OMG Did London Eff Up Big Time

[FreeThinker]

At one of the greatest musical moments in the last half-century, Bruce Springsteen was performing in Hyde Park in London with Paul McCartney. In the middle of Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney playing "Twist and Shout"... let me repeat this just for emphasis in case you don't understand... In the middle of Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney playing "Twist and Shout"... the Westminster City Council turned off the sound because they were violating curfew. Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney, playing Twist and Shout, were silenced for breaking curfew. I can't wrap my mind around this. Am I hallucinating? Did this REALLY happen? Am I crazy for thinking this is absolutely the dumbest thing a city council has ever done? The English language doesn't have a word to describe the depth of stupidity... I am, since we're talking about the English, gobsmacked. I am flabbergasted. I am... I don't know. I suppose I'll have to "Keep Calm and Carry-on." But, I can imagine some council members who may not be around after the next round of Council Elections!

http://www.cnn.com/2....html?hpt=hp_t2

[DesDownunder]

They poisoned Mozart, too, and made Tchaikovsky commit suicide. At least they didn't kill them this time.

[dude]

Fiasco? Wait for the Olympics!

[blue]

I guess some people on City Council don't understand the meaning of the word, "concert." Or perhaps the meaning of the words, "benefiting the local economy." Or perhaps they just don't like Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney? No, that last one's just about impossible. Also, Paul's a good English lad, local boy made good (okay, Liverpool, but still); and Bruce's a good American guy. Really, I'd think "concert" and "cash" trump "curfew."

But then, I think the Boss and Paul rule, so maybe I'm partial.

Come on, I was in high school when Alf dressed up as The Boss. I wore out a cassette of Born in the U.S.A. and it's still one of my all-time favorite records, er, CD's, er downloads... freakin' technology.

[DesDownunder]

Authoritarian conformists are bullies in search of a victim, for profit.

[Camy]

I'm embarrassed to be British....

[dude]

Security is the current fiasco.

Sorry, in my previous post, that was the 'fiasco' I was referring to. I hope everything else goes off without a hitch. Just lock the local council heads in an underground vault for the duration!

Mike

[Cole Parker]

It's Sir Paul McCartney, isn't it? I didn't think you were supposed to treat peers like that.

C

[FreeThinker]

I'm embarrassed to be British....

Don't be embarrassed to be British, Camy. Every country has pathetic, officious bureaucrats who can't see outside the envelope. I still dream of moving to the UK before I die.

I have to say, though, wouldn't it have been absolutely awesome to be surrounded by fifty thousand people dancing to Paul and Bruce performing Twist and Shout, which has always been one of my favorite dance songs? I saw Paul McCartney perform when he came to my hometown on tour in 2008 and it was so cool when he performed Hey Jude during his encore and 20,000 of us sang along. I never thought I would get a chance to see one of the Beatles perform. It was a great night. And I saw Elton John once here. I suppose when you live in LA or NY or London, you get to see this sort of thing live all the time, but when you're in Oklahoma, this isn't an everyday occurrence.

[The Pecman]

At one of the greatest musical moments in the last half-century, Bruce Springsteen was performing in Hyde Park in London with Paul McCartney. In the middle of Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney playing "Twist and Shout"... let me repeat this just for emphasis in case you don't understand... In the middle of Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney playing "Twist and Shout"... the Westminster City Council turned off the sound because they were violating curfew. Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney, playing Twist and Shout, were silenced for breaking curfew. I can't wrap my mind around this. Am I hallucinating? Did this REALLY happen? Am I crazy for thinking this is absolutely the dumbest thing a city council has ever done?

I see both sides of it. The residents of the neighborhood -- who are close enough to be annoyed by the loud concert speakers -- have to be able to sleep, too. This has been going on for years, where they've tried to stop concerts from going past 10PM. To me, the answer is simple: start the show earlier, and end it by 10. Or hold it somewhere else, maybe a big stadium, where there's no limitation on how late the show can go.

I worked on a big Garth Brooks TV special in the early 1990s, also done in Britain, and his live concert also went past 10PM. At that time, I think the fine was $5000 a minute, and he paid another $50,000 in order to push the show 10 minutes late -- and we showed that on camera. If they had gone much later, the police were poised to pull the plug, just as they did on McCartney and Springsteen more than 15 years later.

[Camy]

Apparently it wasn't the city council's fault:

According to Westminster Council, however, the decision to end the concert was made by its organisers and not local authorities.

"Concert organisers, not the council, ended last night's concert in Hyde Park to comply with their licence," said Leith Penny, Westminster Council's strategic director for city management. "Licences are granted until certain times" - in this case 22:30 BST - "to protect residents in the area from noise late at night."

In a statement on the Hard Rock Calling website, the Live Nation company said it was "unfortunate" that the "three hour plus" performance had been "stopped right at the very end".

"The curfew is laid down by the authorities in the interest of the public's health and safety," the statement continued.

"Road closures around Hard Park are put in place at specific times to make sure everyone can exit the area safely."

Speaking on LBC on Sunday, Mayor of London Boris Johnson described the decision to end the concert as "excessively efficacious". "If they'd have called me, my answer would have been for them to jam in the name of the Lord," he told presenter Kay Burley.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18845542

[FreeThinker]

Damn. And I was in the middle of a really good rant. Crap. Now I have to find something else to bitch about.

To quote Frasier Crane, "Yes, I know I'm wrong, but it's just going to take me a while to get off this particular high horse."

[Camy]

On 7/15/2012 at 5:20 PM, FreeThinker said:

I still dream of moving to the UK before I die.

Really? I bet you've changed your mind!

It's not the dream to be having nowadays. Sure if you want to come to a country that's badly mismanaged by a raggedy, blond, old Etonian, Churchillian wannabee, then rock on over. However, given our appalling handling of Covid, it's more likely you'll be moving to the UK to die.

Not to mention we're all starving and can't afford to live.

We're doomed, laddie, doomed....

[Cole Parker]

Oh no you don't!  Don't go throwing enticing words at our FreeThinker.  He's ours.  You can't have him.  

You do manage to make England so, so attractive, though.

C

 

[Camy]

1 hour ago, Cole Parker said:

Oh no you don't!  Don't go throwing enticing words at our FreeThinker.

Enticing words? Horror, then, is definitely a genre I should pursue.