“Beastie Boy faces the music” read the Liverpool ECHO’s front page on November 10, 1987.
The Beastie Boy in question was vocalist and guitar player Adam Horovitz, also known as Ad-Rock, who had appeared in front of Liverpool Magistrates’ Court charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm. The incident in question took place at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre on May 30, 1987, when a concert by the American rap group descended into violence and was brought to a halt after just 11 minutes.
The ECHO 's splash on the date of the court appearance began: “A concert in Liverpool by the notorious Beastie Boy pop group ended in uproar when one of the band threw a can of beer into the audience, striking a girl in the face, a court heard today.” It was the culmination of a gig that started badly and only got worse.
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Beastie Boys toured the world after the release of their debut album, the now seminal 'Licensed to Ill'. The first rap album to top the Billboard charts in the US, it had made quite the stir and the group arrived in the UK with a well-developed rebellious reputation.
The UK leg of the tour was brief and had already caught the attention of the tabloids before it arrived for its final night, to be held at Liverpool's Royal Court in front of 3,000 fans on a Saturday night. Liverpool-born broadcaster Roger Bennett attended the gig and wrote about it in his book 'Reborn in the USA', which was serialised in GQ.
A teenage Roger and his friends, who called themselves the 'Liverpool College Breaking Crew' rocked up to the Royal Court to watch their heroes. However, things went pear shaped rather early.
Exactly how the trouble started remains contentious. Roger stated that the Beastie Boys came to the Royal Court with the rather emphatic statement: “F*** you, Liverpool.” He wrote: "This riff might have been standard Beastie Boy stage patter, swagger that worked perfectly well in Los Angeles, Chicago, Brighton, or Birmingham. But Liverpool is different."
Other fans told The People newspaper that the Beatie Boys hurled beer cans into the crowd, starting the violence. No matter how it started, the group had barely made it through the opening bars of their first song before the first beer can sailed from an angered crowd onto the stage. It swiftly devolved from there.
Roger added: "They had not made it halfway through their first song and now were in danger of completely losing control of the show. A barrage of cans began to fly down from the balcony."
As the riled crowd continued to let their feelings be known, the band refused to back down. Roger said that Ad-Rock went backstage and returned with a baseball bat, which he used to swat beer cans back into the crowd. One of the cans, said to be thrown into the crowd by Ad-Rock struck a young woman in the face.
The Beastie Boys left the stage and the crowd was dispersed by the police using tear gas. Upon leaving the venue, large swathes of the audience were said to have chanted 'We tamed the Beastie Boys'.
The concert generated a lot of attention and Conservative MP Harry Greenway wanted the group to be banned from performing in Britain. He said: "Their presence can no longer be tolerated in this country. Wherever they go, they leave a trail of mayhem in their wake."
The New York Times reported that two men and two women were treated at the Royal Liverpool Hospital for minor head and facial injuries. A police spokesman told the Mirror that five people were arrested at the gig and added: "There was a lot of aggravation between the audience and the band but we have no idea what started it. Everything is very vague at the moment. The only good thing is that the Beastie Boys are on their way back to London - thank God."
It was in London that Ad-Rock was arrested and charged with assault causing grievous bodily harm. He was released on bail to head to Japan for the next stop on the Beasties' world tour. However, magistrates ordered him to return to England by July 21 to face possible trial.
Alleged to have flung a beer can with full force into the audience, Ad-Rock appeared in front of magistrates in Liverpool on November 10 1987. He was found not guilty.
