YUP, JUST LIKE A SOCCER PLAYER:

Violinist trips and breaks Stradivarius (Stephen Adams, 13/02/2008, Daily Telegraph)

A musician dubbed the David Beckham of the violin proved his talent lay all in his hands when he tripped up at the end of a concert and fell on his 300-year-old Stradivarius.

Blond-haired David Garrett fell on the 1710 masterpiece as he finished up at the Barbican, leaving it with damage that could cost £60,000 to repair. [...]

German-born Garrett, 26, said: "I had just played a concert. I was all packed up and ready to go when I slipped and fell.

"People said it was as if I’d trodden on a banana skin.

"I fell down a flight of steps and on to the case. When I opened it the violin was in pieces. I was just sitting there on the floor," he recalled.

If he were the Walt Frazier of the fiddle it wouldn't have a scratch. In his Pulitzer-worthy eponymous biography, Clyde tells about the time he was sitting at a bar and accidentally set his drink on a piece of ice. As it melted the glass slid towards his lap, but he struck, cobra-like, and not only caught it but managed not to spill a drop.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 13, 2008 6:10 AM