by DAVID LISTER
In 1978, American rock legend the Grateful Dead played a concert at the pyramids in Egypt.
It was a striking venue for a gig. But the band's motives were more noble than just having a good backdrop. They expected that their music would send out vibes to mellow the surrounding peoples and end the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Those were the days: when rock stars' egos were as big as their wardrobes and they didn't know how to spell hubris.
Not that the days of lunacy and outrage are over yet. The new edition of Q magazine details the 100 most outlandish examples of "When Rock Stars Go Crazy."
And several present-day performers make the grade: Mariah Carey for her notorious interview demands, such as insisting on a cat and a dog she can stroke while answering questions.
The seemingly down-to-earth Manic Street Preachers, who demanded their own suite of private toilets at the Glastonbury rock festival in England (and were challenged to a debate on socialism by Billy Bragg).
Sinead O'Connor becoming a priest and saying she would specialise in work with the dying and the insane.
Of course, Spice Girls past and present make it on to the list: Geri Halliwell for becoming a United Nations Ambassador, Posh Spice for her outlandish wedding, Mel C for her attempt to turn into a punk.
But such self-promotional antics pale into insignificance compared with the true masters of lunacy and pomp with the inevitable come-down.
Rick Wakeman set the template in 1975 staging King Arthur on ice at Wembley with a full orchestra, a 48-piece choir and 26 knights on hobby horses and on skates. Unfortunately, the dry ice fog was of far greater density than intended, the skaters blundered into each other, the narrator was overcome by a fit of coughing, and the band disappeared in a swirling mist. "It was also bloody freezing," recalls Wakeman.
Some of the more outlandish moments were in a good cause, usually an ecological one.
Manfred Mann gave away a square foot of Welsh mountainside to every purchaser of his ecominded album The Good Earth.
Sting tried to save the Brazilian rainforest and befriended a Kayapo Indian chief who built a "sweat lodge" in the garden of the star's Highgate home and wandered about the north London suburb in a loincloth.
Q's attempt to be exhaustive inevitably fails. There are more than 100 moments of self-aggrandising lunacy in rock's history.
Sadly, there seems to be no space in the top 100 for Neil Young, whose record company delayed the launch of his 1972 album Harvest for six months while he tried to persuade them to put grains of corn into every sleeve which would spill on the floor when opened.
Q editor Andy Pemberton says his favourite example of pop madness was at one of Elton John's birthday parties in the 70s when guests were encouraged to go out on the lawn at midnight, looked up to see parachutes and slowly realised that a group of greased males were descending on them.
"The 70s were the peak for excess," he says.
"That sort of lunacy is what pop stars are for. Liam Gallagher can behave outlandishly now, but it lacks the romance and sheer silliness of those years."
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