Concert organizers pulled the plug and cut power to the mics of rock superstars; Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney, after the
pair sang on after the sound curfew at London’s Hyde Park, silencing the duo at the tail end of the show.
Bruce Springsteen had already went past the 10:30 p.m. curfew by about half an hour or so Saturday night when he welcomed McCartney on stage and the pair sang the Beatles hits “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Twist and Shout.” But the microphones were turned off before they could thank the crowd, forcing them to leave the stage in silence.
A statement from concert organizer Live Nation said it was unfortunate that Springsteen’s three-hour-plus performance was stopped “right at the very end,” but it said that the curfew had been laid down by the authorities “in the interest of the public’s health and safety.”
With complaints on the rise, local officials have decided that as of next year, the number of concerts will be slashed from 13 to nine. Also in 2013, they plan to reduce crowd limits from 80,000 to 65,000.
Steven Van Zandt, who plays guitar in Springsteen’s E-Street Band, criticized Saturday’s decision as heavy-handed saying “English cops may be the only individuals left on earth that wouldn’t want to hear one more from Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney!” he wrote on Twitter. “On a Saturday night! Who were we disturbing?” Finally he added: “There’s no grudges to be held. Just feel bad for our great fans. … It’s some City Council stupid rule.”
London’s Mayor , Boris Johnson, released a statement on Sunday saying ” that the singers should have been allowed to keep going.It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision,” he told London radio. “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!”
