Hard Rock Calling Boss Explains Springsteen Shutdown
It was nothing to do with health and safety
Live Nation Chief Operating Officer Paul Latham has revealed that despite earlier protestations that Bruce Springsteen's set had been cut short for health & safety reasons, the reason was actually more to do with local residents.
Latham says: "Suffice to say the residents of Park Lane and Mayfair may not be numerous, but they wield inordinate power over the Gogs and Magogs of Parliament.”
He says the performance licence, which took a year to negotiate, included "very strict noise restrictions, traffic plans and curfews, with the sword of Damocles hanging over any future events if we broke any of the conditions.”
"We had a musical cocktail for the ages, but a nightmare curfew scenario. We were assumed they were going to only do a couple of numbers, but the couple of numbers happened to be Beatles medleys. When bruce went to change guitars to start again, I’m afraid the power had to come off on music history in the hope that we will be allowed to create more in the future.”
Latham's statement came after Kevin Myers, deputy chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive (who was at the gig on Saturday) criticised the earlier "health & safety" reasoning.
In a post on the HSE’s website, he wrote:
"The fans deserve the truth: there are no health and safety issues involved here. While public events may have licensing conditions dictating when they should end, this is not health and safety and it is disingenuous of Live Nation to say so."