During Zappa and The Mothers of Invention’s London visit, the incident happened. A fan, Trevor Charles Howell, pushed the musician off stage during a somewhat burlesque cover of a Beatles hit. You might believe that this was the reason why one of his followers would attack him, but it was known that what caused his anger was that the girlfriend confessed that Zappa seemed attractive.
“A chaotic scene ensued outside The Rainbow where the audience for the second concert were joined in the street by the audience from the first show. Wild rumors that Frank had been killed flashed through the massive crowd, and for upwards of at least an hour no one knew what was happening.”
#OnThisDay in 1971, while playing London's Rainbow Theatre in England, Frank Zappa was attacked and pushed off stage by audience member Trevor Howell. Zappa fell 15 feet onto the concrete-floored orchestra pit below. The incident left him wheelchair-bound for nearly a year. pic.twitter.com/Cl4qGSWs8k
— Frank Zappa (@zappa) December 10, 2020
The consequences of the action of a man from the audience blinded by jealousy were serious; the gang believed that Frank was dead. He was not, but the fall caused severe injuries, which left him in a wheelchair for about a year. In that span of recovery time, Zappa wrote one of his best albums: The Grand Wazoo. An album full of jazzy influences, purely instrumental, composed for a big band format and full of attractive riffs, as in the memorable Eat that question.
“I did it because my girlfriend said she loved Frank.” —Trevor Howell on why he pushed Frank Zappa off the stage during a performance at the Rainbow Theater in London in 1971.
In this period he also composed Waka Jawaka, an album with fewer, but longer tracks.