I didn’t know rules were that strict in London! Imagine the scene, Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney are on stage together in Hyde Park, playing some Beatles classics, and the organizers of the Hard Rock Calling Festival decide to pull the plug since it was 10:40, and way past the curfew?
Incredible! According to Spinner, McCartney was the boss’ secret guest, quite a surprising addition to the E Street Band and Tom Morello, and while the two iconic men were shouting ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, then ‘Twist and Shout’, and wanted to go on, the power went out in the middle of the song, forcing the two rock legends to leave the stage. What were the organizers thinking? Such a duo doesn’t happen every night, is England communist Russia, or what?
It is true that Springsteen’s concert had already been going on for a few hours, 3 to be exact, but so what! It is quite usual for him.
His guitarist Steven Van Zandt was not happy of the situation, and tweeted:
‘One of the great gigs ever in my opinion. But seriously, when did England become a police state?’
‘We break curfews in every country but only English cops needs to "punish us" by not letting us leave until the entire crowd goes.’
‘Is there just too much fun in the world? We would have been off by 11 if we'd done one more. On a Saturday night! Who were we disturbing?’
As he said, it was a Saturday night at the top of this!
According to the OC Weekly, London’s mayor Boris Johnson criticized the decision:
‘It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision. You won't get that during the Olympics. If they'd have called me, my answer would have been for them to jam in the name of the Lord.’
Well, rules are rules for London, but I am not sure what the ‘Lord’ has to do with all this. Concert promoter Live Nation also released the following statement:
‘Last night everyone had a fantastic time, in the excellent weather conditions, with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band giving a record-breaking 76,000 people an incredible performance of 29 songs with special guests John Fogerty, Tom Morello & Paul McCartney joining him onstage. It was unfortunate that the three-hour plus performance by Bruce Springsteen was stopped right at the very end but the curfew is laid down by the authorities in the interest of the public's health and safety. Road closures around Hard Park are put in place at specific times to make sure everyone can exit the area in a safety.’
Still I don’t understand, couldn’t they have extended the road closures till 11 pm? I can’t wait to see how they apply their fascist laws during the performances for the Olympic Games.