The Origins of Crowd Surfing?
 

Does anybody know the year, the band, the genre or anything about the origins of crowd surfing. I was thinking about this the other day, and I realized I have no fucking idea where it came from.

why do people crowd surf?

they say Iggy pop was thre one who invented it while he was with the Stooges

probably true

I heard it was a Motorhead thing. I've heard more often that it came from biker/ metaller crowds than from The Stooges. What with bikers being completely mental and all.

I have seen no crowd surfing at any Motorhead show I have been to. Perhaps it was different in The Ye Olde Olden Dayes.
I do see girls flash their chests without fail at each and every Motorhead performance though. In my mind, this is better than crowd surfing.

Really? How strange. I only saw them the once, it was crowd-surf central. You know, nearly every American band that comes over here says 'British crowds are the best'. Always one treats that with a modicum of doubt, but I do wonder if perhaps American crowds are a bit more reserved.

Kenny Rogers, who I saw a couple of weeks ago, said British crowds are the best. You can't not trust Uncle Kenny.

Midwestern American crowds are probably the most reserved of them all.
Crossed arms and head-nodding are the equivalent of wild shouting and human dogpiling.

I have seen human dogpiles and fist-pumping at Wolf Eyes shows, but only early on. It's extremely rare.

The craziest shows I've ever seen are hardcore shows in small towns and villages. I saw Cat on Form* twice on one tour, once in a largish city and the second time in a village hall type affair. The city show was ok, quite a boisterous crowd. The village show was fucking insane.

*This might not actually be who I saw. I never remember the name of hardcore bands on account of the music being pretty much identical, so far as I can make out. I always enjoy the shows though.

Actually, I imagine crowd-surfing was invented by the chaps going to Hajj, now I come to think of it. Or perhaps by the Indian train system.

......

i was watching a lame as commercial the other day, with some dude crowd surfing on a crowd of doctors and nurses. it made me think, what started crowd surfing to begin with? It has become an American Rock Music Standard. I was mostly curious of the time period and musical style that it started in, as well as if it started with musicians jumping into the crowd, or as it usually is, with people from the crowd surfing on the crowd.

anyways, it seems no body could help, so this a lengthy bump.

jean claude van-dam of course

I think it's a 'rock music standard' in most of western civilisation.

I don't like crowd surfing or the likes. I respect bands that tell crowd surfers and rough people to fuck off*. Makes me smile.

*Fugazi, At the Drive-In etc.

I think crowd surfing started to save people fainted/fell/injured in the middle of the mosh pit. I mean, they crowd-surfed people towards security/ambulances, then someone thought it might be an entertaining thing to do while healty and that's it.

I went crowd surfing at an Alice In Chains gig about 10 years ago and it was the scariest thing that ever happened to me.
The crowd was fuckin' mental, the whole audience was just moving around the room in one big circlar motion, my free hardly touched the floor during the whole gig as we were packed in so tight.
Anyway, I decided to try a bit of surfing, which went quite well at first, until I reach the front of the stage. I somehow got my finger stuck in a hole in the mess of the metal barrier and almost ripped my finger off! Ah, good time!