Airbourne’s Joel O’Keeffe recalls Spinal Tap moment

Airbourne
Airbourne

Airbourne vocalist and guitarist Joel O’Keeffe has recalled his Spinal Tap moment with the band.

The recent recipient of the Metal Hammer Dimebag Darrell Shredder award reveals that Airbourne almost missed a gig when they accidentally left the venue via the exit door as they were trying to find their way on to the stage.

O’Keefee tells Music Radar: “I don’t know what country we were in at the time, but we were about five or 10 minutes late to the stage because we ended up accidentally going out an exit door backstage and we couldn’t figure out how to get back.

“We ended up going back in through the ticket stalls with the guitars and we walked through the crowd and got back on the stage.

“We couldn’t work how to get to the stage from the backstage area – and they almost didn’t let us in. They were like, ‘Have you got tickets?’ I’m like, ‘We’re going to play a gig – we haven’t got guitars and no shirts on because we’re just into the high life!’

“But I think our guitar tech had his triple A and then they went, ‘Ah cool, no worries.’”

Back in April, Airbourne announced that guitarist Matt ‘Harri’ Harrison had joined the band after David Roads left to work in his family business.

Airbourne are currently on tour across Europe. Find a full list of their upcoming live dates below.

Airbourne 2017 tour dates

Jul 06: El Viviero Resurrection Festival, Spain
Jul 08: Herouville Saint Clair Beauregard Festival, France
Jul 09: Weert Bospop Festival, Netherlands
Jul 11: Argeles Les Deferlantes Festival, France
Jul 13: Aix Les Bains Musilac Festival, France
Jul 15: Lasko Beer & Flowers Festival, Slovenia
Aug 30: Santiago Blondie, Chile
Sep 01: Montevideo Music Box, Uruguay
Sep 02: Buenos Aires El Teatro Flores, Argentina
Sep 03: Sao Paulo Carioca Club, Brazil
Sep 05: Lima Mangos, Peru
Sep 07: Mexico City Circo Volodor, Mexico
Sep 27: Southsea Pyramids, UK
Sep 29: St petersburg Club Zal, Russia
Sep 30: Moscow Yotaspace, Russia
Oct 10: Paris Olympia, France
Oct 12: Leuven Depot, Belgium
Oct 13: Amsterdam Melkweg, Netherlands
Oct 15: Copenhagen Amager Bio, Denmark
Oct 16: Oslo Rockefeller, Norway
Oct 17: Stockholm Fryhuset Arenan, Sweden
Oct 23: Gothenburg Tradgarn, Sweden
Oct 24: Malmo KB, Sweden
Oct 25: Hamburg Grosse Freiheit, Germany
Oct 27: Berlin Huxleys, Germany
Oct 28: Wroclaw A2, Poland
Oct 29: Budapest Barba Negra Music Club, Hungary
Oct 31: Leipzig Werk 2, Germany
Nov 02: Munich TonHalle, Germany
Nov 03: Vienna Simm City Festsaal, Austria
Nov 04: Telfs Rathaussaal, Austria
Nov 06: Stuttgart Longhorn, Germany
Nov 07: Zurich Samsung Hall, Switzerland
Nov 08: Frankfurt Batschkapp, Germany
Nov 10: Noth Wales Hard Rock Hell, UK
Nov 11: Bristol O2 Academy, UK
Nov 13: Glasgow O2 Academy, UK
Nov 14: Manchester O2 Academy, UK
Nov 15: London Roundhouse, UK
Nov 18: Norwich UEA, UK
Nov 19: Oxford O2 Academy, UK
Nov 20: Sheffield O2 Academy, UK
Nov 22: Nottingham Rock City, UK

We went backstage at an Airbourne video shoot and this is what happened

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.