arguments" to full-on brawls. And in the US, one fan's disruption of a Broadway play in December 2022 followed several other incidents of audience outbursts.

Across the cultural sphere, it feels like audiences are misbehaving. At a recent Las Vegas show, Adele weighed in, saying: "Have you noticed how people are like, forgetting … show etiquette at the moment? People just throwing shit on stage" – before warning fans not to try it with her.

Billie Eilish meanwhile, says this kind of thing, while "infuriating", is nothing new. "I've been getting hit on stage with things for like, literally, six years," she told the Hollywood Reporter. Dr Kirsty Sedgman, a senior lecturer in theatre at the University of Bristol who specialises in audience research, also cautions against calling it a new trend. "People have always thrown things on stage," says Sedgman, whose latest book, On Being Unreasonable, explores widening divisions in society over how we use public space. "Whether that's fruit as a way to signify displeasure, or softer items like underwear and flowers as a signal of adoration." Back In 1775, a performer in Sheridan's The Rivals stopped the show when he was pelted with an apple.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230712